Holden Caulfield Character Examination Essay Example for Free

Holden Caulfield Character Examination Essay Character Examination Holden Caulfield is a figment of author J.D Salingers imagination, Holden is the exception to all rules, and the rule to all exceptions. He is in an unclassifiable category, and his physical traits give no clue on how to enravel this enigmatic young man. Holden is caring but cold, timid yet bold, passive but aggressive; these are three of perhaps hundreds of antonyms describing his psyche. Holden is the protagonist in J.D Salingers only acclaimed novel The Catcher in the Rye. The story centers around the adolescence of this rebel with and without a causes life. It is narrated from the point of view of a cynic, with most secondary characters being valueless, trite yuppies with little integrity or worth. Holdens internal voyage is triggered by his expulsion from Pencey, a boarding school in upstate New York. Holden Caulfield is a tall, solidly built teenager. Holden has short dirty blond hair which he wears in a crew cut. He has a pale complexion and has a tendency of getting red in the face. Salinger does not concentrate on the physical traits of his protagonist but rather he thoroughly describes all facets of his psyche. What struck me as odd about Salingers style is that with many secondary and supporting characters in the novel, he paints a very detailed physical analysis from head to toe. Perhaps Salinger made this decision in order to show the reader the complexity of Holden as a human, and that while supporting characters can be brought into the story by external traits, Holdens complex character transcends mere physical description. Holden Caulfield is a cynic by nature and is a self proclaimed judge of others. Holden has no respect for other peoples positive traits, and he adamantly believes that people put on a faà §ade, play a part and have no self worth or moral barometer. It can be said that Holden is a bipolar character, for example; Holden is naà ¯ve yet cynical simultaneously. One might say that it is impossible to be naà ¯ve and cynical at the same time but with Holden it is evident on a regular basis. Holden is definitely cynical, Holden makes impetuous accusations and rash generalizations of people and often he is mistaken in  his judgment because he shows no form of acceptance to the positive value of the human spirit. Holden is also naà ¯ve, not in the pure sense of the word but Holden is naà ¯ve of himself and his thoughts. Holden has strong deep-rooted beliefs of the world being against him and the world being out to get him, but he is mistaken. Holden Caulfield radical belief of his own beliefs makes him naà ¯ve and gullible. The sad part of Holdens terrible attitude towards life, is that to some extent he himself is a fraud, by becoming an arrogant disbeliever of human worth, he is, in his mind justifying his own mistakes and moral flaws. Holden has feelings of insecurity and a fear of loneliness and alienation, his fear plays a large role in his actions during his time in Manhattan. From the moment of his departure from Pencey, Holden was trying to call his old girlfriends; at first he called his old friend Jane Gallagher. After striking out, he was lonely and his way of dealing with his rejection was hopping from bar to bar and from nightclub to nightclub. After Holden recovered from his misadventure with Jane, he called another acquaintance named Sally. Sally and Holden ended up meeting up for a matinee, but Holden, spotted a lunt (phony) and it made him wreck the date. Holden is fickle and impatient, this is exemplified by his hopping from hangout to hangout at night in New York. Holden would make potentially dangerous decisions on impulse. He was not methodical or prudent at all, his impulsiveness could be labeled as recklessness. An example of the dangers of his impetuousness is when after a tough night, he hired a prostitute from the elevator man, Maurice. Holden didnt even think about the consequences of his actions and in the end Holden was in a dangerous situation with Maurice. Holden Caulfields secondary characteristics are what make the plot of the novel so interesting to the reader. Holden Caulfield is a truly fascinating character. In writing this essay, the complexity and the inconsistency of his character traits became more and more evident to me. Holden is a great example of many negative qualities often associated with teenagers such as, impulsiveness, recklessness and various other negative traits not affiliated with teenagers such as cynicism, and a lack of faith. Holden is the most intriguing character I  have encountered in my literary experience. In two years from now when rereading Salingers novel The Catcher In The Rye, I wonder how my thoughts and opinions of Holden Caulfield will change. With further insight to Holdens complex character, I may well appreciate him more and more.

