The Catcher in the Rye
While reading through Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye one notices many points of similarity between Holden and other people in the world. Much of what Salinger focuses on in the book, for example the feelings, the experiences, and Holden's wants, are things the reader can relate to and understand. In a sense, Salinger typified the heart and soul of the disillusioned teenager. Yet, it goes deeper than that. Salinger created not just a mish-mash of teenage angst but an archetype that recapitulated every teenager caught between the little games of high school and the fear of adulthood. It's for this reason that I, as with so many other teenagers, can relate to this book.
Although I've always seen this book as a sort of companion, a map through the cliffs of existentialism, The Catcher in the Rye is the book preferred nine times out of ten by nihilists, whackos, and serial killers. I might have read this book a million times but I've never analyzed it from every single perspective. I took this opportunity to look at The Catcher in the Rye from a slightly different perspective. While reading the book this time around I tried to focus only on the negative aspects that could possibly appeal to the aforementioned groups.
On the surface it seems to be the story of a young man's expulsion school and the events that follow, However The Catcher in the Rye is in fact a perceptive study of one individual's understanding of the human condition. Holden Caulfield, a teenager growing up in 1950s New York, has been expelled from school for poor achievement once again. In an attempt to deal with this he leaves school a few days prior to the end of term, and goes to New York to 'take a vacation' before returning to his parents' inevitable wrath. Written in the first person, the book describes Holden's thoughts and activities over these few days, during which he describes a developing nervous breakdown, typified by his bouts of unexplained depression, impulsive spending and generally odd, erratic behavior, prior to his eventual nervous collapse.
During his psychological battle, life continues on around Holden as it always had, with the majority of people ignoring the 'madman stuff' that is happening to him -until it begins to encroach on their well defined social codes.
Jerome David Salinger’s only novel, The Catcher in the Rye, is based on the life events shaping main character, Holden Caulfield, into the troubled teen that is telling the story in 1950. The theme of the story is one of emotional disconnection felt by the alienated teenagers of this time period. The quote, “ I didn’t know anyone there that was splendid and clear thinking and all” (Salinger 4) sets the tone that Holden cannot find a connection with anyone around him and that he is on a lonely endeavor in pursuit of identity, acceptance and legitimacy. The trials and failures that Holden faces on his journey to find himself in total shed light on Holden’s archenemy, himself.
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.
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.
Thesis statement: The relationship Holden and Blanche have between family and people in society leads them to an inner turmoil, which eventually results in their psychological breakdowns.
American Literature is widely known for possessing themes of disillusionment. Faulkner, Harper Lee, Fitzgerald, and Hemingway dominate this category of literature. However, the most influential piece of American Literature is arguably J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. What makes this piece of art stand so far out from any other work of literature is the attributes that make this novel so relatable. The source of this raw, real emotion that completely captivates the reader is Salinger himself. The Catcher in the Rye ‘s main character Holden Caulfield is undeniably Salinger. This work of fiction nearly resembles an autobiography. J.D. Salinger uses his novel to express his disillusionment through motifs, pathos, and symbols.
The Catcher in the Rye has been described, analyzed, rebuffed, and critiqued over the years. Each writer expresses a different point of view: It is a story reflecting teen-ager's talk--thoughts-emotions--actions; or angst. I believe it is an adult's reflection of his own unresolved grief and bereavements. That adult is the author, J.D. Salinger. He uses his main character, Holden, as the voice to vent the psychological misery he will not expose -or admit to.
“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 “Catcher in the Rye,” focuses mainly on Holden Caulfield because he is the narrator and the novel is about his memory of characters and events throughout the story. These characters are more than just remembrances but actually help the reader to better understand Holden. Mr. Antolini, Phoebe, and Jane Gallagher are all characters that help fully characterize Holden.
In 1950 J.D. Salenger captures one of society’s tragedies, the breakdown of a teenager, when he wrote The Catcher In The Rye. Holden Caulfield, a fickle “man” is not even a man at all. His unnecessary urge to lie to avoid confrontation defeats manhood. Holden has not matured and is unable to deal with the responsibility of living on his owe. He childishly uses a hunter’s hat to disguise him self from others. The truth of his life is sad and soon leads to his being institutionalized. He tries to escape the truth with his criticisms. Knowing he will never meet his parents’ expectations, his only true friend is his eight-year-old sister Phoebe, to whom Holden tells that he really wants to be ‘the catcher in the rye”. Holden admits his only truth and shows that Phoebe is his only friend. Another form of escape for Holden is his acting, which he uses to excuse the past. Holden has tried to lie, hide, and blame his way through life; when he finds that it is not the answer he collapses.
In a novel, the theme is the insight of real life. J.D. Salinger’s initiation novel, The Catcher In The Rye, describes the adventures of 16-year old Holden Caulfield, the protagonist and first person narrator, who refuses to grow up and enter manhood. The most important theme developed by Salinger is Holden’s problem of dealing with change; he has trouble dealing with death, he refuses to accept children’s loss of innocence as a necessary step in the growing-up process, and has difficulties with growing up.
“I swear to God I’m crazy. I admit it.” It is very easy to automatically assume that Holden Caulfield is crazy. It’s even a logical assumption since Caulfield himself admits to being crazy twice throughout the course of the book. However, calling Holden Caulfield crazy is almost the same as calling the majority of the human race crazy also. Holden Caulfield is just an adolescent trying to prevent himself from turning into what he despises the most, a phony. Most of Caulfield’s actions and thoughts are the same as of many people, the difference being that Holden acts upon those thoughts and has them down in writing.
The Catcher in the Rye was an extremely influential book in the 1950’s but the relevance of the text can still be argued today. The novel focuses on the conformity that occurred in the 1950’s through the eyes of an anti-conformist, Holden Caulfield. Holden is developed to not only be an influential character in The Catcher in the Rye, but also in the totality of American Literature. Holden develops throughout the novel as he is faced with an unfortunate situation of being kicked out of school. He experiences more and more conformity throughout the novel which further grows his belief of anticonformity. His personality and character traits are explained through a multitude of themes, the most prevalent being the misunderstanding and fixation
The novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger follows Holden Caulfield after he gets expelled from school. Holden is a witty and sarcastic teenager who is still deeply affected by the death of his younger brother Allie. As Holden journeys throughout New York City, he tries to come to terms with his brother’s death and his own maturation into an adult. J.D. Salinger depicts Holden’s behavior, stemming from the loss of his younger brother, as a young man on the brink of adulthood, struggling to preserve the innocence of himself and those around him as he tries to accept the reality of becoming an adult in the modern world.
His leaving school early and not telling anyone is an enormous act of rebellion, but it can also be seen as a cry for help. Holden acts rebelliously because he wants to gauge people’s reaction in order to determine the degree to which they care about him. When people do not react in the way he anticipates, however, he turns to alienation as a means to protect himself from the hurt of rejection. Immediately after leaving the school he goes to catch a train. While at the train station he debates calling someone he knows; anyone he knows at this point. A list of several people circulate through his mind; all the people who care about him and who would try to help him at the least. But instead of calling any of them, he goes one by one down the list and creates excuses as to why he should not call them and alienates himself further. This highlights how Holden is his own worst enemy by projecting his thoughts of rejection onto others as a mechanism of protection which results in further
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.