Catcher in the Rye Thesis Paper

In this bildungsroman novel, The Catcher in the Rye by J. D.

Salinger, Holden Caulfield believes that there is adolescence and adulthood, and he is so frightened of being categorized in the adulthood category that he goes to extremes to alienate himself from the population. He refuses to conform to the norm of American adulthood through his wild, immaturely driven thoughts and isolated feelings of others. Holden sees many people and many things throughout this book, most of them he shakes his head at and brands them as phonies.He sees pure innocence in his little sister, which is the only time he tells us he is happy.

Specifically, when Phoebe is riding on the carousel. He sees disgusting, frightening adulthood everywhere else. Holden hates everyone and is so afraid to be just like everyone else his age because he has seen what they turn into as adults. It is clear that Holden is afraid to grow up through the immature things he does, the things he says and the things he wears. Holden constantly proves to the reader that he feels different he wears clothes that make him stand out even though it may make him look stupid.Holden alienating himself like this makes him feel good, he wants to stick out by doing ridiculous things.

One of these ridiculous things is wearing a red hunting hat. Holden wears the red hunting hat for a reason, it’s not just because it’s convenient and keeps his head warm. He wears it to stick out of the crowd, to remind and show everyone that he is different, which to him is a way of preserving his childhood. The reason for the hat being pointed backwards is him looking back at the past, childhood, and wanting to hold on to it for as long as possible.Although these eccentric behavior makes him stand out, his physical attributes also contribute to his sense of “odd self”; he has gray hair and is tall for his age, standing at six foot two and a half at seventeen years old. The biggest way that Holden alienates himself is by convincing himself that everyone is a phony.

The word phony is repeated forty four times throughout the novel. Being that everyone is a phony would make everyone the same, isolating him from the pack, which he wants to do.But if he is in his own group that would actually make himself a phony because he is not a contemporary teen, he is the oddball. Holden is hanging on to every last bit of childhood and innocence that there is left in him. Holden may not care about failing out of schools because he hates the so called “phonies” that go there, but maybe because it is not the norm.

Maybe it is that he figures another way to stand out from the crowd and maintain his childhood is by flunking out of school. He even goes on to tell us about how his failing out of the previous school he attended was not his fault.Holden comforts himself by saying that flunking out of Elkton Hills was not his fault; it was because of the abundant phoniness in the school. We are told this during his discussion with Mr.

Spencer, but he chooses not to go into the whole phony situation. His excuse for not telling Mr. Spencer why he flunked out of his previous school, Elkton Hills, is “it’s not up his alley”. A sure fire way of knowing that someone lacks confidence in themselves and wants to make them self feel better is by pointing out the imperfections in others.Holden does this throughout the book, especially with his dorm neighbor, Ackley. Holden is preserving or at least trying to preserve not only his but other teens’ childhood.

Holden is ‘The Catcher in the Rye. ’ That’s why he acts frenziedly and calls Stradlater a stupid moron when he doesn’t answer the “did ya give her the time” question. Holden went berserk on Stradlater because he was nervous that the girl who keeps her kings in the back row, Jane, might have let Stradlater give her the time.Holden needs to know the answer because he loves Jane or at least has a crush on her. Jane is really the only childhood friend of Holden mentioned in the entire book.

She represents innocence just as Holden’s little sister Phoebe does. Although Holden struggles with being the ‘Catcher in the Rye’, by the end of the book he realizes that he can no longer and should no longer try to do Gods’ work. Phoebe riding on the carousel is what causes this sudden epiphany. This is also the one time in the book that he states that he is truly happy.