Catcher in the Rye: reality vs. fantasy

directions: interpret Holden's use of lies, false identities and daydream fantasies. what seems to be the purpose of each. make sure to tie each together thematically and develop the specific importance of each unique example without simply repeating some general idea. make sure to organize thought well, have everything connect back to the thesis, and use specific analysis.

this is a 10th grade high school essay.

Phoebe Zajac
Mr. Hagar
English 2 Intensive
16 March 2009

Holden Caulfield: A Crazy Fool, or a Depressed Realist?

"I swear to God I'm crazy. I admit it" (124). Holden, the main character of J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, is a troubled teenager dealing with normal teenage angst, and, like many teenagers, he becomes depressed and tries to escape. At first, he escapes by physical means (drinking, smoking, etc.), but eventually creates his own fantasy world in which to drown his sorrows and make his life more meaningful. Holden can appear crazy as he pretends to be wounded or older, and he sometimes imagines running off to a ranch or a cabin in the middle of nowhere, but this does not mean he is not realistic. This paper shows that Holden knows how messed up the world is and that he simply cannot be happy when he is so aware of everything. Holden is a pragmatist.

As he blunders through New York, Holden eventually comes to regard life as a game, a battle of the phonies vs. the non phonies, which he does not want to take part in-for fear of losing his sense of self. At the beginning of the book, Dr. Thurmer, the headmaster at Pencey Prep, talks to him about how "life is a game that one plays according to the rules" (8). Holden pretends to listen and agree when he is really thinking, "Game, my ass. Some game" (8). He realizes how, "if you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then it's a game, all right" (8), how if you are rich and have everything handed to you, and are content with being fake and phony, then it is fun and you can play and not worry about anything. However, if you get on the "other side" (8), then you are screwed. For him the game begins to symbolize this war between the two sides. When he is talking about the "hot-shots" he says, "...then it's a game, all right" (8), and his tone is sarcastic and resentful. He is always talking about his hatred of the phonies, yet he is constantly acting phony himself, when he wears his hunting hat even though he isn't a hunter, or pretends to be a middle-aged man in order to get served alcohol, he even admits it himself, "I hate saying corny things...but when I'm with somebody that's corny, I always act corny too" (60). When he is trying to make a date with the coat-check woman in a bar, he "show her [his] goddam gray hair and [tells] her [he][is] forty-two," (153). "I was only horsing around" (153) he says, but he is acting phony just like the people he despises so much. Unlike them, Holden is not happy to be phony, and therefore not a hot-shot; however, he isn't an "other" either, because he has money, and is pretty good looking. Consequently he is alone, neither true phony, nor true non-phony, he knows if he gave into the phoniness he could win the game, but he despises them for being able to be content with the phoniness, and he is jealous because he can't. He is completely aware of all the bad and annoying things, so he cannot be content with sitting around and pretending to be oblivious, therefore he is on the outside, "way the hell up on Thomsen Hill" (2), just watching the game.

Whenever the pain becomes too much, Holden fakes life-threatening physical ailments so that he can be treated and possibly cured. He knows there is something wrong with him, and he wants to be able to fix it and just be normal, but he goes about it in the wrong way. When he is on a train, he runs into a classmate's mother, and instead of just saying he is sick, or they were let out early, or something more believable, he tells her he has a brain tumor. "It isn't very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain" (58); now, this may seem childish, or to be the hallucinations of an insane person; however, he is merely expressing how he feels about himself. His awareness is the tumor that is on the outside, and can be removed very easily, by giving into the phoniness and becoming just like everyone else. The tumor seems to symbolize his pain and confusion, and how he wants to remove it all from his mind, but that would leave him with a wound, a bullet wound to be more precise. Several times he imagines, while drunk, that he has been shot, and he is stumbling around holding his gut "to keep the blood from dripping all over the place...concealing the fact that [he][is] a wounded sonuvabitch" (150). He pretends to not want anyone to know he's been shot; nevertheless, he wants to call up Jane, the girl he likes. He goes to a payphone, but he doesn't really want to completely mess things up with her, so he calls Sally instead. He acts like he is hiding his pain, but all he really wants is for someone to care that he is hurt, enough to come patch him up and take care of him. He seems to think he is crazy, and needs taking care of, but his "craziness" is merely depression from knowing the truth and not being able to block it out, unlike those "goddam" phonies.

