Analysis Of Salinger 's ' The Catcher Rye '

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.

In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield is portrayed as a young, troubled individual. He tells us his story from the mental institution where he is currently residing. Holden is a 16 year old going through many different adolescent changes. He is expelled from his prep school for flunking too many subjects. He drinks, smokes, sees a prostitute, is punched by her pimp, goes on dates, spends a great deal of time in the park, and really does not do a great deal else. Holden is a very hard person to figure out and analyze. Throughout the whole book, Holden constantly changes his mind about things and has various conflicting thoughts. The experiences that Holden goes through illustrate the divide between adults and

Have you ever read a novel in which a character is talked about often but never appears or appears but for a brief moment? At times you may think nothing of that character, you could assume they add nothing to the context of the novel and are placed to fill up a couple pages, but on the contrary. In some works of literature a character who does not appear at all can have a significance presence. In J.D Salinger’s novel “ The Catcher in the Rye”Holden the main character’s brother, Allie never appears but is mentioned multiple times. The lack of Allies presence is vital to the key aspects of Salinger’s novel. Often this lack of presence from a character is done on purpose. It can be done to signify something, make the novel multi dimensional or to enhance the writing. Ally’s absence affects the main character, the theme of the book, and a development of characters.

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.

The novel ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ by J.D Salinger is a coming-of-age story. It follows the short tale of Holden Caulfield, a sixteen year old boy, who throughout his experiences in the novel, changes and becomes more mature and independent. The story essentially has two Holden Caulfields, the one telling the story, and the one that the story is being told about. This essay will look at the differences and similarities between the two Holden’s’.

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.

Martin Luther King Junior once said “Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars”. This quote implies that it is easier to see beauty in life once one is at their lowest point. The light King refers to is the positive things in our lives, and the darkness is representative of negative points in a person’s life. I agree with this quote, because many people take the good things in their lives for granted until they are gone. When the “stars”, or positive things in life are gone, one realizes how truly wonderful they were.

In today’s world innocence is a difficult quality to achieve and maintain because of the corruption that exists everywhere among us. Many say that children are the most innocent of beings. However, a child can never be shielded by the danger and risk that constantly encompasses them in our society today. Children are subjected to this world and once they are exposed to the corruption it is difficult to maintain the innocence that they once embodied. In J.D. Salinger’s “Catcher in the Rye” there is an evident need and desire to preserve a sense of innocence among the characters in a world that lacks innocence. Holden Caulfield, the main character in Salinger’s novel, is a force that tries to

Considered one of the best novels of the 20th century, The Catcher in the Rye has affected readers around the globe since its publication in 1951. Its contemporary critics, however, gave the novel mixed reviews. Compared to the ideals of 1950s America, Holden Caulfield, the emotionally immature, extremely judgmental, teen-aged main character of “Catcher,” embodies the antithesis. Holden was an affront to the new social order, which demanded conformity and propagated the “father knows best” mentality. Americans, however, despite the postwar economic boom, remained suspicious of authority. In idyllic suburban neighborhoods across the country, while families huddled around their new television screens, people discussed their neighbors’ movements, made distrustful even of their closest friends by the “Red Scare”. The American Dream seemed like a golden ring just out of reach, leaving people feeling like they were going around in circles without a clear destination or purpose. With his sense of nostalgia for better times, his bleak perspective of the future, and his contradictory nature, Holden speaks directly to this sense of confusion at the world that Americans felt during the 1950s.

No kid can be a kid forever, some take longer to grow up and some take longer to accept the fact that innocence does not last forever. J.D Salinger portrays this idea in the novel the Catcher in the Rye as he writes about a boy named Holden who ventures through obstacles trying to save other youths innocence. Holden does not realize it but he is truly scared of growing up and entering the adult world and he try to protect the people around him from losing their innocence, but soon gains an understanding that innocence will be lost, this is demonstrated through the record, the cliffs and the carousel from the novel.

The Catcher in the Rye (1951) by J.D Salinger is a book with a truly controversial history by being banned from bookstores, libraries, etc. during the time of its release and even now is very scarcely being brought back into the high school setting to be taught as part of the high school curriculum. While being confronted about reasons for being banned, protesters of this book give very vague arguments on why it should be banned such as “its a very filthy book,” or “its explicitly pornographic.” Even with all this however, the most curious of the arguments against the book would be the one which calls it “immoral,” granted the book does indeed explore some particularly darker themes of sex and alcohol use, it 's the main character motivations and moral values that is the true theme of the story which should be praised. Catcher in the rye features many important moral values that should be credited-Holden Caulfield the rebellious teen who receives all the criticism for being another hormone driven, good-for-nothing punk is in fact a misunderstood boy who has shown time and time again to exhibit significant moral attributes which are deemed very noble in today’s societies and should not be banned but instead taught in school for its lessons on morality and life.

Brigham Young a church man in the mid 1800’s stated “ You educate a man; you educate a man. You educate a woman; you educate a generation.” Women have been fighting for gender equality since the 19th century and it is still a problem today in certain countries. When examining The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger from a feminist perspective, it becomes clear that the character Phoebe is an ideal/hero for Holden because she redefines the stereotypes. The oversimplified images of women held by anti feminists were that women were unintelligent, were not courageous and these anti feminists did not hold a high opinion for women or respect them. However, Phoebe is the opposite of these stereotypes, she is intelligent, courageous and a role model

The book “Catcher in the Rye” by J.D Salinger was under scrutiny in 1960 when it got banned from high schools due to censorships believing it was inappropriate for people of high school age and although it may have been the right thing to do over six decades ago; it is definitely not the right thing to do in 2016. In the 60’s curse words and sexual references would have been frowned upon, but in this day and age it’s very accepted and common to hear and read about those two things. The book also depicts real life situations and most of them are not things people should be doing, but that doesn’t matter since teens these days aren’t usually greatly influenced by the things they watch or the things they see on social media. Therefore J.D Salinger’s

Setting: The story takes place over a couple of days in late 1940’s, before Christmas. It starts out in