Examples Of The Family In Catcher In The Rye

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Fear the Family The argument of nature vs nurture has been a hotly debated topic throughout the past decades. From one side people believing that someone's personal experiences shape their personalities, while on the other side people believe that the way one is raised is more likely the reason an individual acts the way they do. But this argument doesn't just apply to the parent/child relationship, it also applies to the relationship between siblings. When you are raised with siblings, most of the time the way you act depends on the way they act. Which means that they have a big influence on who you become, and what you fear. In the Catcher in the Rye, the author, J. D. Salinger proves that siblings are the root of our fears and insecurities.…show more content…
Through Holden we can see how much he wants to be like his sister Phoebe, he wants to stay young for as long as he can. He wants to run away with a girl named Sally. During a date they have Holden suggests “...tomorrow morning we could drive up to Massachusetts or Vermont...We’ll stay in these cabin camps and stuff like that till the dough runs out, I could get a job somewhere and we could live somewhere with a brook and all and, later on we could get married…” (132). He wants to ignore the future and focus on the now. His rash decisions and suggestions show that he wants to live in the moment. Before leaving Pencey, Holden visits with a teacher he looks up to, the teacher mentions that Holden keeps getting kicked out of schools “‘...I believe you also had some difficulty at Whooton School and at Elkton Hills’” (13). Holden doesn’t seem to mind he keeps getting kicked out, he just acknowledges that it's true. He says it's because he doesn't care, but in actuality it could be because if he doesn’t graduate then he feels like he isn’t growing up. If he doesn’t graduate he doesn’t have to go to college or get a typical boring job. Not growing up means he can be young and do whatever he wants with limited consequences. The most obvious example of Holden not wanting to grow up is when he tries to protect his sister from growing up. Holden wants to go out West and avoid growing up, but decides to say goodbye to Phoebe, his sister, before he…show more content…
Which is why he avoids going home. Holden decides to stay in a hotel, because he is scared that his parents will be angry that he got kicked out of Pencey Preparatory, his most recent school. “I figured my parents probably wouldn’t get old Thurmer’s letter saying I had been given the ax till maybe Tuesday or Wednesday. I didn’t want to go home or anything till they do it and digested it and all” (51). He wants to wait and not face the majority of his parents wrath. Holden would rather be in a place like the Museum of Natural History, this place soothes Holden’s ever changing life, because “The best thing though, in the museum was that everything always stayed right where it was” (121). Holden finds comfort in the museum, because everything remains the same. Change scares Holden and he is content with having a constant in life as long as he can avoid the future. However, Holden is also scared of the distant future. This plays into him not wanting to grow up. Holden’s older brother D.B. lives in California as an aspiring writer. Holden decides to be like his brother he wants to move out West and avoid any sort of future that would result in him becoming a typical “boring adult”. He doesn’t want to go to college or have a nine to five job. When thinking of ways to avoid going home a having to be sent to another boarding school Holden comes up with a
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