An Analysis Of Holden Caulfield 's ' The Rye '

The novel begins at Pencey Preparatory, a private school where Holden studied and has just been expelled from. Holden skips an ongoing football game and instead, goes to the house of Mr. Spencer, his history teacher. Like in every subject other than English, Holden had failed in history. Mr. Spencer, though well-meaning, was not happy about this and read aloud Holden’s answers, which thoroughly annoyed him.

JD. Salinger’s 1951 book, The Catcher in the Rye, shows us how society treated their confused and changing teenagers during their transition into adulthood. The book’s main character Holden Caulfield is being pressured into growing up even though he doesn’t feel ready, to lead an adult life. He is still struggling socially and mourning for his deceased brother whose death turned Holden upside down and into a negative, hopeless person from a young age, which causes him to be distracted, indifferent and to flunk every school he goes to.

Since its publication in 1951, The Catcher In the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger has served as a conflagration for debate and extreme controversy. Although the novel has been the target of scornful criticism, it has also been the topic of wide discussion. The novel portrays the life of sixteen year old, Holden Caufield. Currently in psychiatric care, Holden recalls what happened to him last Christmas. At the beginning of his story, Holden is a student at Pencey Prep School. Having been expelled for failing four out of his five classes, Holden leaves school and spends 72-hours in New York City before returning home. There, Holden encounters new ideas,

One evening when he was sitting in his room Stradlater came home from a date that he had with a girl Holden used to be close with, Jane Gallagher, they got in a fight. Holden was jealous and started making fun of him. Stradlater warned him "Now, shut up, Holden, God damn it - I'm warning ya [...] If you don't shut up I'm gonna slam ya one" (Salinger 57). But Holden couldn't stop and got punched in the face by Stradlater. Throughout this scene it shows Holden's immaturity as he calls Stradlater a moron repetitively because he knows it bugs him. "You're a dirty stupid sonuvabitch of a moron [...] That's just the trouble with all you morons. You never want to discuss anything. That's the way you can always tell a moron. They never want to discuss anything intelligent" (Salinger 58). He calls Stradlater a moron because he is aware that it is insulting to him. Holden was hurt and upset that Stradlater went on a date with Jane and indicated something sexual happened between them: 'Moron' was all he had on Stradlater and he did this to try to put himself above his friend. He then decided he would leave Pencey right then because he was going to be kicked out anyway, and he would live in New York for a few days before going home after his parents find out he'd been kicked out. He left around midnight and he shouted "Sleep tight, ya morons!" (Salinger

Holden starts his story from a mental hospital. “Im not going to tell you my whole goddamn autobiography or anything. Just this madman stuff that happened to me last christmas” says Holden. Holden is a sixteen-year-old junior who has just been expelled for academic failure from a school called Pencey Prep. After being expelled from your school every kid in america must feel pretty bad about themselves he was like all. Holden dint really fit in well with the other kids. He always though of the world as a bunch of phonies. The amount of criticism he gave the school was high class. He hated everyone except a handful of people. Holden's condition starts of alright, somewhere in the middle he hits rockbottom but fortunately by the end everything is good for him. Holden is literally about to crash. Near the beginning as well as the end of the novel, he feels that he will disappear or fall into an abyss when he steps off a curb to cross a street. Sometimes when this happens, he calls on his dead brother, Allie, for help. Part of Holden’s collapse is due to his inability to come to get over his brothers death.

The beginning of this novel leads into his life, Holden 's past, and what 's waiting for him in the future. In the first few chapters we find out that Holden Caulfield, the main character, goes to therapy and his older brother is a writer in Hollywood. Early on he goes to visit a man named Mr. spencer, his retired history teacher who is sick with the flu. They begin talking about his recent expulsion, and they speak of Holden 's future. He was sent to boarding school in Agerstown, Pennsylvania. The school he attends is called Pencey Prep. His roommate 's name is Stradlater. Holden and Stradlater don 't see eye to eye when it comes to girls, especially when Stradlater starts dating Holden 's longtime childhood friend, Jane. The story goes to describe his living condition and the people Holden is surrounded by at Pency Prep. A person that plays a major role is his suite mate Ackley, who is a lonesome character. He annoys Holden, but still influences some of his decisions. Ackley and Stradler do not get along and Holden many times has to break up their minor fights. Later the reader finds out that Allie, Holden 's younger brother, died of Leukemia many years before. Holden goes on much to say that he had red hair and was an innocent boy. The night Allie died, Holden spent the night in the garage and smashed every window with his fists. Going back to Stradlater, he was getting home from his date with Jane, the long lost friend, and Holden gets so enraged he begins to throw

