Strong Relationship Between Holden And Phoebe example essay topic

The Catcher in the rye by J.D. Salinger How mature do you consider Holden to be? The main character of the book, 'The Catcher in the Rye', Holden, is a character full of contrasts. On the one hand he often comes across as an immature young teenager, but also sometimes as someone who is far beyond their years. From first to last Holden is very contradictory in the way he portrays himself and we are left confused as to whether he is indeed the mature character he wants to be or whether he is just a lost young boy. Holden wants to mature and be just like his elders, the question is, is he ready? Often the reader is left feeling that he is rushing himself, Holden is not ready to mature as fast as he wants to, feeling the restraints of his age.

Holden thinks of himself as 'A goddam minor' feeling that he must mature otherwise other people might possibly look upon him as exactly that. Holden also thinks that calling and being called a 'Goddam minor' is holding him back from maturing. It is with this thought that Holden urges himself inside to grow up and mature, which is what people expect you to do, nowadays and back then. The fact that Holden is so desperate to be mature and something he is not ready to be is shown in his awkward portrayal and ironically shows his immaturity. Contrastingly Holden appears to be beyond his years as he does not wish to talk much about his family life as he says 'I don't feel like going into it' and at the end of the book he urges us never tell anybody anything as he says 'Don't ever tell anybody anything' which can either suggest he is still a young, secretive boy and he doesn't want to go into much about anything else or else it shows his independence and capability at living alone and being by himself. Most people today do want to mature at a reasonable rate and are expected to, but in Holden's case he feels that he must mature at a much quicker rate than anyone else.

I feel that as I have grown up I have matured at a steady and reasonable rate and have not pushed myself, it is his awkward character that shows Holden to be constantly pushing himself and his uncertainty in what he feels people want from him. By believing he has to grow up, Holden reflects these thoughts by running away from home after getting kicked out of school. It is by doing this he feels that he will be able to escape society and the rules and regulations that have been forced upon his lifestyle. His thoughts show his independence as a character but his actions are that of a child. Holden is a very opinionated character. In one instance Holden is talking about Hollywood and the movies, he then says 'If there's one thing I hate, it's the movies.

Don't even mention them to me'. Holden possibly feels that if he has an opinion people may respect him and think he is more mature or Holden may in fact be an opinionated person. In Holden's tale he portrays himself to be independent and he feels his independence and maturity may show when he runs away and thinks he will be able to cope with life away from all his troubles. By running away Holden is bringing on a lot of problems for himself. Although people are expected to become independent in their teenage years, it is only up to a point, but Holden feels that he must pass this point. This helps Holden to think he is more mature if he shows he can handle himself, but by using colloquial dialogue Holden's immaturity comes through.

An example of this is Holden swearing and cursing a lot just like a frustrated teenager. Nowadays a lot of people swear and curse as if it a part of everyday life although it is still wrong, it has become almost trendy to swear. In Holden's day it was a bad thing to do and shown a lack of respect. But Holden sees that if he swears he shall command respect from others especially elders.

Ironically when Holden tries to be too mature his immature side starts to show. An example of this is when a girl Holden is talking to gets offended when Holden says 'Chrissake'. By thinking that if he uses bad language he will come across as more mature but actually it proves to do the opposite. There is only one event where Holden appears to be more intelligent and perhaps more mature than others around him. This is when he is talking to three girls in a bar and the girls seem dull and boring whereas Holden is full of life and rather more exciting than them. He also plays with them and they come off looking worse.

He tells one of the girls he has seen someone famous and she believes him, not only that she tells her friends that she only caught a glimpse of him. Holden remarks ' 'That killed me. ' Just like boys today Holden is trying to act cool and calm and is trying to impress these girls. The only difference is that Holden is trying to impress older girls, whereas most people tend to 'chat up' girls their own age. By chatting up these girls he does get a result in that he does get to dance, sit and talk all night to these girls but as always just as we think Holden is perhaps really maturing and advancing as a character, J.D. Salinger contradicts this by shooting him down and Holden is left to pay for the bill. Holden, like any boy is interested in sexual relationships and feels that by trying to get into a sexual relationship he will be more mature, but clearly that is not the case.

His language about girls is shockingly derogatory referring to some 'who ry looking blondes', language far beyond his years and far too cynical. Holden gets kicked out of Pencey Prep school for 'flunking' four out of five subjects. Holden does not appear to have a good, sensible attitude to school, otherwise he would not have been kicked out of school for he is not stupid. By not learning things at school he fails his subjects and this could be put down to laziness. Holden thinks it is okay for him to fall behind in subjects as he can catch up, but he falls too far behind and it does not seem to be too bothered about this. Nowadays if you fall behind at school your parents are told and you sometimes get after school classes, but it is too late for Holden and he gets kicked out.

When Holden is kicked out of Pencey he tells the reader that it made him 'feel sad as hell'. This tells us that Holden really is upset about it and he will miss things around him. When Holden leaves Pencey he decides not to tell his parents about it as he feels that it would upset them too much as Allie, Holden's brother, is dead. Holden feels he is protecting them by not giving them any more grief. This makes us sympathise with his character as it shows Holden to be sensitive even though his decision is wrong. By running away Holden thinks that he is independent and free from everything and everyone.