Holden has trouble relating to the people around him, so he fantasizes about the possibility of escaping the phoniness of the city and going somewhere peaceful with someone to whom he can connect. He is always thinking about running off to a cabin or ranch somewhere far away, even asking his friend Sally Hayes if she will go away with him. "It's everything." he says to her, "I hate living in New York and all" (130), he hates everything about the city, he goes on to rant about all the things he hates, the transportation, the elevators, the pants, the cars, the phony people who like the phony actors-basically everything that makes the city the city. However, Sally has her doubts, the way Holden talks, he jumps from one thing to the other, and Sally cannot follow his train of thought, so she is confused and scared by his sudden, "crazy" outburst. She says, "...we're both practically children. And did you ever stop to think what you'd do if you didn't get a job when your money ran out? We'd starve to death" (132). She doesn't understand what the cabin means to him, and she can't imagine why he would hate the city so much. In some ways Holden's idea appears mature and realistic, in that he wants to grow up and marry Sally and be independent, but he hasn't really thought it through, and it would be very immature for him to just leave town, with no proper plan, with a girl he doesn't even really like, and go live out in the middle of nowhere. He feels trapped in the city and hates it, but he can't just run off like that. Besides, they "both hated each other's guts" (133) after only a little while together, so they couldn't stand each other's company for very long. As the "Catcher in the Rye," Holden attempts to catch Sally and stop her from being sucked into societies game and losing her innocence, by taking her away from the city.

Holden's views on maturity change as the story unfolds, and he slowly begins to recognize that fantasy cannot last forever; he has to either grow up or be left behind. At first, Holden imagines himself to be the "Catcher in the Rye," he is the one who has to run around on top of a cliff, and "catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff" (173). He thinks has to stop all the little kids from making a mistake and falling, which in reality is maturing. Holden himself is like a little kid in many regards, always making things up, making rash decisions, and not planning for the future. He has not matured at a normal rate, so now he is stuck trying not to "fall off the cliff," and lose his innocence, or let any of the others off the cliff. He feels that in doing so, he will fall even further behind the kids. He is scared to take the plunge and mature, so he wont let others do it either. He struggles with this concept, trying to remain innocent in that respect. Nevertheless, after becoming extremely depressed, he sees his sister Phoebe on the carousel, and realizes she still has some of her innocence, when she is still "mad about the carousel" (210), and she isn't too big to ride it, even though he previously believed she had lost it. Holden discovers that losing your innocence is not so bad. Falling off the cliff isn't the problem, you must try to "grab for the gold ring" (211), meaning maturity, or you will never make it. He realizes that "if they fall off, they fall off, but its bad if you say anything to them" (211), he cant change what happens; it's out of his hands. Everyone has to mature sooner or later. They must find their maturity on their own, and learn to pick themselves back up after they fall, or they will never make it in life. If you say anything or try to help them along, then later they will fall and wont know how to help themselves. He sits watching Phoebe on the carousel in the pouring rain, so happy that he "was damn near bawling" (213) just to see his sister having fun and enjoying being a kid while she still can.

Holden's fantasies throughout the book seem to be "crazy," but they are just exaggerations of his feelings, desires, and depression from knowing how messed up the world is, culminating into a world he wishes to be real, no matter how insane. He becomes more and more depressed as he tries to bring his fantasies into reality, but realizes that he can't make them unite, and he has to find a way to be happy in reality, even though he knows the truth about the world. Holden finally realizes that, after all, reality isn't always so horrible; there are good things that can block out the bad, if he just lets them.

Thank you so much for including the whole prompt.

The first paragraph is all plot summary. You need to have your thesis here that explains what the meanings of Holden's fantasy's are. I see you kind of answer that question in the conclusion but it needs to be in the intro.

Most of this essay seems to be plot summary. Don't overuse quotes. Quotes should help prove a point that you are trying to make and for every quote you should have meaningful analysis. I see that you did try to analyze some of the quotes but it seems like when you are summarizing plot you use quotes just to prove that what you are saying actually is in the book. We believe you and don't need textual evidence for this. What we need is evidence that supports an idea that YOU came up with about the book.

