Archetypes in Catcher In The Rye

Archetypes are groups of plots, characters, and situations, that follow a certain trend or certain traits. In the book The Catcher in The Rye Holden can fit into the Quest archetype as he is searching for his own motivation, happiness while looking for the unadulterated and pure innocence. This can be seen as Holden attempts fill his lonely void with a prostitute; looking for a conversation, acceptance and his happiness, but fails. Mr. Antolini can be found with the Task archetype as he has the task of straightening Holden and to guild him along the right path, he also fits the Mentor character archetype. the Unhealable wound, situational archetype applies to Holden as he is scarred for life from Allie's death, metaphorically, with his mental health and inability to hold friendships, and literally, as he cannot form a fist due to his hand injury during his breaking of the garage windows. Holden also fits the character archetype of Outcast as he is expelled from Pencey and generally is not talked to.

It is very clear that Holden goes on a quest during the story The Catcher in The Rye as he is searching for Purity and innocence as well as companionship and happiness. Holden’s quest is not for physical items, but it stills the situational archetype of Quest as what he is looking for will benefit himself and the ones around him. Holden’s Quest brings him to many places and he gains many experiences as if the Quest was for an item. All the aspects of a Quest archetype are there, the only difference being his search is for purity and not an object.

CATCHER IN THE RYE CHAPTER 15 – 21

The image displays Holden's abuse of alcohol as a coping method for his problems, whenever he is at a bar he attempts to get an alcoholic beverage, the emphasis on the alcohol represents Holden's reliance on it 

During the chapters 15-21 in the book The Catcher in The Rye Holden makes plans with sally to watch a play, later Holden goes to eat breakfast at a sandwich bar where he encounters 2 nuns who are school teachers, after having a nice chat about Romeo and Juliet Holden donates 10 dollars and reflects upon the capitalist world. Holden takes a cab to central park to reminisce about phoebe and visit the museum. Later Holden goes to meet Sally at the hotel, and takes a cab to the theatre where Holden is irritated by the actors as they are full of themselves. After the movie the two go skating at the rink where Holden has an outburst requesting that they run away irrationally and live on his bank money, after talking and complaining about the phoniness of his school. Afterwards Holden meets up with Luce, who used to talk about the boys about mature subjects, but during their meeting at the bar Luce is irritated by Holden’s childish questions and comments, and Luce leaves. Holden later gets very drunk, and decides to go home, as he wants to see phoebe.

In the chapters 15-21 Holden feels like making irrational and rash choices simply because his life is our of control and he feels like there is no other choice “when the dough runs out, I could get a job somewhere with a brook and all and, later on, we could get married or something.”  This is obliviously an insane idea as it is clearly visible that it would never work, Holden wants to run away from everything as things are too stressful and overwhelming for him. A similar thing happened to me in the past. At the time I was under intense stress from tests and parental pressure, I felt like doing irrational actions as a last ditch stress relief method; I had ripped books at the time and broke my watch. I think I did those actions to be spontaneous, I felt like a switch flipped and I no longer applied sense and logic to my actions and I did them because I wanted to out of frustration rage and stress. I believe Holden shouting at Sally and begging her to go along with him on his journey is of the same reason.

During the chapters Holden is at the at the climax of his emotional distress, where he makes irrational decisions, uses substance abuse as a coping method, and has complete disregard for the consent of others. Firstly Holden yells at Sally when they were at the skating rink after Sally refuses to go with Holden on an unrealistic and impractical journey to run away. “’why not? Why the hell not?’ ‘stop screaming at me, please’, she said” Later on Holden talks to Luce but Luce does not want to talk to Holden about his childish questions and comments about sexual intercourse but Holden is ignorant to it thus resulting in Luce’s departure. At the bar they were at Holden gets very drunk consuming numerous alcoholic beverages despite being a minor, “I kept sitting there getting drunk and waiting.” Shortly afterwards Holden calls Sally waking Sally up, this shows Holden’s lack of concern for others. At the end of the chapters Holden decides to go home marking the end of his irrational decisions and the start to recovery.

