Analysis Of The Catcher In The Rye

For my Literature Circle assignment I read the novel entitled The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger.Taking place in the 1950's, The Catcher in the Rye is one of the most popular American books of all time, though, its hero is not really a hero at all. Main character Holden Caufield, is a 17 year old, disproved and misunderstood, classic "screw-up", who does poorly in school, loses his team's equipment, and takes an impulsive trip to New York. Distraught by the death of his 11 year old brother Allie, Holden wanders around his birthplace of New York, reconnecting with old friends and making new enemies. The main conflict of this novel is Holden transitioning into an adult and trying to cope with his brother’s death. One main theme displayed all throughout this novel would be depression. For the duration of this novel, Holden spends his time alone, and even if he is in the company of other people, you hear his thoughts of being depressed. Most of this depression is derived from his brother’s death, but there are many other things accountable for his mental issues. Although much of this novel was just Holden’s opinions and thoughts, I found this novel to be very interesting and thought provoking.
Written in 1st person point of view, the main character and protagonist, Holden Caulfield, narrates this story, describing what he sees and feels. He provides his own commentary on people he encounters and events that occur.He is a protagonist liked not for what he does or fails to do but for what he thinks. His tone varies from cynical, judgmental, compassionate and sad. holden shows compassion when he is with Sunny, the prostitute. As he is hanging up her dress, he says, "I took her dress over to the closet and hung it up f...

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... could identify with Holden. One strength of the Literature Circle format was that while reading this book, I was able to discuss with other reading the same thing. We were able to talk about parts of the book we thought were important or that we didn't understand, while a weakness of it was that it was too short. I liked working on the point of view and art section the most, both because they were easily understandable and fun to do. The one I liked least working on was the summarizer, because it was difficult for me to find key points of the section we read. One thing I learned from the Literature Circles was that its easier to understand aspects of a novel when your reading and discussing it with other people. There were many lessons I learned from readingthis book, but one major thing was that the loss of a loved one can really effect someone's outlook on life.