An Analysis the Complicated Character of Holden in the Catcher in the Rye.doc

an analysis the complicated character of holden in the catcher in the ryeabstractthis essay analyzes holdens complicated character to find the influence of social background and environment of growth upon teenagers growth. the catcher in the rye is a famous novel written by american great novelist jd salinger. the hero of this novel is a troubled teenager called holden caufield who struggles with the fact that everyone to grow up, holdens unimaginable school life, adventure in new york city and dream of being a hermit shows his rebellion. meanwhile,holdens family relationship, cherished friendship, sympathy for strangers and ideal of being a catcher prove he is a pursuer of pure love. however, he is a coward in rea life for his compromise to difficulities and obedience to reality.key words: complicated character,rebellion,pursuer of pure love,coward，growth摘要这篇论文分析了霍尔顿的复杂性格，探究社会背景和成长环境在青少年的成长过程中产生的影响。这部小说是美国著名的小说家塞林格所著。小说的主人公是一位拒绝成长的名叫霍尔顿.考尔菲德的问题少年。霍尔顿不可思议的学校生活，在纽约的奇遇以及想成为隐居者的梦想显示霍尔顿是一个社会的反叛者。同时，霍尔顿渴望亲情，珍惜友谊，同情陌生人，守护孩子，这些证明他追求真爱。然而，霍尔顿是现实社会中的懦夫，因为他在困难面前妥协顺从现实。关键词：矛盾的性格；反叛；纯真；真爱的追求者；懦夫；成长contentsintroduction 1. a rebel of society1.1holdens unimaginable school life 1.2 holdens adventure in new york city1.3 holdens dream is be a hermit2. a pursuer of love2.1 family relationship2.2 cherished friendship2.3 sympathy for strangers2.4 expectation of being a catcher3. a coward in real life3.1 compromise to difficulities3.2 obedience to reality4 analysis for holdens complicated character 4.1 social background 4.2 environment of growthconclusionj.d.salinger jerome david salinger (1916-) was born in new york city, on january 1,1916. he grew up in new hampshire and later attended three colleges, but got no degree. as early as the age of fifteen he began writing, publishing his first short story when he was twenty-one. after service as an infantry sergeant in europe during world war, he wrote more stories, most of which were published in colliers, saturday evening post, story and other journals. salingers first major work, the catcher in the rye (1951), proves a whole generation in search of new values. the novel also creates a pleasantly exciting and unique language of stammering youth. in nine stories (1953) salinger reveals that he is a master of the short story form. salinger was one of the most controversial authors of the post-war era, and was certainly one of the most influential authors among college youth from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s. the catcher in the rye is a famous novel written by j.d salinger.the novel tells a story of a boy named holden undergoing the plight of growth.holden is a 16 years old teenager, who was born in a middle-class family and attends a prived school.but he is lonely, sad and dismal because he can not adapt the world of adult.he thinks that all adults are hypoctitical and the socity is disorded so he disobeys the rulers of school and disgusts his classmates. finally, he is dismissed by pencey school and leaves the school after fighting with his roomate. then, he roams the streets in new york. in those two days, he dose some stupid things and finds ugly features of people which make him want to give up his life. however, he comes back to society with love and confidence at the end of this novel. in the novel, holdens goal is to be a cather who stand on the edge of cliff to protect childen in order to let them play freedomly and safely without any adults. in fact, he hopes he is the child who play in the rye rather than the catcher. in the real life, nobody can understand him and he can not own love from teachers or parents and chooses a escaping way to express his unfitness. he wants to live a simple and nature life but he must face all problems and change himself to adapt to the society. the paper mainly shows people a growth story of an teenager with some bad habits. in the catcher in the rye, holden is a boy who hate and rebel against the mainstream culture of america . he is lonely, suffering and depressed and wants to flee from the society. holdens growth enviroment, emotional world and process of growth make readers understand the teenagers depression and arouse people more concern about their spiritual life. the essay can be divided into four parts. the first part introduces holdens rebellion from his unimaginable school life, adventure in new york city and dream of being a hermit.the second part shows holdens family relationship, cherished friendship and sympathy for stangers to prove he is a pursuer of love. the third part tells that holden is a coward in real life because of his compromise to difficulities and obedience to reality. the forth part mainly analyzes the influences of environment of growth and social background upon holdens growth.1.a rebel of societyholden was born in a middle-class family and lives a rich life,but he is not very happy life because he can not adapt to the society well. holden is not an ordinary teenager because there are many strange thinking in his mind. he always use his critical eyesight and language to evaluate people and things around him. in his opinion,the society is a hideous world where many mean hypocrites live in. holden is a 16 years old boy who distinguish himself as one of greatest and most diverse person ,thinking his moral system and his sense of justice force him to detect horrifying flaws in the society in which he lives. holden dislikes many people,places, events all because of phoniess surrounding them. unimaginably, holden realizes all flaws within others but he can not see them within himself. holden describes himself as a 16 years old boy who is very obviously unhappy and see himself as the worst and useless member of his family. he hate all things around him, so he is a rebel of society. 