One of the most controversial American Literature books, J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, went into full turbulence and had all the attention of critics everywhere during its release in 1951. Holden Caulfield, a New York City teenager in the 1950’s with manic-depression is the protagonist, is a protagonist unlike any other in coming-of-age novels. What most critics don’t realize is that his actions are exactly those of a depressed teenager would endure: being an immature compulsive liar who is manic-depressive. The over-saturation from technology into the 21st century does not separate the direct similarities of teens today and those twenty to thirty years ago. Today’s teenagers being “less complex,” “confused,” “anxiety ridden,” or any of the such shouldn’t be ignored. Salinger writes to reveal Holden’s foible of his constant struggle of being a teenager as well as giving a voice to teenagers during any era.
Catcher in the Rye is told through the unedited perspective of our 17 year old tragic hero’s thoughts and feelings as he is talking to his psychiatrist while he reflects the days following his expulsion from Pencey Prep. After his heated argument with his roommate, he begins wandering the streets of New York City in search of his identity and what the adult world is like before returning home. While in The Big Apple, he interacts with teachers, prostitutes, nuns, an old girlfriend, and his little sister. He is curious about the world and himself, in a grown up way, and searches for answers in rebellious ways as well as wanting to protect his innocence because he’s stuck in between childhood and adulthood, there’s never a middle for Holden, or any other teenager.
The word teenager was created during the time the novel was ...
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...s can become during their identity search.
Towards the end of the novel, he sees his old soul of a sister, Phoebe, whom he constantly refers to as “old” is still so innocent because she is wearing his hat and carrying his suitcase. This makes him realize that she is following directly step by step behind making him change his mind about running away from home. Holden has found his identity, he wants to be the catcher in the rye, the one to save the children from falling off the cliff into adulthood. Holden is just a huge phony because he tells himself he doesn’t care, although the only reason he complains is because he does care and can’t deal with his feelings like any other teen. It is nearly ironic those who criticize the book because of the hundreds of thousands of teenagers who can relate to this novel forget who raised those hundreds of thousands of teenagers.
After many years of ideas coming and going, one that seems to stay the same is the thoughts of tennagers. In the book The Catcher In The Rye written by J.D Salinger many can still relate to Holden’s story even after a 76 year difference. While exploring the city around him Holden takes the time to try to find himself on a deeper level and try to grasp how growing up really makes him feel. Given the fact that everyone is unique in among themselves the need for self satisfaction is always current meaning many run from the true responsibilities that come with age.
Holden Caulfield, portrayed in the J.D. Salinger novel Catcher in the Rye as an adolescent struggling to find his own identity, possesses many characteristics that easily link him to the typical teenager living today. The fact that the book was written many years ago clearly exemplifies the timeless nature of this work. Holden's actions are those that any teenager can clearly relate with. The desire for independence, the sexually related encounters, and the questioning of ones religion are issues that almost all teens have had or will have to deal with in their adolescent years. The novel and its main character's experiences can easily be related to and will forever link Holden with every member of society, because everyone in the world was or will be a teen sometime in their life.
Catcher in the Rye is a complicated book about a young man going through, what appears to be a nervous break down. This is a book about the boy’s negative self-talk, horrible outlook on life, and a life itself that seems to keep swirling down the toilet. He keeps trying to fill his life with something, but the reality of it is he doesn’t exactly now what he needs. It’s complicated to understand at parts, because all he does is think of things in the worst possible conditions.
J. D. Salinger’s novel, Catcher in the Rye explores the ambiguity of the adult world Holden must eventually learn to accept. Throughout the novel, Holden resists the society grownups represent, coloring his childlike dreams with innocence and naivety. He only wants to protect those he loves, but he cannot do it the way he desires. As he watches Phoebe on the carousel, he begins to understand certain aspects of truth. He writes:
J. D. Salinger's notable and esteemed novel, Catcher in the Rye, reflects the hypercritical views of a troubled teenager, Holden Caulfield, towards everyone around him and society itself. This character has a distinguished vision of a world where morality, principles, intelligence, purity, and naivety should override money, sex, and power, but clearly in the world he inhabits these qualities have been exiled. Holder desperately clings to and regards innocence as one of the most important virtues a person can have. However, he son becomes a misfit since society is corrupted and he yearns for companionship, any kind of connection with another to feel whole and understood again. Ironically, despite his persistent belittling and denouncing of others, he does not apply the same critical and harsh views on himself.
Even though “The Catcher in the Rye” was written and set in the 1950s, Salinger's story about an observative, conscious teen who is struggling to find his own identity, maintains much interest and is suitable to readers today. Many teenagers can relate to Holden Caulfield's opinionated and sentimental personality, as well as the problems he faces. These problems include sexually related rendezvouses and eagerness for independence. Holden goes against the adult world around him, which to Holden is loaded with "phonies", searching for righteousness and truth, even though several of his actions would depict him as a "phony" himself. Towards the end of the book, Holden finds it harder to deal with living in the society he is in, while dealing with his worsening depression.
