J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye

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Holden Caulfield’s experiences, and the transformation he undergoes in reaching a point where he “misses everybody” (Salinger 277), resonates much with the author’s experiences illustrated in the poem “Necessity for Irony”. In the poem, Eaven Boland expresses the irony of looking for something and later realizing that the thing you were looking for was already there—and now it is gone. He states that this realization “brings pain” since one recognizes the fallacy of his/her actions too late. Boland, “with [his] back turned to [his daughter]” (line 46), searched for beautiful things, thus ignoring the truly beautiful thing which he would grow to realize he missed. He acknowledges that he should have spent more time facing her, rather than being “turned around” (Boland 17-18).
In a similar vein, Holden Caulfield tells the story of how he himself ignored things which he later came to acknowledge as meaningful elements of his upbringing. Though nihilistically ignoring and critiquing those around him, Holdem comes to realize that there really are things that he cares about. While the foll...

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