As he runs away he thinks it is the right thing to do as he is protecting his family. This in my view is an immature thing to do as it will eventually create more problems for him to deal with and when his parents find out, it will inevitably cause problems for them too. By running away and being rebellious, these could be his ways of coming to terms with the death of Allie. People often do silly things when a loved one is lost and Holden is doing this silly thing now by running away. If Holden were to return home, he would be in a lot of trouble, although given time it would calm down and everything would probably be okay in the end. Holden is insistent to not return home though and stays away from home, moving around New York.

When Holden is around adults he shows a lack of respect. It is still considered rude to show a lack of respect to your peers, but people still do it. People are often offended when people show a lack of respect to them. On one occasion Holden is being talked to by one of his teachers. The teacher asks Holden if he had even once looked through his text book and Holden cheekily replies, 'Well, I sort of glanced through it a couple of times'.

To me this clearly shows a lack of respect, but this could be down to the rebelliousness of Holden coming to terms with Allie's death. To the teacher this must have shown that Holden didn't care about what was going on at school and was taking the situation as a bit of a joke. When it comes to Holden's relationship with his parents he shows respect for them and likes them too. He definitely cares about them as we know, because he does not want to tell them about Pencey as he wants to protect them.

We know Holden likes them as he says 'They " re nice and all' and also 'They " re as touchy as hell' this is just like any normal relationship with parents and children in my view. Holden's strongest relationships are with his older brother, D.B., and Phoebe, his younger sister. Holden often talks about the two. He seems to respect D.B. and admires him as he is making it big in Hollywood and has just bought a Jaguar. Holden clearly thinks of him as an inspiration. Just like in any brother / sister relationship the younger often looks up to and respects the older one, just like Holden respects D.B. One of Holden's strongest ties to the family is Phoebe his younger sister.

The two get on well and have a lot of fun together like most brothers and sisters. Holden's dead brother Allie has had a dramatic effect on Holden's life and Holden regrets some of the things that happened between himself and Allie and this is why he is finding life hard at the moment. Whilst Holden is away he feels free and independent and tries to enjoy his 'freedom' while it lasts. Whilst he is around New York he visits Phoebe at school and tries to keep their relationship going strong. Although Holden likes his free life at the moment, there is a part of him that misses all the old things in his life, such as his friends and family and also the rules and restrictions on his life back then and feels that perhaps he should return home as that might be the best thing to do. Without the strong relationship between Holden and Phoebe then Holden may not have realised that he should go home and face the consequences and stop running away from his problems.

After meeting with Phoebe a few times Holden realises that he is actually missing everything and with Phoebe wanting him to return home Holden decides that it is probably the right time to go home. One last visit with Phoebe makes Holden want to go home. Phoebe is walking with Holden and they come across a carousel. Holden does not want to ride the carousel, but Phoebe wants to. Holden sits and watches Phoebe ride and when Phoebe comes off the ride to get some more money off Holden. Holden gives Phoebe the money and Phoebe kisses Holden, it then started to rain and Phoebe went in to Holden's jacket, took out his hat and put it on his head.

Holden tells us that 'it damn near killed me' as if to say that, that was the defining moment in which he decided to go home. By one simple event with his sister it was able to be the turning point for Holden. That moment made Holden want to recapture his old life before it is completely lost. When Holden returns home he gets sick and is put in a ward where he gets counselling and gets help while he is in there from a 'psychoanalyst guy' who Holden does not mind, but in Holden's opinion he asks too many stupid questions.

Of course Holden has an opinion and the psychoanalyst is only asking questions to help Holden. Holden is just getting frustrated though by being in the ward. D.B. visited Holden a lot and although he asks 'a lot of questions' he obviously made Holden happier and Holden liked to have the family around him and find out about their lives. The only thing Holden really missed now were his old friends from Pencey he had talked about during his tale. The last thing Holden tells us is to never 'tell anybody anything' which shows he is still the same person as in the beginning of the tale as he doesn't want to tell anymore and tells us not to say anything to anyone and keep it inside you as you will miss everything you talk about. By ending like it started Holden shows us that he has not really matured at all and that wanting to mature was really just a sort of phase in his life. After Holden's brother Allie died it was clearly hard for Holden to come to term with it.

This is reflected by Holden showing a lack of respect, laziness with school work, getting kicked out of school and of course running away. These things, are in my view Holden's way of dealing with Allie's death. Holden clearly loves his family and wants to protect them all. By keeping a strong bond between himself and Phoebe he realises that he must go home and not run from his problems anymore. Holden is obviously hurting inside and is trying to release his feelings and by running away and trying to forget about his problems he makes them worse and begins to hurt more and more inside. Once home Holden is into the ward and after starting to talk about his problems he seems to be better and everything seems okay and Holden is grateful to have such a good family around him and who keep him company.

Holden is confused and needs to sort out his problems and he is just confused by how to do this, just like any young boy would be in a hard situation like the one he is in. It is a lot for Holden to deal with, but once these problems are sorted out Holden, feels a lot more comfortable and is ready to get back his old life. It is very hard to totally identify with the character of Holden, or make a definite opinion of him. He has had a lot to cope with in his life and the death of his brother Allie seems to have a lot to do with this. In this way I cannot see similarities between myself and Holden as much of his attitude seems to be as a direct result of the death of his brother.

His contradicting character is maintained throughout the book and shows him to be lost and unsure of himself, though we are never totally sure as J.D. Salinger never really allows us to form a definite opinion of Holden maintaining his complex character.