A Historical Overview of the Geography, Politics, and Culture of Montserrat :: Essays on Politics

A Historical Overview of the Geography, Politics, and Culture of Montserrat Montserrat is a small Caribbean island with an interesting geographical, economic, political, and cultural history. Montserrat was inhabited by a succession of Amerindian groups before being discovered by Spanish explorers in the 1400s. In the seventeenth century, Montserrat was claimed by Great Britain, and settled by an English ruling class, and their Irish indentured servants and African slaves. These new inhabitants created a plantation economy in order to grow sugar cane, thereby significantly changing the landscape. The combination of English, Irish, and African residents also created a unique culture and a form of English Creole. Politically and economically, Montserrat has depended on Great Britain for nearly four centuries. In the late-1990s, a volcanic disaster devastated Montserrat and changed the island’s geography, economy, and political relationship with the United Kingdom. Montserrat’s culture was also affected, as many people fled the isl and, and those who remained were forced to drastically alter their lifestyle. Geography Montserrat is a small, Leeward Island in the Caribbean’s Lesser Antilles, located 27 miles southwest of Antigua, at 16 45’ N, 62 12’ W. The island is roughly 12 miles long by 7 miles wide, with a land area of 62 square miles. The climate is tropical, with a mean temperature of 78 degrees Fahrenheit, and only slight daily and seasonal temperature variation. The average relative humidity is 75%, and average rainfall is 35 to 40 inches a year. The wet season lasts from June to December and the dry season stretches from January to May, but droughts can last close to a year. Like many of the other islands in the crescent of the Lesser Antilles, Montserrat was formed by volcanic eruptions thousands of years ago. This volcanic formation resulted in Montserrat’s rugged, mountainous landscape, and inspired Columbus to name the island after a mountain in northeastern Spain. Until 1995, the lay of the land was as follows. In the Northern part of Montserrat lie the oldest volcanic structures, the Silver Hills. These hills have undergone much erosion, with strong northeastern breezes constantly blowing on them. They are less than 1,000 feet in elevation, with rounded slopes and broad ghauts.