It is widely agreed that Salinger’s Catcher in The Rye is unarguably the quintessential coming of age and initiation story . This story has been compared against Ellis’ Less Than Zero and T.S. Elliot’s Wasteland as being among the literature that best elucidates the alienation of our youth . The story of Holden’s transition into manhood has been compared against the American transition into consumerism after the world wars . The story has been elevated above bildungsroman to an epic of Odyssean proportion . Certainly the chronicle tackles Holden’s identity crisis to include the desire to be authentic . Adolescent development is explored through Holden’s exploits . Small details of the story, such as the name Caulfield, have been critically dissected as allusions . Most unusually, a critic even explored the relationship between the siblings, Holden and Phoebe, through the lens of feminism . Even though there are many different ways to look at Catcher, everyone agrees that this story employs the loss of innocence model of the fall from disillusionment and pain which leads to wisdom.
Protected by a cocoon of naiveté, Holden Caulfield, the principal character in the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, therapeutically relates his lonely 24 hour stay in downtown New York city, experiencing the "phony" adult world while dealing with the death of his innocent younger brother. Through this well-developed teenage character, JD Salinger, uses simple language and dialogue to outline many of the complex underlying problems haunting adolescents. With a unique beginning and ending, and an original look at our new society, The Catcher in the Rye is understood and appreciated on multiple levels of comprehension. The book provides new insights and a fresh view of the world in which adolescents live.
“Catcher in the Rye”, written by J.D Salinger, is a coming-of-age novel. Narrated by the main character, Holden Caulfield, he recounts the days following his expulsion from his school. This novel feels like the unedited thoughts and feelings of a teenage boy, as Holden narrates as if he is talking directly to readers like me.
J.D. Salinger’s Novel The Catcher in the Rye depicts the challenges of mentally growing up into a mature adult. The book illustrates a teenager, named Holden who no one seems to understand, therefore he faces many challenges in his life that create a difficult journey into adulthood. His childhood was quickly taken away from him when his brother Allie died, from then on his parents slowly faded away and started sending him to private schools for structure.This all made his transition into adulthood more difficult. Holden is not an ordinary teen, but Salinger takes us through relatable difficulties we all face when growing up.
In J.D. Salinger’s controversial 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye, the main character is Holden Caulfield. When the story begins Holden at age sixteen, due to his poor grades is kicked out of Pencey Prep, a boys’ school in Pennsylvania. This being the third school he has been expelled from, he is in no hurry to face his parents. Holden travels to New York for several days to cope with his disappointments. As James Lundquist explains, “Holden is so full of despair and loneliness that he is literally nauseated most of the time.” In this novel, Holden, a lonely and confused teenager, attempts to find love and direction in his life. Holden’s story is realistic because many adolescent’s face similar challenges.
The common adolescence struggle of self-identification is found in both J.D. Salinger and Holden Caulfield’s lives. Salinger was born in New York into a well-to-do family (Klingenberger 18). Growing up, he had a hard time in school and “found school uninspiring and struggled with grades. he attended a number of private prep schools before his father sent him to Valley Forge Military Academy just outside Philadelphia” (Klingenberger 18). His lackadaisical attitude towards life and academics heavily influenced his creation of characters with similar qualities. Salinger’s most famous character, Holden, struggles with the same challenges. Holden and Salinger both feel the need to give up because they are afraid of failure. “Do you ever get fed up… I mean, did you ever get scared that everything was going to be lousy unless you did something?” (Salinger 130). His motivation to amount to something bigger than himself is miniscule, which proves to be a problem for him as the book progresses. Salinger’s ability to take his experiences with teenage depression and relate it back to his novel The Catcher in the Rye is his own form of therapy, especially with his struggles overcoming P...
The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D. Salinger is one of the most controversial and timeless books written in our history. A “catcher in the rye” is someone that’s stands at the edge of a rye field and saves children from falling over a cliff. Holden Caulfield, a troubled young teenager and also the main character of the novel, pictures himself as being this “catcher in the rye” protecting all children from losing their innocence. Towards the end of Catcher in The Rye he realizes that this idea is something impossible because growing up and getting old is inevitable even for him. Throughout the course of the novel we notice how Holden is digging himself deeper into a hole as he transitions from adolescence to adulthood. He continues to head into the direction of despair as we see how purposeless his life becomes. Holden thinks by moving to a new environment the course of his life would change but it doesn’t. It just continues to get worst until eventually we learn that he is in a ward somewhere in California. Holden Caulfield has nothing to live for so maybe he should just give up entirely.
Some people feel all alone in this world, with no direction to follow but their empty loneliness. The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D Salinger, follows a sixteen-year-old boy, Holden Caulfield, who despises society and calls everyone a “phony.” Holden can be seen as a delinquent who smokes tobacco, drinks alcohol, and gets expelled from a prestigious boarding school. This coming-of-age book follows the themes of isolation, innocence, and corrupted maturity which is influenced from the author's life and modernism, and is shown through the setting, symbolism, and diction.
Holden is a teenage character who has suffered a lot in his life. He has suffered a lot. He doesn?t care about anybody other than his sister, Phoebe. He did not like the adulthood because he thought that every adult was a phony. Holden thinks that when people lie, they are being phony.