Holden Caulfield in “Catcher in the Rye” Essay

Holden Caulfield, in The Catcher in the Rye, is much same the common teen dater of today. passim the novel, Holden goes done bothers that umteen new-made teenagers keister fix to. Holden is a lonely teenager who trifle dos to consider direction in life. His actions are real similar to those of teenagers today. Some important characteristics Holden shares with upstart teenagers are his longing to be unembellished and independent, his struggle between puerility and adulthood, and the circumstance that he is lost and does not cut what he wants to do in life. Also, a identical(p) umteen teenagers today, he has to report with things much(prenominal) as sex, violence, and alcohol.A full-grown task Holden goes through is his struggle between tykehood and adulthood. He is sixteen classs old, which is the age when a person is almost an adult, and still a child. A child who is innocent, supported by his parents, and is not up to now ready or possesses the maturity t o go out into the world and fend for himself. This struggle is symbolized by Holdens gray hair. This is something many teenagers face today. care many modern teenagers, Holden wants to be independent. He wants to make his possess decisions and live on his own. He has lived in schools most of his life, away from his parents. When Holden astonishs kicked out of Pencey, and he jazzs that his parents will find out, he refractory to go back home aft(prenominal) they do, in order for his parents to have dealt with the news. This shows how Holden does not look for help from his parents. He wants to deal with the problem himself by applying himself his next year in school. Another example of Holdens need to be independent is when he suggests to Sally that they go away somewhither and live together.On page 132, Holden says How would you like to get the hell out of here? Heres my idea. I know this guy down in Greenwich colonisation that we can borrow his car for a couple of weeks. He us ed to go to the same school I did and he still owes me ten bucks. What we could do is, tomorrow morning we could drive up to mummy and Vermont, and all around there, see. Its fine-looking as hell up there. It in reality is.Well stay in these cabin camps and freeze like that till the popsicle runs out. Then, when the dough runs out, I could get a railway line somewhere and we could live somewhere with a brook and all and, later on, we could get married or something. I could cut up all our own wood in the wintertime andall. Holden longs to go away and be independent.Like teenagers today, Holder had to deal with alcohol, sex, and violence. Like any male teenager today, Holden thinks almost sex. He wants to experience it and says that he had had many opportunities to do so, although he never had sex. Holden, lacking(p) comfort and affection, invites a prostitute to his room, nevertheless never has sex with her.A big problem among teenagers nowadays is violence. This is a probl em that is real difficult to solve and some quantify cannot be avoided. There are times in the novel when Holden faces violence, like when he gets in a fight with Stradlater.Throughout the novel, Holden turns to alcohol when he gets depressed. He obtains it very easily, and gets drunk at one point. This occurs often among teenagers today. They feel that alcohol will make them older and give them maturity.These are the shipway in which Holden is very similar to the typical teenager of today. His characteristics, feelings, and actions are those that many teenagers can relate to. Problems that Holden deals with throughout the novel are problems that many teenagers face in their commonplace lives. Feelings that Holden has are like those of modern teenagers, who are in many ways, just like Holden.