1.1holdens unimaginable school lifeholdens school life is unimaginable. as a student, he can not get along well with students or teacher beause of his character. he always critizes his classmates and teachers with his own moral standard.on one hand,holden is lack of responsibility. at the beginning of the book, we know holden is the equipment manager of the fencing team at pency, but he lost the equipment on the subway.he also failed out of two schools for lacking of effort and absences from classes.whatsmore, he is a special student who can express his opinion on exam paper. he wrote“dear mr spencer,that is all i know about the egyptians,i can not seem to get very interesting in them although your lectures are very interesting. its all right with me if you flunk me as i am flunking everything else except english anyway ”（the catcher in the rye,salinger）.it seems that holden doesnt care about his behavors including making his teacher angry. on the other hand, holden is a self-opionated person. in the beginning of the book,he characterizes almost every person he meets as a phony,he feels that he is surrounded by hypocrites in a school filled with fakers. he dislike principle thurmer because he only say hello to the wealthy parents of students during a teacherparents day although he is the leader of school. holden also dislike his classmates.he said robert ackley has a terrible personality and he is sort of a nasty guy. besides, when holden know stradlaters new girlfriend is his good friend jane callagher,he fights with him. from these examples, we can see holden complains his school life becase there is no happiness but all is sorrow for him. he complains his bad fortune, so when his teacher say good luck to him, he feels angry. if he didnt forgive their equipments,they may win the match and all others should congratulate him rather than scold him. if his roomate was a noble-minded person ,they may get along well with each other. but all things and all people around him are disappointed. he keeps thinking that he is worth pratically nothing and everybody can treat him badly. this is actually not his fault because he can not do anything about people letting him down all time and himself being pushed around.1.2 holdens adventure in new york cityas the strong progress holden gets into more and more troubles.the three-day adventure let holden is tired of life and pratically hates almost everything about it. holden encounters many different people and experiences many adventures throughout three days that this story occurs. he becomes involved with a variety of people, including taxi drivers, two nuns, an elavator man, three girls from seattle, a prostitute, and a former teacher from whom holden thinks he should flee from in the middle of the night. when holden no where to go in the night he want to visit his former teacher whom is regarded as a noble-minded person by him,but the teacher is a homosexual.at two occasions, he tries to start a conversion with a cab driver ,he asks them where the dukes which he once saw at central park go into winter because he actually concern about ducks. he hopes to get on an intelligent conversions going, however,both cab drivers think that he is crazy. he gets sally on a date but he ruins it by insulting her. holden constantly uses valgar language to describe all he hated. when he is hited by the rude elevator man, he cry. after experiencing these horrible things. he becomes completely despair of adults world. he thinks adults world is a hell where vanity, deception, phoniess exist everywhere. such a situation is painful for holden. he fights in isolation all the time. so, he is orphaned and helpness. death is the best way for him to escape from ugly society and to find calm life.society is advancing,do did human being,but holden refuses to grow up ,he does all thing with his childish way, therefore, he is abandoned by society. although he is every depressing, no one can understand him and give him a hand. he dont know how to shout his unfitness out, he regards death as a goog way for retaliating aginst society. holden is a complex teenager, he is influced by enviroment and become dispirited because of his innocent. he hopes the world is simple but the reality is changeable. when he is ploted by one prostitute, he is so afride because he doesnt imagine a humble woman has ability to bully him. the miserable life make him hate soceity badly and complain the unfairness of american society. he hunts for innocence all the time, unfortunately, he fails. finally, holden chooses a tragic way to show his disappointment and becomes a victim.1.3holdens dream of being a hermitholdens ideal life of being a hermit can reflect his despair. he wants to be a deaf mute somewhere in the west ,so he wouldnt have to deal with all the phonies and hypocrites of every day life. he also no need to worry about his parents scold for flunking. to be a deaf is a good way to flee from adults world and adults responsibility. holdens tragic life is largely due to american society in 1950s. he doesnt know what is the goal of life although he tries several times for pursuiting of happniess. people ,places, things in reality are so complex and make him angry, he wants to forgive all of them so he decides to live in the west where no one know him. he can do everything he want to do and go anywhere without hinder. it is quiet unususal for a young person of his age to be isolated from the society .it seems that he hates society so bitterly and can not accept all problems he meets in his life. after all of holdensexperiences and tragedies, he would go to his parents for help but he doesnt, which means that holden doesnt believe adults. maybe in his heart, his sister is more important than his parent. for him,living in a new place mean he can live a new life. although there is loneliness and hardship in his new life ,he feels safety. the reason why he would like to be hermit is that a strange enviroment give him a chance to make his dream come true. all in all, holden need unchangable youth which cant be found in the world, he is suffering and choose escaping way to show his dispair.all in alll, holdens unimaginable school life, adventure in new york city and dream of being a hermit show us that he doesnt like the systerm of school and the situation of society. he lives in the world with hostility and complain,for him, escaping is his own way of saving himself. 