Catcher In The Rye Quest

Words: 1315
Pages: 6

Chapter 1: In Foster's book, he explains the quest and all of its aspects. The journey that is the quest includes the protagonist and usually spans most of, if not the whole book. A quest consists of five parts, the quester, the destination, a stated purpose, challenges, and a reason for the person to go on the quest. The quester is the person going on the quest. The destination is the end product the character wants to get to, it is not always something physical. A stated purpose is the reason why the character decided to go on the quest. The challenges are the hurdles the protagonist must face in order to achieve his destination. The challenges are sometimes physical, but could also be mental. Finally there is the reason, the motivation …show more content…
Even the most simple items convey a world of meaning. For example, Holden begins the novel surrounded by windows. Think about a window and its purpose, it is used to visualize something without being exposed to it. Imagine a house with one window in it. Holden is inside the house, ignoring a storm outside through this window. As he gets older, the window gets larger and the storm harder to ignore. By the time Holden is 18 and in the hospital, the house has diminished completely and has been replaced by glass on all sides. The storm is about to break the window, which will leave Holden exposed to the inevitable reality. The house represents Holden’s childhood, while everything outside of it is the adult world. The storm depicts Holden’s fear of growing up, but he need not face it as long as he is sheltered inside his childhood. The window represents the glimpses of adulthood that he has faced so far. As we get older, our childhood flees farther from our grasp, and it gets much harder and eventually impossible to ignore that we will one day no longer be children. This concept is like a window. A window allows us to see everything outside without being subjected to the vulnerability that accompanies the act of experiencing it. It’s impossible to live inside a house indefinitely; at some point, we all need to go outside. But this is precisely what Holden is attempting to do, he’s trying to ignore the fact that he is two years away from being an adult by surrounding himself with thoughts that keep him emotionally in the