There were 2 questions that I pondered while I read the book, firstly, why does Holden call Sally in the middle of the night despite having a recent argument, and why does Holden decide to go home when he is so drunk. For the first question I believe that Holden wanted to call Sally to apologies but couldn’t due to his state of intoxication, making things worse. As for the second question I believe that Holden did not go home because he realized that he cannot live in a hotel for much longer, but for his desire to see phoebe, his budget running out is merely a lucky confidence.

 Since I have read the entire book I will attempt to predict what happens after the ending of Holden taking phoebe to the carousel. I believe that Holden will have learned and gained a better understanding of the world through his adventure and probably apply himself in school sooner 

Catcher In The Rye Chapters 8 - 14

The photo represents Holden's lonely thoughts about the past and how there is still hope for the future, as Holden holds on to every last strand of human interaction, we can see his calm attitude about his distressing future.

The chapters 8 through 14 in the novel The Catcher In The Rye mostly consists of Holden roaming around New York going to clubs, hotels and bars. In the beginning of the chapters Holden runs in to the mother of Earnest Marrow, who is a student at Pencey, Holden dislikes the student but tells lies of his good deeds to his mother. Holden goes to a hotel and visits the night club downstairs, where he attempts to make conversation with a few ladies but constantly despise them for their phoniness down inside. Then after visiting another nightclub Holden meets a pimp where he hires a prostitute, when the prostitute arrived Holden declined to sex and fakes a recent sugary due to his nervous and anxious state. After having some small chat Holden pays off the prostitute but the prostitute claims the price was higher. During the time he was at the nightclubs and in the hotel he would think back about Jane, Allie, and Phoebe. A little later the pimp came into his hotel room, roughed Holden up and took the money of which Holden supposedly owed. Afterwards Holden imagined himself as a movie star extracting revenge on the pimp before going to sleep.

In the chapters Holden is going through a very difficult time, the effects of his loneliness are at it's climax. Holden desperately tries to hold on to any conversation he can, attempting to extend it's duration as he knows once the other participants leave he will have nobody to talk to and will end up indulged in his tragic past and his sad desolate present. This was shown as he asks all convocation holders for another drink or another reason to stay, and his willingness to start seemingly pointless convocations. "Would you be interested in meeting me for a cocktail somewhere?", is what he asked to someone he had just rung up in the middle of the night. At one point in my life I was going though similar feelings of isolation and loneliness. It was at this time where I also tried to cling on to every last conversation and make pointless dialogue simply because I had a hard time to get anyone to talk to me. My peers would ditch me and I felt terrible, drowning in my own misery; I too felt the grasping need for companionship.

At this time in the novel, it becomes increasingly noticeable that Holden's traumatic past along his state of mind is causing Holden the majority of his troubles. During the chapters Holden aimlessly roams the clubs and streets of New York where he looks upon his past, attempts to ease his loneness, and tries to see his true self. Holden has wondered through bars judging, looking down upon, and exaggerate about every other person, "I was surrounded by jerks. I'm not kidding." said Holden as he was seated in a bar. Nearing the end of the chapters, Holden hired a prostitute but refuses sexual intercourse, What Holden seeking is not from sexual desire but from his initial isolation. Holden wanted a friend, a place where he could belong, not a sexual partner, thus why Holden was so happy with Jane. When Holden was with Jane he could talk casually not needing to try to extend every encounter as he knows that he will be able to talk to Jane even after their conversation ends. "You never even worried, with Jane, whether your hand was sweaty or not. All you knew was, you were happy. You really were." Said Holden while he thought about the past.