The body paragraphs need to be more focused. Each body paragraph must begin with a topic sentence that connects to your thesis statement. All quotes that are included in each body paragraph must support the idea presented by it's topic sentence. One thing that I like to do is make sure that every topic sentence answers a "why" question. This generally makes the ideas more meaningful. For example:

"Several times throughout the book, Holden pretends or imagines he has a life-threatening physical ailment because_______."

It's not enough to talk about what happened in a book and all the examples for it. You must answer why these things happened.

You make some very interesting points, but they do seem to be a bit disconnected at the moment. Try to make sure that, at the end of each paragraph, you tie your main idea for that paragraph back to your overall thesis. This may require you to revise or reorganize the rest of each paragraph, too, though that may not always be necessary. Take Tyler's advice, too -- he knows what he's talking about.

thank you so much. that is all very good advice. any tips on how to organize? i always have problems with making everything connect back to a main idea. thanks.

To organize the first thing you should do is come up with your thesis.

What I would do if I were you is write your thesis statement then write all of the topic sentences of your body paragraphs then post those on here and we will take a look. (Remember: topic sentences are like mini thesis statements for each paragraph that operate under the main thesis of your paper. The topic sentences represent one main idea that your paragraph will talk about. For sanity's sake only include one main idea in each body paragraph.)

Now this technique is up for debate as some people like to freewrite paragraphs then find out what the main idea was after they are done. Problem is freewrites are hard to keep organized and on track unless you are a pro at improvising without going off topic. I cannot do this. I always start with a topic sentence and build from there.

So again, if you want I would first post:
1. thesis statement
2. topic sentences
Then we can go one step at a time.

He knows he could win the game if he tried, but he would lose all semblance of self and his uniqueness, he and therefore he prefers to just watch.

He wants the pain to be physical so that he has some chance of healing it, because otherwise he won't be able to fix his mental illness, thus leaving him crazy forever.

As the "Catcher in the Rye," Holden attempts to catch Sally and stop her from being sucked into societies game and losing her innocence, by taking her away from the city.

Holden himself is like a little kid in many regards, always making things up, making rash decisions, and not planning for the future.

He has not matured at a normal rate, so now he is stuck trying not to "fall off the cliff," meaning to lose your innocence, or let any of the others off the cliff.

Here are a few more fixes to add to the great advice from Tyler and Sean.

not sure if these are quite right.

Thesis: Holden's imagination runs wild as he tries to find a way to fit in with ordinary people, but he goes to far and ends up falling into his own fantasy world.

Body 1: As he blunders through New York Holden eventually comes to regard life as a game, a battle of the phonies vs. the non phonies, which he does not want to take part in, in fear of loosing his sense of self.

Body 2: Whenever the pain becomes too much, Holden fakes life-threatening physical ailments, so he can be treated and possibly cured.
Body 3: Holden has trouble relating to the people around him, so he fantasizes about the possibility of escaping the phoniness of the city and going somewhere peaceful with someone he can get along with.

Body 4: Holden's views on maturity change as the book goes on, and he slowly begins to recognize that fantasy cannot last forever; he has to grow up or be left behind.

To me, it doesn't sound like your thesis answers the prompt. You need to explain what the purpose of his fantasies are. You say he falls into his fantasy world. Why does he create this world? What is its purpose to him? Try to go deeper than just: He creates fantasies to escape from a world that he cannot fit into. If you follow that thesis the paper will just be about examples of him escaping from reality and not about WHY he chooses these delusions. Even if you do go deep enough to answer these questions later in you paper it still needs to be in your thesis statement. You should not introduce new ideas outside your thesis.

Answer these:
"Holden's imagination runs wild as he tries to find a way to fit in with ordinary people, but he goes to far and ends up falling into his own fantasy world because _______."

"Holden has trouble relating to the people around him, so he fantasizes about the possibility of escaping the phoniness of the city and going somewhere peaceful with someone he can get along with because _______."

