Holden Caulfield Undertakes a Journey of Personal Discovery Essay Example

world, and all the “phoniness” that he perceives in nearly everyone he meets is very shallow. Alas, he fails to notice his own phoniness, as he is too busy judging others rather than judging himself. A recurring motif is obvious here, and that is his lying. His self-deception drives him, and he is unable to acknowledge his own weaknesses.

His red hunting cap which he often wears is a symbol for his own psychological armour.He wears the cap “how he likes it”, with the peak at the back, when he is hurt or upset, and he is seen to flip it round the right way again when he feels nervous. The quote “I didn’t give a damn how I looked. Nobody was around anyway,” again gives away his hypocrisy. He definitely is self-conscious about the cap, because he doesn’t want to look like a “fool”, but there is a raging mental struggle in Holden’s mind.

To defend himself from others he “shoots them” in his hunting cap, but doesn’t literally do this.He reacts in his own way, through his mind, to criticize and denigrate the people around him. Holden’s decision to leave Pency Prep early is an identifiable sign of the “Call to Adventure” stage. Because of his conscious judgement on the people around him, to what started as a normal conversation with Ackley resulted in a verbal argument, and it drives Holden to move out altogether. He can’t stand being around these “phonies”. As he packs, sadness and loneliness take over his emotions, as he feels that there is no one he can talk to.

This step that he takes is one that kick starts

his adventure into the adult world. His fight with Stradlater and Ackley shakens him up, and thus, his departure symbolises the leap into a different world. Some may argue that this stage is actually the “Crossing the Threshold” stage, as he is still leaving the ‘ordinary world’, and entering a new one which the rules and values are unknown to him. As he is leaving, he is crying, but unsure why. His personality is somewhat, unpredictable, which suggests to the reader that he may be emotionally or mentally instable.However, once he puts on his red hunting cap, his emotions are altered again, as he screams out “Sleep tight, ya morons! ” throughout the whole ward, as a way of “shooting” the others mentally.

The way Holden reacts to the people around him, and how he starts off his “hero’s quest”, is definitely individual because of his unique personality. The theme of ‘phoniness in the adult world’ shows us that because of his cynical nature, his judgement of innocents and phonies are always changing.A hero always starts off in their “original world”, and throughout their journey, the way they perceive others and their own personality changes, and this is seen in Catcher in the Rye, through Holden. Holden at the beginning of the book is “standing on the cliff between childhood and adulthood”. These first few stages of a Hero’s Quest, “Ordinary World”, “Call to Adventure” and “Crossing the Threshold” are all evident in the first few chapters of Catcher in the Rye, and his own personal journey of self-discovery has definitely begun in this first part as he leaps into the unknown world of adulthood.