In the beginning, Holden’s date seems to be going well until Holden shares his fantasy with Sally to, “ drive up to Massachusetts and Vermont,” with her to escape what is happening in the real world because he cannot accept what is happening to him (71). After sharing his fantasy with Sally, his date becomes worse because Sally denies the

In his room, Holden is visited by his next door neighbor, Robert Ackley, who is annoying and dirty, and his roommate Stradlater, who Holden isn’t too fond of. Holden hears that Stradlater is going on a date with Jane Gallagher, a girl Holden used to date and

When talking to others, sometimes Holden doesn’t quite get the hint that he needs to stop talking. Stradlater, Holden’s roommate goes on a date with an old friend of Holden’s, Jane Gallagher. Holden is very fond of this young woman and is jealous of his roommate. After the date Holden asks and asks and asks about what had happened on the date.

The Catcher in the Rye was published during 1950. The plot of the story follows Holden’s journey to New York City during a three day course where he tries to pursue happiness and form an identity in an adult world (Whitfield, n.d). Since, Holden is a fictional character much of his influence came from post-war American values that dictated the culture. In

The Catcher in the Rye was written by J.D. Salinger in 1951, four years after the beginning of the Cold War. The story revolves around a character named Holden Caulfield, an outsider to his society and an unreliable narrator. His story begins with a description his current situation, which consists of being confined to some institution for a “sickness” he refuses to talk about and his reminisce of better times. Caulfield flashes back to when he got expelled from a highly competitive prep school, failing all of his classes with the exception of English. Concluding that Pencey Prep was full of phonies anyway, he decides to take a train to New York City. On the way there, he meets the mother

The Catcher in the Rye is a book about a guy named Holden Caulfield. He narrates the whole story to the readers. He starts off by telling the story about being at Pencey Prep school, which is a private school located in Pennsylvania. It is the day of the game and he misses it saying everyone is a bunch of “phonies.” He ends up getting expelled because he is failing four out of five classes and goes to say goodbye to his teacher Mr. Spencer. Before he leaves he goes back to his dorm to find his roommate, Stradlater, getting ready for a date with Jane Gallagher. Holden used to date Jane and he is very angry at Stradlater. When Stradlater returns from the date with Jane, Holden questions Stradlater immensely and Holden attacks Stradlater because he is in such a rage. Holden then realizes he has had enough of the prep school and leaves a couple days earlier to go back to Manhattan.

Plot Summary Catcher in the Rye is a story about a teenage boy named Holden, and is set in the 1950s. the story opens with him asking an unkown figure if they want to hear a story that happened around Christmas. His story starts in a private school named Pencey. He is forced to go to this school after being kicked out of four other school, and is now failing four out of his five classes.

Exposition: At the beginning of the book we are introduced to a person talking. We learn that this character has been kicked out of his fourth school, Pencey Prep (page6), at the start of Christmas break. He then goes to talk with his history teacher, Mr. Spencer, before leaving the school in the next couple of days(pg.10). This where we learn the character’s name, Holden. When he gets to his dorm he finds out that his roommate is going out on a date and needs Holden to write paper for him(pg.35). When his roommate leaves for his date he then starts to write about a glove his little brother had, that had some poems on it. His brother Allie died of leukemia(pg.49). When his roommate comes back from his date, him and Holden get into a fight about

Catcher in the Rye starts off with Holden Caufield, the main character, alone at the top of Thomsen Hill above Pencey Prep. Holden has gotten kicked out of Pencey along with numerous other schools. Laziness is the reason of Holdens lack of success in school like many teenage boys. He goes back to his dorm and starts reading the book Out of Africa when his doofus roommate Robert Ackley walks in. His description to meet is just that awkwardly tall kid, like myself but with poor hygiene. Holdens roommate, Stradlater comes in and tells them about a date he is going on with none other than Holdens old fling named Jane Gallagher. Stradlater has a carefree attitude for her calling her by the wrong name multiple times. Stradlater also asks Holden to write an English composition for him since that is the only class Holden is not failing. Holden reluctantly agrees and that is when we get our first taste of why he is such an angry kid. He writes about his little brother named Allie who died a few years before of Leukemia. He specifically wrote about his baseball glove that he wrote poems on so he