Case Study †Mr Rakesh Sharma Essay

The case study given is about a fresh graduate, Mr. Rakesh Sharma joined Modern Industries Ltd. (MIL) in Bangalore as a trainee against a projected vacancy in the Paints Application Department for one-year training. Mr. Sharma has been performed very well. The Department Manager and the Training Manager were satisfied with his performance in the first two quarters. However, when stepping in to the third quarter, Mr. Sharma raised an issue about curtailing his training period. The request has not be entertained and Mr. Sharma’s behavior started to change and became unacceptable. Counseling session and warning letter have been issued to him and the situation did not turn good. One of the primary objectives of the Training Department is to recruit who have good potential and train them to be effective persons in different department. The Training Manager clearly known that Mr. Sharma is a potential trainee but he failed to train him in different department and caused Mr. Sharma only have one choice of department to stay which is the Paint Application Department. The Training Manager have to struggle on his rational decision whether to terminate or not to terminate Mr.  Sharma. There are five issues discussed in this report. These five issues are the main causes to the problem that the Training Manage has to decide whether he should terminate Mr. Sharma or not. The five issues are communication, employees behavior, compensation and benefit, company policy, training and development. Moreover, we also discussed five options to the Training Manager other than termination of Mr. Sharma. These five options are apply employee engagement program, training and coaching system, giving short period to show improvement, reevaluate performance of Mr.  Sharma and communicate and persuade the parties involved. HRM issues that cause to the problem Issue 1: Communications Effective communication is essential to business success. â€Å"You can tie back almost every employee issue attendance, morale, performance, and productivity to communication,† says Fred Holloway, an HR adviser in Medford, Oregon. Businesses without effective staff communication suffer from lost profits, poor productivity and poor employee morale. In order to solve many business problems, employees need to be able to collaborate and cooperate effectively. Good communication can encourage employees to work harder, solve problems together and work towards a common goal. It is the job of every manager to ensure employees and superior are communicating effectively with each other. In the cases of MIL, we found that there is some communication problems between shop manager and Mr. Sharma; Training Manager and Mr. Sharma as well. More interaction / communication between trainees has to be established especially for performance appraisal purpose. Reviewing trainee performance once at the end of every quarter is too long for training manager to review their performance accurately. Trainees’ performance might not be consistent from time to time and advise might need to be given to them. Also, training manager might lack of clearer understanding about their overall performance and problems they faced. Hence, this lack of communication between training manager and trainees including Mr. Sharma caused manager hardly to observe their actual performances, problem faced and what they really want or do they deserve to enjoy more benefit? These are all the grey areas that left out by performances review. Besides, Department Manager should be communicate and discuss with Mr.  Sharma before file a complaint on him to Training Manager. Department Manager obligated to understand employee problem and assist it to cope with problem faced. However, department manager failed to do so. This shows there is lacking of communication between Mr. Sharma and Department Manager. Listening and responding is how we understand the feelings and thoughts of the other person. There is no skill more important for effective communication than taking into consideration the other person? s perspective. Try standing in someone else? s shoes; it will considerably improve your communication with that person. In this case, Training manager doesn’t seem to communicate well with Mr. Sharma when Mr. Sharma voice out his request. The manager’s reply upon Mr. Sharma is more considered as a perfunctory to Mr. Sharma. This caused Mr. Sharma to feel that the request and problems were not being taken seriously by management. As a result, it de-motivated Mr. Sharma to keep on with training. Manager should standing in employee’s shoes to understand better their exact situation and their needs. It certainly assists a lot to improve communication between manager and employees. Hence, we suggest that manager should really look into the matter if any of the subordinate especially trainee voicing out opinion and requests. Manager should investigate and evaluate such matter deeply upon Mr. Sharma’s request to decide whether his performance is good enough to curtail his training period to 7 months and absorb him as engineer. Also, to look into trainee’s benefits whether it reaching satisfactory level for trainees or whether the matter is only happened on Mr. Sharma since there is an issue has been voice out by him. Issue 2: Employee’s behavior Employee’s behavior is referring to the way the employee responses toward his/her job. Generally, employee’s behavior can be classified into either positive or negative. A positive behavior indicates a strong employment engagement towards company whereas an employee with negative behavior shows low employment engagement. In this case, one of the issues found is the personal behavior of Mr. Sharma. When Mr. Sharma is being informed that his request to become a regular employee was disapproved, his attitude started to change differently. He then started to become de-motivated and started rejecting to perform in some task which assigned to him, telling that the assigned work should be done by ‘regular workers’ instead of a trainee. Such action did not receive any attention in the initial period but it then become erratic and unacceptable at last. We think that Mr. Sharma portrait an attitude of egoism. Mr. Sharma only focuses on self- interest without being considering for others. In this case, Mr. Sharma tried to demonstrate to the company by practicing de-motivate attitude in work. Employees in company supposed to work together as a whole and team work certainly the most important criteria. Unfortunately, Mr. Sharma failed to practice it in this case. Another sub-issue of the case is employment engagement. Mr. Sharma showed a low employment engagement to the company by becoming less aggressive and progressive towards the job as well as refusing to work on some task assigned to him. An employee with low engagement to company eventually lowers down the productivity and efficiency. We think that Mr. Sharma should have a long term view rather just focusing on short term benefits. As a part of the company, he should show an active, progressive and aggressive attitude towards his work to convince training manager that he deserved to curtail his training period and get promoted to regular employee. Issue 3: Compensation and Benefits Compensation and benefits is an effective tool and method to motivate and reward a employee based on their performance. However, it could be a sensitive issue between employer and employee while discussing the content of the compensation and benefits. In this case study, Mr. Rakesh Sharma requested that his training period be curtailed to 7 months only and to absorb him as an Engineer. He argued that he had been performing like a regular employee in the department for the last one quarter. He indicated that he would gain seniority as well as some monetary benefits as the trainees were eligible for a stipend only. The regular employees were eligible for many allowances like conveyance, dearness, house rent, education, etc. which was a substantial amount as compared to the stipend paid to a trainee. According to Mr. Sharma’s request, one of the main factors that he would like to be absorbed as a regular engineer is monetary benefits. Hence, the differences between his on-the-job training benefits and regular employee benefits have caused him to come out with the request. This is also one of the issues that lead to the eventual problem of termination. Employee compensation is the employee incentives and rewards that can make all the difference when it comes to retaining good workers. Generally, compensation and benefits for a regular employee will divided into four categories which are: 1. Guaranteed pay: Monetary reward paid by an employer to an employee based on employee/employer relations.  Generally, it also known as basic salary. Besides, there is other pay elements which are paid based solely on employee or employer relations, such as seniority allowance. 2. Variable pay: Monetary reward paid by an employer to an employee that is contingent on discretion, performance or results achieved. For example, bonuses, commissions, dearness, and so on. 3. Benefits: Programs an employer uses to supplement employees’ compensation, such as paid time off, medical insurance, company car, and more. 4. Equity-based compensation: A plan using the employer’s share as compensation. The most common examples are stock options. These are the compensations and benefits that will received if you are a regular employees of a company. However, Mr. Sharma is not a regular employee yet as his on-the-job training is still on-going and only 5 months left. Hence, he still considered as a trainee in the company. Although a trainee is not an official employee of a company, he or she might not have salary. But, trainee may receive compensation and benefits from company. Trainee will receive a fixed compensation of monthly payment from company. Depends on respective company, some company will afford trainee fringe benefits. For example, they will issue stipend for trainee, free meal is available for trainee. Besides, some company might issue health and medical subsidy for trainee too. Yet, a trainee compensation and benefits are still not persuasive when compare with a regular employee. Same with the case, Mr. Sharma requested to be promoted to a regular engineer is not because of his good performance on the job, it is also because of the compensation and benefits of a regular employee are more sufficient and attractive.

