Catcher In The Rye Research Paper

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This is posted by John Smith in: http://voices.yahoo.com/holden-caulfield-catcher-rye-49935.html Holden Caulfield from Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye is a troubled young teenager who is trying to find his identity and establish security and stability during a period of transition from adolescence to adulthood. Like any other teenager, he struggles to find understanding of the world around him and meets many obstacles and contradictions along the way. However, Holden is different in that he places himself in a position where he cannot connect with others in his society and is thus hopelessly lonely and alienated. Holden cannot accept the help of others because he shuns the conventional world and in this sense becomes an iconoclast to…show more content…
However, the fact that the adult society sees through his façade reinforces Holden's alienation from his society. In effect, Holden retaliates by rejecting adulthood and continues to criticize its flaws as he indulges in them. He passes judgment quickly on those that he feels are corrupt and calls them "phony." This only further worsens Holden's situation and even further detaches him from society and help. But how did such a vicious cycle of self-destruction start? Questions arise as to whether Holden has always been this way. It can be theorized that his lost identity could be the result of two specific tragedies from his…show more content…
Holden is in the confusing process of passing from adolescence and innocence to what he feels is a corrupt adult society. Along the way, Holden has trouble finding identity and security as he isolates himself from his society by shutting out the world and criticizing others who he deems "phonies." Because he is so adamant to criticize the world and reject its values and conventions he consequentially isolates himself from people who try to him along the way through this stressful period of

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