Catcher In The Rye Literary Analysis

In J.D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye, the main character, Holden Caufield, describes in detail the parts of his life and his environment that bother him the most. He faces these problems with a kind of naivety that prevents him from fully understanding why it is that he is so depressed. His life revolves around his problems, and he seems helpless in evading them. Among others, Holden finds himself facing the issues of acceptance of death, growing up, and his own self-destructiveness.

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. Holden also has a negative perspective of life that makes things seem worse than they really are. In addition to Holden’s problems he is unable to accept the death of his brother at a young age. Holden’s immaturity, negative mentality, and inability to face reality hold him back from moving into adulthood.

Teenage years are difficult. Time tells this story of struggle again and again. The Catcher in the Rye is a classic novel showing the struggles a teenager goes through while transitioning into adulthood. The main character, Holden Caulfield, is a judgmental and temperamental boy who struggles to see the positivity in life. Throughout the story, Holden searches to find himself, as he feels forced to grow up. He holds onto aspects of his childhood and isolates himself so much that it is even harder for him to transition. J.D. Salinger uses the red hunting hat, the museum and cigarettes as important symbols in the story to convey the themes of transitioning from childhood to adulthood, loneliness, and isolation.

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.

Furthermore, Holden starts daydreaming and thinking about his ideal future. He thinks, “I got excited as hell thinking about it. I really did. I knew the part about pretending I was a deaf-mute really decided to go out West and all” (Salinger, 199). As seen before, Holden is running away from his problems like a child and displays symptoms of helplessness because of his existential anxiety. Instead of facing the problem head on, Holden acts as if he is unable to live his idea self. Ultimately, Holden shows that he is in the path of self hate due to his childish and immature behavior.

At this point, Holden is losing his mind, he is talking about going away and he is worried about dying. After crossing the street, he said “Every time I got to the end of the block, I’d make believe I was talking to my brother Allie. Allie is no longer alive, and the fact that Holden pretended he was talking to him just proves that he is slowly losing his mind.

Holden losing his virginity is another way for him to grow up, and not being able to lose it is an example of Holden resisting change and growth, While in New York, Holden visits the Natural History Museum and mentions how he wishes everything would stay the same, just like the exhibits in the museum, in which “nobody’d move” and “you could go there a hundred thousand times” and everything would still be the same (pg. 135). Since Ally’s death, Holden does not want anything else in his life to change, so no one else can leave him. Holden's inability to come to terms with Ally's death results in him not wanting to grow up and his being scared of change. In addition to

Holden resists his father's plan of going to a good school because he's unready to face the responsibility of the adult world. He expresses defiance by being against society's expectation such as getting a good education, and a good future. He uses the term 'dying' to emphasize his extreme urge for not going to the schools and his rebellious actions for not following his father's expectations. The defense mechanism, regression and defiance reveal Holden's attachment to his past and his unwillingness to face adulthood. Holden's best course of action is to accept that his childhood has gone by and to learn how to face adulthood responsibly and willingly.

Holden agrees to do Stradlater’s homework for him and he is supposed to write about his room, but instead he wrote about Allie and his baseball mitt: “He got leukemia and died when were up in Maine, on July 18, 1946. You’d have liked him. He was two years younger than I was, but he was about fifty times as intelligent” (Salinger 43). When Holden describes Allie it helps him relieve some of his depression, and he remembers Allie as being perfect and loved. Holden continues to talk about Allie and how he handled Allie’s death, “They were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all because I broke all the windows in the garage.

In The Catcher in the Rye, J.D Salinger walks us through the struggles that Holden Caulfield faces after he was axed from his school Pencey Prep. Throughout the novel, Holden mental state gradually deteriorates until his fate of residing at a mental facility eventually catches up to him. What led Holden to his fall was that he was incapable of finding a coping mechanism to deal with the stress, guilt, loneliness, and failures of his life. Everyone he meets has a way of contending with the maniacal emotions that life throws at them. The nuns entrust their religion, Sally Haze leans on popular culture and her “phony” guy friends, the cab driver believes in the power of Mother Nature, but Holden has nothing.

The Catcher in the Rye is one of few books that’s subject matter and themes have managed to stand the test of time. In the novel the main character, Holden Caulfield, faces a multitude of conflicts, while these conflicts are both external and internal, the internal conflicts are where the main themes of the novel lie. Holden’s major internal conflicts are his fear of growing up and his ignorance on his own mental health. By blaming all his troubles on phonies, he manages to completely ignore his problems causing the stack of hurdles he eventually has to face keeps growing larger and larger. Holden’s problems also stem from a much earlier event, which is the cause of his less then stellar mental state.

Holden shuts out his emotions to keep himself from feeling too deeply, revealing his insecurities towards showing who he is inside. When talking about his late brother, Allie, he walls up to stop any sadness from coming up to the surface. He talks about it in a way that plays it off like he doesn’t mind, and tries to seem nonchalant about what happened. When he says “He’s dead now,” Holden hints at his true feelings but chooses to stay blunt and conversational to avoid getting too far over his head. In order to not let it take him, he hides his emotions and puts on a facade. However, when he gives further detail about what happened, Holden still remembers it well, saying he “got leukemia and died” during a family trip to Maine on “July 18,

In the fiction novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, the author perfectly captures Holden Caulfield who is a troubled teen trying to work his way through adolescence in a world peopled by “phonies” and is trying to rescue others, while failing to rescue himself. Along with these two themes, Salinger depicts the behavior of how people are what they want to be, and they should live a life which makes them happy. In this novel, the main character seventeen year old Holden Caulfield finds the hypocrisy and ugliness of the world around him almost intolerable. Therefore, he tries to protect himself from the pain and disappointment of the adult world.

J.D. Salinger author of the famous novel “Catcher in the Rye” writes about the many issues that the protagonist a marginalized depressed teen named Holden Caulfield faces throughout the book. Salinger uses relatable scenarios targeting the adolescent age and of those with mental illness, much like Holden. Catcher in the Rye describes the life of a lonesome teen who wanders around N.Y.C as he faces his inner demons and life’s demons. Salinger’s ability to address the many social issues the protagonist encounters is remarkable as he illustrates the protagonists battle with depression, issues with loneliness and his ability to save innocence. The novel grabs readers attention as the most extreme issues are faced by Holden Caulfield a marginalized teen.

In The Catcher in the Rye, by J. D. Salinger, a teenage boy, Holden keeps getting expelled from schools due to him finding the people there phony. The book takes place over three days where Holden wiles away his time roaming around New York before his parents find out he has been kicked out of yet another school he was sent to, Pencey Prep. Narrated from a teenager’s point of view, it gives a look into Holden’s messy mind as he tries to find a goal to work towards. Salinger uses Holden’s actions and the poem “Comin Thro the Rye” by Robert Burns to show Holden's idea of childhood: it must be protected and develops the understanding that growing up is process that everyone must go through.