Mental Health Is The Overall Psychological And The...

Mental health is the overall psychological and the emotional well-being of any individual. A person who is mentally healthy is someone that can adjust to the emotional and behavioral requirements of stress and conflicts that are associated in daily living. According to Elizabeth Ahmann there is over â€Å"400,000 children are in foster care in the United States, and more than 100,000 of them are waiting to be adopted† (Ahmann p. 1). Foster home placement is associated with stress and disruptions in attachment relationships. These losses undermine a child’s attempt to form a secure attachment with a primary caregiver. John Bowlby formed the Attachment Theory. It is a process made up of interactions between a child and his or her primary†¦show more content†¦Instead, this respect was not given, therefore, resulting in feelings of inferiority and worthlessness† (Braxton Krajewski-Jaime p. 51). It is painful that someone knows little to nothing about these poor kids and that they deserve the same consideration and respect just like adults. Children in foster care are at a risk for falling behind in development. They are beginning to enter the system at an early age which is when brain growth and development is most active. It has been recognized that â€Å"at age three the brain structures that govern personality traits, learning processes, and coping with stress and emotions are established, strengthened, and made permanent, and that brain formation during these critical years are influenced by environmental conditions† (Braxton Krajewski-Jaime p. 47). Every child develops at his or her own rate, but growth stages are largely tied to age. Normally around the age of three a child is expanding their vocabulary, using hundreds of words. However, it is possible for developmental delay. This is when the child’s growth occurs slowly, or stops at a level of development and does not move forward. It can be caused from any stress or trauma in their life. Charles A.Williams from Drexel University report t hat â€Å"the most common reasons for child placement are parental neglect (67%), physical abuse (16%), sexual abuse (9%), and psychological abuse (7%), with much of this taking place in early childhood† (Williams p.Show MoreRelatedThe Release Of Institutionalized Individuals From Institutional Care1080 Words   |  5 PagesDeinstitutionalization The release of institutionalized individuals from institutional care (as in a psychiatric hospital) to care in the community. Deinstitutionalization is a long term pattern wherein less individuals live as patients in mental facilities and less psychological well-being treatments are delivered in public facilities. 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