Undergraduate /
Common Application Essay - Holden Caulfield [12]
Okay, I tried to change the third paragraph with
"I believe that everybody has good in them, nobody can be fully stereotyped into one adjective. Holden is not purely apathetic or pessimistic; he shows affection to Phoebe. In the same way nobody can be completely..."
but that seemed to weaken my essay. I was going to say that I am not completely optimistic either. Here's my newly revised essay:
Holden Caulfield
Holden Caulfield, a fictional character who is the protagonist and antihero from The Catcher in the Rye, has influenced me in a way that he is the antithesis of who I want to be. He is pessimistic: he sees the cup as half empty instead of half full, lazy, and unmotivated. He has all the opportunities in the world to make something of himself, but he throws it all away, becomes drunk, smokes, and has sex with a prostitute. I want to be everything he is not.
Holden is antisocial, apathetic to his future, pessimistic, and a failure. He curses constantly and brings out the worst in people. He cannot see anybody as good, but instead views society and the majority of humanity as phony and evil. Ever since I read The Catcher in the Rye in 9th Grade, I have been aiming to make sure that I would not follow his example; that I would follow and set an example 180° away from his. Since reading the book, I have done my best to become more social, hardworking, optimistic, and I intend to succeed in life. Unlike Holden, I will take advantage of my opportunities and avoid detrimental things like drinking, smoking, and having sex.
Holden deals with problems by drinking them away and being depressed. I think that is a bad habit because his problems are caused by his pessimistic attitude towards life. Optimists have fewer problems to deal with because they see the good in a situation and can deal with the little amount of unavoidable problems that they do have. They can work to change negatives into positives. Holden takes negatives and makes them worse. He believes that the world is "full of perverts and morons" and never thinks of a way to make it better. Thanks to his inability to see the good in the world, his personal world goes downhill throughout the story. I do not want to be like him; I believe there is good in the world and that I can make it a better place by working hard and having a positive outlook.
One time I had a fight with my brother because he was making fun of my friend. We went into a long argument and afterwards I went out for a walk, in comparison to the way Holden leaves Pencey after the altercation with his roommate. However, unlike Holden, who spends the night with a prostitute, I walked around for a few hours listening to my Ipod and came back with lunch for my brother. It was the day before he went back to college and I decided that I should not let him leave on bad terms. We apologized, agreed to look past it, and played videogames. I tried to fix the situation and it worked. Holden would hold a grudge with him and things would not get better. Thinking of what he would have done, I was influenced to do the opposite.
Life approaches everyone with problems and obstacles. Running away from them and avoiding them like Holden does is not the right path, I intend to face them head on and struggle through them because I believe that doing so would lead me to a happy future.
I just added a third paragraph.
