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Innocence in childhood and early adolescence to one of experience in adulthood in the catcher in the rye
The catcher in the rye conflict between childhood and adulthood
An essay about the catcher in the rye
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Recommended: Innocence in childhood and early adolescence to one of experience in adulthood in the catcher in the rye
The Misfit Hero of The Catcher In The Rye
The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger was published in 1951. "A recurring theme in J.D. Salinger's stories concerns people who don't fit in with the traditional American Culture. Salinger's 'misfit heroes', unlike the rest of society, are caught in the struggle between a superficial world and a conscious morality" (1 Wildermuth). In his attempt to create a new and realistic portrayal of the times, Salinger first, effectively creates Holden Caulfield, the main character. Second, he sends his character on a quest, and third he titles his novel to sum up the whole overview of the story.
In creating his character, Holden Caulfield, Salinger uses profanities and obscenities as an attempt to portray the world of most adolescents. He creates a character that is not really in rebellion against the established values of the adult world, but as a victim. Holden is possessed with a strong sense of justice and respectability. His moral system and sense of justice force him to find horrible flaws in society, which he sums up with the word "phony". "Holden's principle difficulty is not that he is a rebel, or that he hates the society he lives in, or its morals, nor that he is a coward, but rather that he is unable to sort out, or to purge himself of his burden of sensation. He is blocked with memory and experience, and Salinger indicates this in the intentional confusion of time in his thoughts" (53 Kaplan). Holden, much like Salinger himself, is a person who is removed from society and therefore more independent than the person who must rely upon society.
Catcher In The Rye is an episodic novel about an adolescent boy on the brink of adulthood. Yet, the action itself i...
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Frangedis, Helen. "Dealing with the Controversial Elements in The Catcher In The Rye". English Journal. 77.7 (1988): 72-75.
Kaplan, Robert B. Cliff's Notes: Catcher In The Rye. Lincoln: Cliff's Notes, Inc., 1999.
Marsden, Malcolm M. If You Really Want To Know: A Catcher Casebook. Chicago: Scott, Foresman and Company, 1963.
Miller Jr., James E. "American Literature". World Book Encyclopedia. Volume 1. Chicago: World Book Inc., 1983.
Pinsker, Sanford. The Catcher In The Rye: Innocence Under Pressure. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1993.
Roemer, Danielle M. "The Personal Narrative and Salinger's Catcher in the Rye". Western Folklore 51 (1992): 5-10.
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher In The Rye. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1951.
Wildermuth, April. "Nonconformism in the Works of J.D. Salinger." 1997 Brighton High School. 24 November 1999.
Immaturity of Holden in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, the main character, Holden, cannot accept that he must move out of childhood and into adulthood. One of Holden’s most important major problems is his lack of maturity.
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1991. Print.
Due to J.D Salinger’s personal and relatable narrative treatment, Catcher in the Rye continues to engage audiences, even 64 years after it was first published. The way the book deals with alienation and disillusionment in regards to Holden’s past trauma - through the closeness of first person narration and conversational writing among other techniques - creates a personal connection to Holden’s character and helps adolescents relate his troubles to their own.
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.
Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. 1951. New York: Back Bay Books, 2001. Print.
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is an enthralling and captivating novel about a boy and his struggle with life. The teenage boy ,Holden, is in turmoil with school, loneliness, and finding his place in the world. The author J.D. Salinger examines the many sides of behavior and moral dilemma of many characters throughout the novel. The author develops three distinct character types for Holden the confused and struggling teenage boy, Ackley, a peculiar boy without many friends, and Phoebe, a funny and kindhearted young girl.
Holden and the Complexity of Adult Life What was wrong with Holden, the main character in The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D.Salinger, was his moral revulsion against anything that was ugly, evil, cruel, or what he called "phoney" and his acute responsiveness to beauty and innocence, especially the innocence of the very young, in whom he saw reflected his own lost childhood. There is something wrong or lacking in the novels of despair and frustration of many writers. The sour note of bitterness and the recurring theme of sadism have become almost a convention, never thoroughly explained by the author's dependence on a psychoanalytical interpretation of a major character. The boys who are spoiled or turned into budding homosexuals by their mothers and a loveless home life are as familiar to us today as stalwart and dependable young heroes such as John Wayne were to an earlier generation. We have accepted this interpretation of the restlessness and bewilderment of our young men and boys because no one has anything better to offer.
Salinger, J. D.. The Catcher in the Rye. [1st ed. Boston: Little, Brown, 19511945. Print.
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger is a coming-of-age novel set in New York during the 1940’s. Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of the story, is a detached seventeen-year old boy harboring feelings of isolation and disillusionment. He emphasizes a general dislike for society, referring to people as “phonies.” His lack of will to socialize prompts him to find nearly everything depressing. He’s alone most of the time and it’s apparent that he is very reclusive. This often leads him to pondering about his own death and other personal issues that plague him without immediate resolution. Holden possesses a strong deficit of affection – platonic and sexual – that hinders and cripples his views toward people, his attitude, and his ability to progressively solve his problems without inflicting pain on himself. The absence of significant figures in his life revert him to a childlike dependency and initiate his morbid fascination with sexuality. In this novel, Salinger uses Sunny, Sally Hayes, and Carl Luce to incorporate the hardships of discovering sexual identity and how these events affect adolescents as they try to understand their own sexuality.
Pinsker, Sanford. The Catcher In The Rye: Innocence Under Pressure. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1993.
If You Really Want to Know: A "Catcher" Casebook. Ed. Malcolm M. Marsden. Chicago: Scott, Foresman, 1963. 68-73.
Goodman, Anne L. "Mad About the Children." Critical Essays on Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. Joel Salzberg. Boston, Massachusetts: G.K. Hall & Co., 1990. 23-24.
JD Salinger, also known as Jerome David Salinger, is an American novelist and short story writer. Critics and readers alike recognize Salinger as one of the most popular and influential writers. His only novel, The Catcher in the Rye, drew such great attention during the fifties and sixties that those years have been called the age of Holden Caulfield (Contemporary Literary Critiscm, Vol. 12). Salinger is a master of contemporary dialect and idiomatic expression. He created in Holden Caulfield a character who became the prototype of alienated adolescence for an entire generation of Americans. The Catcher in the Rye has been banned even recently from a few libraries, schools, and bookstores for the starkness of its language and attitudes and the realism of some of its settings.
Lies, failure, depression, and loneliness are only some of the aspects that Holden Caulfield goes through in the novel The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D. Salinger. Salinger reflects Holden’s character through his own childhood experiences. Salinger admitted in a 1953 interview that "My boyhood was very much the same as that of the boy in the book.… [I]t was a great relief telling people about it” (Wikipedia). Thus, the book is somewhat the life story of J.D. Salinger as a reckless seventeen-year-old who lives in New York City and goes through awful hardships after his expulsion and departure from an elite prep school. Holden, the protagonist in this novel, is created as a depressed, cynical, and isolated character and he expresses this attitude through his dialogue, tone, and diction.
Pinsker, Sanford. The Catcher In The Rye: Innocence Under Pressure. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1993.