Holden Caulfield Attitude Analysis
In The Catcher and the Rye by J.D. Salinger, the protagonist Holden Caulfield experiences myriad personal difficulties originating from the tragic event of his brother's death from cancer. Subsequently, his perspective towards the whole world has deteriorated into a pessimistic attitude, derived from his own personal sense of inferiority. As a result, Holden feels isolated and alone. In his desire to feel connected to someone, he travels home to visit his sister, Phoebe, hoping to receive emotional support. Instead, Phoebe criticizes his pessimistic attitude towards life, much to his own surprise. However, the criticism that Holden receives from his sister motivates him to improve his perspective towards life, by having become more optimistic, and leading to rapid and significant maturity within his personal development.
Prior to the events of the novel, the protagonist experienced a crucial tragedy that produced his negative outlook. However, before considering what this perspective entails, providing some insight into the nature and context of this tragedy possesses great importance for understanding his complete …show more content…
Resulting from her criticism, Holden recognizes his deficiencies, and that to some degree, he himself has been inauthentic with how he has distorted how the world really is through his pessimistic attitudes. Derived from this new maturity, he becomes more mindful of the impact of his decisions, and even decides to finish his preparatory education, given its vitality for this healthy self-development. As indicative of this healthy development, he begins to reveal his desire about being the catcher in the rye, expressing through imagery his newly discovered wish to enhance the development of society by rescuing ("catching") innocent children from making similar mistakes that he has committed
Prior to the events of the novel, the protagonist experienced a crucial tragedy that produced his negative outlook. However, before considering what this perspective entails, providing some insight into the nature and context of this tragedy possesses great importance for understanding his complete …show more content…
Resulting from her criticism, Holden recognizes his deficiencies, and that to some degree, he himself has been inauthentic with how he has distorted how the world really is through his pessimistic attitudes. Derived from this new maturity, he becomes more mindful of the impact of his decisions, and even decides to finish his preparatory education, given its vitality for this healthy self-development. As indicative of this healthy development, he begins to reveal his desire about being the catcher in the rye, expressing through imagery his newly discovered wish to enhance the development of society by rescuing ("catching") innocent children from making similar mistakes that he has committed