2.a pursuer of love the phoniess of reality forces holden to escape it, but he is pursuit of nothing less than innocence and love（lonely catcher,2008,xang xiaoling）. holden is eager for love and he has a heart that full of love.he loves his family and yearn for family relationship. he is sincere and honest to his friends and teachers. although he lives in an evil world , he believes there is true love.2.1 family relationshipin holdens emotional world, family realationship plays a very important role. phoebe is holdens little sister who is the one he really loves. in the novel, he talks about her appearance, her habits, her attitude and her intelligence. we can see from this that holden loves his sister very much, who can give him confidence and happiness. he thinks his sister would be unhappy if he is dead. one evening, he came back home quitely in order to meet his sister. when he plays with his sister, he becomes a mature man. at that moment, he realizes adults responsibility and tries to make sure his sister keep innocence. holden always miss his died brother allie he writes an essay ahout allies baseball mitt and dont like visiting allies graveyard. all relationships think he is calm but holden insists that allie is lonely although his soul has gone to heaven.on the first page holden gives us a short description of his another brother d.b who work in hollyhood. in fact, he isnt found of him. he declares him a prostitute of hollywood because he thinks his talented brother shouldnt betray his intelligence for money. holden envies his brothers well paid job, lots of money, recongnition and friends which he doesnt own. but he trusts his brother. when he wants to talk with somebody, he remember his brother whom he want to share his suffering. when holden rebel phonies and pursue for self-identify, he is eager for pure human love at the same time. unfotunately, he is confronted with some difficulties and obstacles when he pursuit of what he he cherished and valued. in holdens process of growing up, his parents love is lost. holden doesnt turn to his parent in his time of trouble. but he reveals it in his movie fantasies of being shot by the mod. he shouts“mother darling,give me your hand ,why wont you give me your hand.”（the catcher in the rye,salinger ）. its no doubt that his parent can give him rich material life but they dont give him enough concern. for this reason, holden struggles for a complete family love and spents his love on his brothers and sister.2.2 cherished friendshipholden isnt a cool man for his cherished friendship. jane callapher is another person he really loves in a world without love and warmth. in the book, holden wants to phone jane several times, but for some reasons, he fails to meet or talk with her. he cherishes the friendship with her and doesnt allow others to hurt her. when he knows jane is stradlaters new girl friend, he fights with him for stradlaters dishonourable conduct. except jane, there is no true friend in holdens life, so holden must protect the friendship forever. we know holden is a eccentric boy but we respect his standpoint on friendship.2.3 sympathy for strangersholdens sympathy for strangers tells us he is a kind-hearted person. holden wants to go on a date with his old friend sally. before he does this he goes to eat at a snack bar, there he sits with two nuns who are collecting some donations. he wants to pay for their breakfast and contributes 10 to the nuns. he is depressed by their meagre breakfeast and the fact that they will never be goingany way for lunch.we know holden is a miserable boy but when he see people who lives a poor life or stay in bad situation, he sympathize with them.holden is a changeable man. in different situation, he shows different character. sometimes, his vulgar language and obscure behaviour make us angry but we also find his merit in many times. all in all, holden is a sincere person.2.4 expectation of being a catcherholden imagines himself as the catcher in the rye, a protector of stoping children from falling into losing their innocence and becoming an adult. holden believes that all childen are innocent because they view the world without any bias. when phoebe asks him to name something. he said“anyway, i keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all.thousands of little kids. and nobody big. i mean except me. and i am standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. what i have to do, i have to come out from somewhere and catch them. thats all id do all day. id just be the catcher in the rye and all. i know its crazy but thats the only thing id really like to be. i know its crazy”（the catcher in the rye,salinger,173）. he wants to retain eveything ,in other words, he wants all things to remain the same.so he hope all children live in childhood without any worry. he feels that by saving the children from falling off the cliff, he saves them from falling into adult world that he digusts. when he takes phoebe to a carousel, he decides not to ride on it , or even stand on during a rain storm, because he felt too old to get on. he is sort of afraid she may fall off the goddam horse, but he doesnt say anything or do anything. he hopes children do everything they wanted do and have their owm attitude to life. children should go along the path of life by themselves. however, when he sees somebodys writtenfuck you on the wall of an elementary school which his sister attended, he is almost crazy. he tr