The Catcher In The Rye

Want to read the rest of this paper? Join Essayworld today to view this entire essay and over 50,000 other term papers

of people. Holden Caufield, a character who always jumps to conclusions about people and their phoniness, can be labeled as a hypocrite because he exemplifies a phony himself.
Holden Caufield the 16 year old protagonist and main character of narrates the story and explains all the events throughout three influential days of
his life. A prep school student who has just been kicked out of his second school, Holden struggles to find the right path into adulthood. He does not know what road to follow and he uses others as the scapegoat for his puzzlement in life. Harold Bloom explains,
His central dilemma is that he wants to retain a child's innocence., but because of biology he must move either into adulthood or madness. As a sort of compromise Holden imagines himself as "," a protector of childhood innocence exempt from movement into adulthood, which is neither possible nor sane." (Bloom's Notes 22)
Even Gerald Rosen states that, "It is important to note here that Holden's ...

Get instant access to over 50,000 essays. Write better papers. Get better grades. Already a member? Login

He knows he has become mad and he even tells himself this many times in the book; but he never really believes it. One time in the book when he displays this madness is,
But I'm crazy I swear to God I am. About halfway to the bathroom, I started pretending I had a bullet in my guts. Old Maurice had plugged me. Now I was on the way to the bathroom to get a good shot of bourbon. I pictured myself with my automatic in my pocket, and staggering a little bit. I'd walk down a couple of floors-holding on to my guts, blood leaking all over the place. As soon as old Maurice opened the doors he'd start screaming at me. But I'd plug him anyway(Salinger 103-4).
This explains the psychotically ...

Succeed in your coursework without stepping into a library. Get access to a growing library of notes, book reports, and research papers in 2 minutes or less.

CITE THIS PAGE: