Catcher in the Rye Holden Fails to Come to Terms
In the novel The Catcher in the Rye, by J. ... Salinger, the main character, Holden Caulfield fails to come to terms with himself and society. ... Holden is kicked out of school once again and his struggle to find himself is started. As he voyages home to Manhattan Holden lies to many people and engages in other phony activities with friend Sally. ... Through Holden’s struggles with adolescence, he ultimately does not come to terms with himself and society. Holden is judgmental of everyone although he seems to be truly mad at himself because he possesses the characteristics that he criticizes others for. This makes it hard for him to come to terms with himself because he hates all of his characteristics. ... Holden spends most of his life worrying about how much people lie when he does it himself all the time. ... It is hard for him to come to terms because he does not want to accept the fact that he is not an innocent child as he views them. Holden also does phony things with Sally. ... Holden supposedly hates the hotel because it is “full of perverts” (Salinger, 61). ... Holden is lying to himself because he criticizes the others that perform these acts yet he would enjoy doing them himself. By Holden criticizing others for being perverts, he is saying its bad. This shows how Holden hates the characteristics the he is made up of. Holden shows that he is interested in doing what these “perverts” do by inviting a prostitute to his hotel room. This once again reinforces the fact of how Holden hates his own characteristics and thus makes it even harder to come to terms because he does not want to accept that he has flaws. Holden does not want anything in the world to change. He fails to grow up as a result of this.