Analysis Of Catcher In The Rye By J. D. Salinger

Intro- Catcher in the Rye a book written by J.D Salinger writes about a teenage boy named Holden Caulfield who lost his brother from Leukemia.

In J.D.Salinger’s novel, Catcher In The Rye, Holden Caulfield, the main character of the novel, is a walking paradox who desires to hold onto his innocence and ,in his mind, thinks that people who lose their innocence will either turn into a “phony” or a “jerk”. During his journey towards trying to preserve his innocence Holden affected his desire to hold on to his innocence through his action, such as his experience with a prostitute named Sunny, his interaction with Sunny shows him that most of the world of adults is just an illusion. Another person who affects Holden desire is his 10 year-old sister Phoebe Caulfield, his interaction with his sister phoebe shows how it’s ok to lose your innocence because with the loss of that innocence you

“Those who improve with age embrace the power of personal growth and personal achievement and begin to replace youth with wisdom, innocence with understanding, and lack of purpose with self-actualization” (Bennent). In J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher In The Rye, a sixteen year old boy named Holden Caulfield has to go through a plethora of different turbulent obstacles that no other normal kid his age would ever have to go through. He has flunked out of five schools, has had to cope with his younger brother Allie’s death and just never ever gets along with anyone. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, Holden has the fear of losing innocence. This is shown through the curse on the wall, the Little Shirley Beans record and finally the incident

Holden Caulfield wishes that everything stays the same, specifically children and their level of innocence. While looking for his little sister Phoebe in Central Park, Holden asks a little girl if she

In Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield is a teenage boy who has been kicked out of his school, Pencey Prep. He is now back in New York City, wandering about since he didn’t tell his parents about his expulsion. Through his journey, Holden discovers the many hardships of adulthood, one of them being the loss of innocence. J.D Salinger uses tone to develop the theme that innocence is short-lived.

During the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, author J.D. Salinger brings Holden’s pessimistic, antisocial personality to life through what he says, how he says it, and through the characters he meets. Salinger bases Holden’s expressions off of the culture of the 1950’s, his own personal dialect, and the everyday occurrences of Holden’s life in mind. J.D. Salinger manipulates the diction, uses syntax to criticize others, and controls the character interaction and dialogue in order to create the protagonist, Holden Caulfield.

Many novels cannot be fully understood and appreciated if only read for face value, and J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is no exception. The abundant use of symbolism in Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is of such significance that it “proclaims itself in the very title of the novel” (Trowbridge par. 1). If the symbolism in this novel is studied closely, there should be no astonishment in learning that The Catcher in the Rye took approximately ten years to write and was originally twice its present length. J.D. Salinger uses copious amounts

“Don’t tell people what you are thinking, or you will miss them terribly when you are away” (Salinger 214) says Holden Caulfeild as he warns the world. Salingers novel pinpoints the many fears and phobias of growing up from an immature, pessimistic, “everybody’s a goddam phony” perspective that makes it relate-able to young transitioning teenagers. Salinger's Caulfeild is afraid of growing up and the unknown prospects of entering the adult world after experiencing a life changing event. Holden, clinging to his innocence, most importantly learns how the Phony adult world not only treats people like HC poorly, but it kills them.

The phoniness, in which the characters use, contributes to the manipulation of values and ideals of individuals who succumb to the pressure of society. In J.D Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger reveals his abomination for phoniness through Holden’s experience with the adult world. Phoniness creates a structured society where the connotations of success are deceptive. In addition, it sets standards and expectations for how individuals should act based on their social status. Furthermore, it interferes with one’s honesty by abolishing their authenticity and sincerity. In The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger suggests how the lack of authenticity and the manipulation of one’s originality can be traced back to the use of phoniness in

Once he finally gets the courage to see her, he soon plans to run away having a sense of defeat from seeing the “Fuck You” written on the walls of her school. Holden sees that and realizes that he can’t stop Phoebe from growing up and takes the easy route of running away. However, when Phoebe says she wants to come with him, Holden’s character has a turning point. Instead of walking away he tells Phoebe that he’ll stay at home with her, which I believe is something his character would have never done earlier in the novel. I took this point as Holden finally growing up and caring for others, rather than making everything about him. He later attempts to bring innocence back into his sister but taking her to the museum as well as letting her ride carousel. The carousel scene is heavily symbolic to the story because Holden finally gets what he wanted during the whole novel; to preserve innocence. Phoebe is having a great time going around on the carousel as he is wearing his red hunting hat that acts of protection to him. I find this to be a perfect ending to “The Loss of Innocence’ theme that J.D Salinger

Holden also loses his innocence when he accepts the inevitability of growing up. When he visits the Natural History Museum, Holden notes that the exhibits

Written in 1951, J.D. Salinger’s, The Catcher in the Rye continues to be a popular book amongst Americans. Although The Catcher in the Rye has been banned in many public school settings in the United States it continues to stay atop some of the greatest books of all time lists. Whether people are in their teens or in their fifties they find themselves drawn to Holden Caulfield. At some point in their life they could relate to a sense of alienation, caused by money and wealth. Humans are wired to be jealous and want what others have. Holden Caulfield has the opposite problem, he has money and wealth which he inherited from his hard working parents. However, he himself is not motivated to work hard, graduate prep school and earn his own wealth. Instead he despises hard working students at the many prep schools he drops out of. Holden also has a big number of family complications. An area to explore is how wealth can contribute to feelings of alienation and despair. Holden Caulfield has a complex relationship with money, not wanting to associate from it, but benefiting from it. A further look into the 1950’s may give an insight into the troubled mind of Holden Caulfield.

In the novel Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, the protagonist Holden Caulifield views the world as an evil corrupt place where there is no peace. Holden has a phony phobia that restricts him from becoming a fully matured adult. In Holden's attempted journey in becoming a fully matured adult, he encounters many scenarios involving friendship, personal opinions, and his love of children. His journey is an unpleasant and difficult one with many lessons learned along the way; including the realization that he is powerless to change the world.

Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye has been pronounced a literary classic for its atypical portrayal of adolescence, to effectively convey the protagonist’s alienation and confusion. The introduction of The Catcher in the Rye is underpinned by disorder and confusion through a stream-of-consciousness narration, which digresses from one subject to another. Consequently, Holden’s multitudinous thoughts and feelings appear to lack a cohesive pattern. Additionally, Holden’s prevalent ascription of other students as “phony” (Salinger, p.3) alludes to his alienation and isolation as a form of self-protection; he rejects those he does not understand. Furthermore, the vocabulary encapsulates typical adolescence dialect of the 1940s, and resultantly, alienates contemporary reader. This is typified through Holden’s use of colloquial speech, in particular, his exclamation “that killed me” (Salinger, p.42) to express his amusement. Therefore, the introduction of Holden’s disjointed monologue in The Catcher in the Rye foreshadows Salinger’s unique interpretation of adolescence.

"Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of