Teenager (What else is there to say?)

Holden Caulfield is a very complex and interesting character, but aren't all normal teenagers? This complexity makes him a great study topic for anyone interested in the daily fears, anxieties, and even thoughts of your everyday teenager. "The funny thing is, though, I was sort of thinking of something else while I shot the bull." (Salinger 13). Teenagers know when they are wrong or when they are doing something poorly, but because of their immaturity, they just can't accept that fact even if they are forced to. While Holden is being scolded for failing out of school as well as failing Mr. Spencer's own class, he just basically tells Mr. Spencer what he wants to hear while not even paying attention to him, he is thinking about where the ducks that live around central park go during the winter. I catch many teens and even myself doing it sometimes. In fact, I do it all the time, and then I think about myself thinking about the other things, which still keeps my mind off the subject of my current failure. This denial is partly due to our psychotic make-up, as the teens mind is very stubborn and not very negotiable. All teens must struggle through this, and then when they are older, they look back at some of their mistakes and then hate themselves for the dumb ways that they handled things. Another reason for this denial, though, is our wonderful egocentricity or the feeling that the world and universe revolve around us and whatever decision we make will affect the world as a whole. Because of this, teenagers tend to be more paranoid and hateful towards other human beings. Holden demonstrates this in his thought process in several situations: To the Navy guy who thinks he needs to break your fingers when he shakes your hand, "God, I hate that stuff." (Salinger 87); To the fact that he had to leave because he didn't want to talk to a "bunch of phonies", "People are always ruining things for you." (Salinger 87); To the fact that he had an imaginative movie moment, "The goddam movies. They can ruin you. I'm not kidding." (Salinger 104). There are many other moments like this, but just from these you can see how insecure and even lonesome teenagers are psychologically. Holden portrays this and even more because he is stuck in a state of loneliness that is very much like the first three years of schizophrenia, and it is known that if you make it past those first years, your ability to cope and be happy increases tenfold.

hi Mrs. white how are you>