Also all the body paragraphs need to answer different aspects of the prompt. Don't tell us things that are obviously given in the plot of the book. Body 2, for instance, just sounds like plot summary. You need to tell us WHY he fakes life-threatening physical ailments. What are his reasons for pretending that his mental problems are physical problems? Why does he believe that curing fake physical problems will help his mental conditions. Every time you answer a question ask why again. Every time you answer the next why-question you have taken your paper to a deeper level.

(I don't know, lol. Maybe I am being to harsh for the level you are at right now. These are the kind of problems my teachers try to make me push through.)

A good thesis should be debatable. Your isn't. Ergo, you need to come up with a better thesis statement. Tyler already gave you some tips for doing that, but here's another one -- focus on "but he goes too far." Why does he go too far? How does he go too far? In what way does he go too far? Your body points all dance around the answers to these questions anyway, so if you can come up with a strong answer that unifies your existing body points, you should be able to make your essay much more solid without having to do too much rewriting of the body paragraphs.

Tyler, it sounds like you have excellent teachers.

Holden can appear crazy, he pretends to be wounded or older, and sometimes imagines running off to a ranch or a cabin in the middle of nowhere, but he is really just a realist, he knows how messed up the world is, and he can't be happy when he is so aware of everything.

maybe?

Simplify the thesis to make it sharp:

Holden can appear crazy as he pretends to be wounded or older, and he sometimes imagines running off to a ranch or a cabin in the middle of nowhere, but this does not mean he is not realistic. This paper shows that Holden knows how messed up the world is and that he simply cannot be happy when he is so aware of everything. Holden is a pragmatist.

That makes it clear to the reader exactly what you are arguing.

Body 1: As he blunders through New York Holden eventually comes to regard life as a game, a battle of the phonies vs. the non phonies, which he does not want to take part in -- for fear of losing his sense of self.

Body 2: Whenever the pain becomes too much, Holden fakes life-threatening physical ailments so that he can be treated and possibly cured.
Body 3: Holden has trouble relating to the people around him, so he fantasizes about the possibility of escaping the phoniness of the city and going somewhere peaceful with someone to whom he can relate.

Body 4: Holden's views on maturity change as the story unfolds , and he slowly begins to recognize that fantasy cannot last forever; he has to either grow up or be left behind.

so is this intro still ok? my teacher said he really liked the intro a lot, and the title.

Holden Caulfield: A Crazy Fool, or a Depressed Realist?
"I swear to God I'm crazy. I admit it" (124).
...

its due on monday, so i am working on it again tomorrow night. i just wanted to get this first paragraph out to see if i am grasping how to do this. thanks again for everyones help.

-phoebe

Wow. I'm impressed. Your introduction has really improved. You have the small transitions you need to make it hold together logically, now. Great job.

And your first body paragraph is now really insightful. I never much liked Catcher in the Rye, but now I sort of want to reread it, because what you have written about it has made me view the protagonist in a new way. Everything seems to be coming together nicely for you. I hope you post your complete draft when you are done -- I'm looking forward to reading it.

As he blunders through New York, Holden eventually comes to regard life as a game, a battle of the phonies vs. the non phonies, which he does not want to take part in-for fear of losing his sense of self.

He realizes how, "if you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then it's a game, all right" (8)

I think "the hill'' goes very nicely in the last sentence, it adds a bit of drama to the ending.

good luck!

:)

thanks so much. you have all been really helpful. im not sure if the rest of the essay will live up to your expectations, but if i get feed back quickly i might be able to fit it in. i was trying to do this quickly because i got home late. i may have reverted back to the other stuff by accident at some point

I may have reverted back to the other stuff by accident at some point.

(Don't write "reverted back to." Just write "reverted to")

Wow, I am pretty impressed with the essay now! You should feel good about how well you can cite the source, etc, and your clear writing. I'll be surprised if this does not get an A.

Great job. You should be proud of your effort. I agree with Kevin, this deserves an A.

haha thanks. ill try to remember that. thanks a lot a lot. hopefully it will. ill let you know.

yesss!!!! i got an a! 95! and my teacher wants to use it as a student model!!!!! thank you guys soooooooo much!!! now i have to write another essay. haha! thanks!

-Phoebe

That's great news. Hope we can help out with your next essay, too.