Outline Of The Catcher In The Rye

Introduction

Holden’s inability to transition into adult life and his desire to cling to and preserve the innocence of childhood makes The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger an influential coming of age novel for adolescents on the verge of adulthood. Holden seems to see the adult world as a place filled with phonies and he wants to save his innocence as a child, and as a result he is forced into an isolation because of his inability to transition into adult life. The novel is told through the main character named Holden Caulfield, he talks through the story by explaining the experiences he had getting kicked out of various school, telling family members he is running away, and traveling through New York City.

II. Holden has trouble dealing

Holden likes adult settings and hates the fact that adults are the ones that occupy it.

b. In Chapter 3, Holden is sitting in his dorm room at Pency Prep, with an annoying friend Aackley, they are discussing Holden’s house: “‘Up home we wear a hat like that to shoot deer in, for Chrissake,’ he said. ‘That’s a deer shooting hat.’ ‘Like hell it is.’ ‘This is a people shooting hat,’ (Salinger 22). The hunting hat specifically symbolizing the isolation between Holden and his uniqueness that everyone else around him lacks.

1 . The red hunting hat is a symbolic piece to the innocence of Holden because the hat shows that Holden desires to be different from everyone around him, and he often doesn’t wear it if he is going to be around people, thus showing that the hat explains the major conflict in the book for Holden’s need to isolate himself versus the companionship he thrives for because he is a child at heart and craves the

Conclusion

The Catcher in the Rye is a story that shows nurturing and helping the young adults and not driving them towards isolation which relates to many of these young adults. Holden seems to see that being alone is what he prefers, shows his longing for love, because he doesn’t feel accepted by adults and sincerely enjoys being a kid. The adults in his life do not accept him and makes him sincerely enjoy being a kid which makes the innocence of every child so special.

“The Catcher in the Rye” had already earned Salinger critical praise and a wide readership from college professors, to high school students, to supermarket book buyers. Within a short time it was on the required reading lists at hundreds of colleges and universities around the country, and it sold in the U.S. at the steady clip of 250,000 copies a year” (Smith 641).

Lying and deception seem to be a reoccurring theme in the novel through these hurtful elements of the phoniness used. It almost is a sense of self-deception because of his scorn for people who believe they have no weaknesses and his random lying habits and unwillingness to acknowledge his own flaws and how it affects his