A few questions arose as I read the chapters, like why would Holden try to talk to taxi drivers about the ducks in Central Park? and why Holden hired a prostitute only to reject her services moments later? I believe that Holden asked about the ducks to the taxi drivers from another part of his loneliness, but it could be because he was unsatisfied with the answers of the first taxi driver. "what're ya tryna to do, bud? Kid me?" was the response of the first taxi driver when he was asked about the ducks. It is possible that Holden hired the prostitute hoping for a experience similar to his feelings of acceptance with Jane, but realized moments later that that is utterly untrue.

It is possible in future chapters for Holden to aimlessly stay at the hotel until he runs out of money, or hide from his parents for a few more days until after the initial shock of his expulsion. It is also possible that Holden heads straight home as his loneliness would be too much to handle.

The Catcher in the Rye Chapters 1-7 blog

An image from gemoomay. It demonstrates isolation and the feelings of Holden as if he was the only one in the world.

In the first seven chapters of the book The Catcher in the Rye we are greeted by the narrator and protagonist Holden Caulfield. In first person we are quickly given an understanding of Holden's pessimistic views of the world. It is soon revealed that Holden was expelled from Pencey prep school which is his forth school so far. In early chapters Holden visits his favorite teacher Mr. Spencer as he was given a note to visit, during the visit Holden was given a lecture about his poor attempts at his academics and receives a bit of advice. Holden however saw it as humiliation and decides to ignore the lecture and think about other topics, this bold act boosted Holden's self esteem because he knew that he was capable of pretending to listen and deceive others. Holden later returns to his dorm interacting with his roommate, Stradlater, and Ackley who lives next door. Holden is very irritated with Ackley as he has no respect for others. Later in the night Holden gets into a fight with Stradlater, which ended swiftly; Holden then decides to go to a cheap hotel in New York to relax from his stress and hide from his parents as they receive news of Holden's expulsion.

Holden's behavior resembled that of my own in certain situations. During the chapters Holden felt that nobody paid attention to him and felt isolated; it was at this time where he relied on his over the top self esteem to keep his sanity. There was a period in my life in which I felt the same way, during those years I would always keep my composure, and look down upon others; giving my self a sense of superiority. I would never get try to get into conflicts like Holden has with Stradlater, but I would always try to diffuse conflicts peacefully which would make me feel more influential and powerful. Holden is desperately trying to keep himself together despite his lack of positive traits, failing courses, unpopular, and irresponsibility has made Holden feel unimportant. I share a similar experience at times, trying everything to get approval of others, at the time I had rarely any friends; and the ones I did have would often ditch me. During those years I had obtained an inferiority complex which made me judge others and look down upon everyone, which only worsened my friendships. I find that Holden is dealing with similar hardships and using the same coping methods as I once did.

The language that Holden uses resembles that of a young teenager, which is shown in his profanity, his tendency to exaggerate, short sentences, and overconfidence. In the chapters the theme of false deception has a very strong presence as Holden points out that many actions of adults are not out of their goodness of their hearts but instead out of greed or another ulterior motive. Holden mentions the steak they are fed every Saturday, instead of seeing it as a reward for a hard week at work, he sees it as taking advantage of visiting parents, he predicts that parents visiting on Sunday will ask about the student's  previous meal to which the student will answer steak.

While reading the chapters a few burning questions arise, such as: Why would Holden constantly bother and attempt to talk to Ackley if Holden despises him so much?  and Why would Holden go to Manhattan if he is just going to stay at a hotel the entire time? Holden may been reliant on Ackley as Ackley is one of the only ones who stays inside and rarely socializes and Holden is in the same position so it would make sense if Holden thought that anyone to talk to is better than no one to talk to, regardless of who they are. Holden may be going to Manhattan  for nostalgic reasons, or for the attractions. As Manhattan is heavily populated it is possible that Holden can go to multiple attractions without seeming suspicious.

I predict in that in the next few chapters, that Holden will be mainly in his hotel judging the world from there, perhaps pointing out the mistakes of those he walks past. It is also possible in the next chapters that Holden decides to go home instead of staying at a hotel, from loneliness as he would have nowhere to be.