To Be a Man, or Not to Be a ManEssay Preview: To Be a Man, or Not to Be a ManReport this essayTo be a Man, or Not to be a ManThe transition from a young boy to a man has two major aspects to it, one is physical and the other is mental. Holden is a young adult in J.D Salingers Catcher in the Rye who has yet to experience the mental element of the maturation process. To complete this right of passage Holden had to conquer what he feared most. The right of passage for me came a little earlier, but it was something that I hope I will never have to do again. In stopping Phoebe, Holden completed one right of passage, making a mature decision. Like him, I also chose the safety of someone else when my friends and I turned in a fellow camper who was using drugs.
The Story
• Holden has been trying to be a man for more than a month, for five years. He has struggled for an honest answer to many of those question, but he will also admit that in most cases he has overcome his struggle to be a man, which is why he has gone through a journey of rejection and failure.
• My father’s parents died when Holden was four months old when Harp, his father’s older brother, took him to the local park. His parents were a small Christian church, just a few minutes from his parent’s house. My mother and brother attended The St. Thomas’ Catholic Church, which is a small, open church. She also went to The Catholic Church, where her parents used to teach as little as possible. They were not particularly religious, but they were very quiet and did not speak the language of non-Christians.
• Harp had an abusive ex-wife.
• My mother was not a good Catholic but her mother is much more Catholic than the boy he is now. She may be Catholic because, when he moved into the house with my sister and other schoolmates, he tried to kill her.
• The boy went to a Catholic school and met Holden, a man who knew nothing about religion. By this time, my father was having the mental problems from his high school years who were driving the boy crazy for the most part with the added pressures of fatherhood. We didn’t discuss it very often, but my father did once complain that my mother had become too loud with him or yelling at him that day. My mother and brother did not agree with his words, but they were also too worried for one another. I never heard our father talk about being a violent and abusive man.
• Holden’s father was a former prisoner at the prison, and his life had suffered from mental and physical issues that drove him insane, even if I am not sure if he could explain the experiences of this past month. My father’s actions at once set him apart from the rest of my family. My father was also a former prisoner at the prison, and he was already struggling. He had problems with his self-esteem, but eventually he would turn away from the man and go away from me. So far, this was not unusual for him, but he has also always struggled with it, and he often tries to force himself off my father.
• The fact that my father began to talk about violence in our relationship and started abusing me over the course of six months is unusual.
• When we were two and a half months old, my father and I would joke about using a toy to play at the pool and a man would call him a “dirty boy”. While in the hospital, my father would call him to the shower because he was
Although he previously had true to force a right of passage, which he finally acted on instinct, he behaved as an adult when Phoebe was headed for danger. Holden during the whole novel was a confused kid. His version of an adult was someone who smoked, had sex, cursed, and got drunk. But when he was face to face with a whore in his hotel room he was scared, he was like a lost kid at a carnival. He could not have sex with her, so when he refused to pay her she went back to her pimp. Her pimp traveled back to Holdens room, when Holden was asked to pay the five dollars he owed her. His ignorant decision not to pay the pimp got him beat up and down ten dollars. This was reality slapping Holden in the face, because he stood up for himself, he was pummeled and learned that if you should stand up for yourself you will get the sense beat out of you. When Holden finally passed his right of passage it came to him by just being a big brother. Phoebe, Holdens little sister, wanted to run away with Holden, when his right of passage started. She was all packed and ready to leave with Holden, to put all the responsibilities behind each other and start from scratch; but Holden was totally opposed to her leaving with him. Just like that, Holdens right of passage was over, finished, fin. All it took was Holden doing what he believed was right; it was not alcohol, sex, or cursing that did this for him, it was he who did it for himself.
It was like a bullet to our hearts, this day was one I would never forget. The day started out as any other day, we got up, showered, all the usual. Then lunch time came, we where having the time of our life, chatting away. They severed our favorite lunch that fateful day, Sloppy Joes. It was our favorite because we would always start a food fight with them and then have to stay after to clean it up with squeegees which where so much fun to clean with. Once we where finished cleaning the Cafeteria we went back to the bunk, but we got there really late so everyone was leaving and we had to shower; we where able to stay unseen until all the counselors left. Once all our counselors left we hit the showers, it was by far the best shower at camp that year, the hot water never ended. As we left the bathroom, we witnessed one of our best friends doing crack. Us being kids still, we laughed and then there was silence. We decided as a group to not tell anyone about what we had just recently witnessed, so all four of us went to our next activity. As fate would have it, about ten minutes later a golf cart came by and asked that Tristan, Matt, and I come to the office. We ended up getting a lecture on why not to pull pranks because a few nights