Holden Caulfield Bildungsroman
A Bildungsroman is defined as “a novel about the moral and psychological growth of the main character.”. This definition fits J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, making it a bildungsroman. The main character in this book, Holden Caulfield, is a young boy growing up in the 1950s, and is still trying to figure out his place in the world. Throughout the book, Holden is shown to aspire to be an adult, because he feels that adults do not have problems. These physical wants are only held back by the child-like tendencies he keeps holding on to, and they prevent him from growing up how he wants to, falling somewhere in the middle, the self he is during the book. Holden finds that even though he wants to go back to the time when he was younger,
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The book is set in 1950, where all kinds of uniformity and dependence are encouraged, causing people to assume traits that were not originally theirs. This reflects off of Holden from very early in the book, calling people “phony”, such as when he describes the reason he left his last boarding school, Elkton hills, “One of the biggest reasons I left Elkton Hills was because I was surrounded by phonies.”. Holden blames his own personal failure on other people, saying he did not like it because he was surrounded by ‘phonies’. He doesn’t mention his apparent lack of academic motivation and intelligence as a possible reason, he just blames the contagious “phoniness”. He cannot ever seem to escape this, either, because even at his new school, Pencey Prep, he finds phonies seemingly everywhere he looks. Even some words in the english language are ones he deems inferior, such as, “Grand. There's a word I really hate. It's a phony”. He finds almost every good thing, such as a nice person, a positive word, and twists it to make it seem as if he is being lied to, as if he will unceasingly imprint his phoniness on anything to describe any positive emotion. Just about “Everyone Holden encounters, including his teachers, his classmates, his friends, and his fellow New Yorkers, is a “phony,” behaving in accordance with artificial conventions and disguising self-interest.”, showing that he believes that society is merely a facade, doing nothing without a seemingly sinister ulterior motive. He enforces this same outlook on most of society, but forgoes the few social constructs that keep him grounded, such as the night before he leaves Pencey Prep, “All I did was, I got up and went over and looked out the window. I felt so lonesome, all of a sudden. I almost wished I was dead.”. He intentionally pushes society away, which then gives him more to
The book is set in 1950, where all kinds of uniformity and dependence are encouraged, causing people to assume traits that were not originally theirs. This reflects off of Holden from very early in the book, calling people “phony”, such as when he describes the reason he left his last boarding school, Elkton hills, “One of the biggest reasons I left Elkton Hills was because I was surrounded by phonies.”. Holden blames his own personal failure on other people, saying he did not like it because he was surrounded by ‘phonies’. He doesn’t mention his apparent lack of academic motivation and intelligence as a possible reason, he just blames the contagious “phoniness”. He cannot ever seem to escape this, either, because even at his new school, Pencey Prep, he finds phonies seemingly everywhere he looks. Even some words in the english language are ones he deems inferior, such as, “Grand. There's a word I really hate. It's a phony”. He finds almost every good thing, such as a nice person, a positive word, and twists it to make it seem as if he is being lied to, as if he will unceasingly imprint his phoniness on anything to describe any positive emotion. Just about “Everyone Holden encounters, including his teachers, his classmates, his friends, and his fellow New Yorkers, is a “phony,” behaving in accordance with artificial conventions and disguising self-interest.”, showing that he believes that society is merely a facade, doing nothing without a seemingly sinister ulterior motive. He enforces this same outlook on most of society, but forgoes the few social constructs that keep him grounded, such as the night before he leaves Pencey Prep, “All I did was, I got up and went over and looked out the window. I felt so lonesome, all of a sudden. I almost wished I was dead.”. He intentionally pushes society away, which then gives him more to