Catcher In The Rye Literary Analysis

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.

The most significant heart-breaking event in Holden’s life was the death of his brother, Allie, at a young age. Needing inspiration for Strandlater composition Holden looks at Allie’s left-handed glove, “It was a very

The Catcher in the Rye is a novel written by J.D. Salinger that occurs around the 1950s. The story’s protagonist and narrator is Holden Caulfield, a seventeen year old white male, who journeys to various places as he mourns over the death of his little brother, Allie. As a white male in a capitalist society, he has tremendous amounts of privileges that allow him to get. However, as the novel progresses, Holden describes his society as a place where honored human qualities are suppressed and capitalist ideals are embraced. Throughout the novel, we see that capitalism, “the social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately owned”, destroys the overall society for Holden and his generation (Rand).

In The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger tells a story of a young boy, Holden, who never quite understood his stance on life. Throughout the novel, Holden struggles to adapt to the inevitable transition into adulthood, often worrying more about others than himself. In The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger uses connotative diction, repetition, and specific diction to convey Holden’s struggle of accepting life changes that led him to becoming mentally unstable.            To start off, Salinger illustrates Holden’s nature by using connotative diction.

“You'll have to jump.' 'I'll jump.' 'Jump!' Major Danby cried. Yossarian jumped. Nately's whore was hiding just outside the door. The knife came down, missing him by inches, and he took off” (Heller 350). Yossarian ends his dialogue in a cheery and fun way because he is finally going to be free from the oppression of the US military. This also shows his increased morals, because in the beginning, he would have just killed the girl for trying to kill him. He also uses arrangement to show America at the time like, “ Heller's satirical masterpiece tells us something about the madness of America” (Pilger, John). This shows how the novel portrays the insanity of the war at this time and how these people need help or to get out. The main part of the novel is just the insane adventures Yossarian goes on throughout his horrifying experience.

In our broken and sinful world, there are many repercussions of anxiety and fear which lead to the ultimate idea that 19 million American adults suffer from cases of severe depression. Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of Catcher in the Rye, suffers depression, which leads to conflict between him and society during his junior and senior year in high school The author, J.D. Salinger, uses symbolism and imagery to portray Holden’s lack of confidence due to his disruptive and frazzled childhood.

Holden has a drastic change in his mental state immediately after his brother dies. “They were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all, because I broke all the windows in the garage... It was a very stupid thing to do, I’ll admit, but I hardly didn’t even know I was doing it, and you didn’t know Allie.” (Salinger, 39) This illustrates how directly after the death of his brother he started doing things he didn’t normally do, for no reason.

Another way Salinger critiques society’s problems is through Holden and his views on mental health. Holden is

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.

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

In the J.D.Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger implies that the world is full of phonies which makes it hard to maintain a meaningful relationships. Holden’s characterization as a liar and a phony throughout the story, expresses Salinger’s point that the world is full of disingenuous people. Holden admits he is a “Terrific liar” (0) in the beginning of the novel, and continuously proves that he is indeed a terrific liar.

When he gets off from Penn Station, the first thing he does is go to a phone booth because he "felt like giving someone a buzz "(77). He clearly wants to interact with someone but because he feels that he is more superior and does not need to interact with any one he "ended up not calling anybody"(77). The fear of how people view him makes him isolate himself from everyone because, to him, that is the only way to cope with it. In brief, because of Holden 's grief towards his brother 's death, he projects his feelings to divide himself from everyone around him.

In Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger creates a unique narration through the way Holden speaks. In The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger reveals the inner Holden Caufield through the style of Salinger's writing. Salinger writes the book as if Holden Caulfield speaks directly through the reader, like a kid telling a story to his friends. Like with most conversations, there is more to infer from not only the speaker says, but also how the speaker says it. In the book, readers can infer that Holden is much more than a cynical kid. In reality, he is "too affectionate" and "very emotional" (76), much like his little sister Phoebe.

In the novel the Catcher in the Rye, author J.D. Salinger writes about the life of a 17 year old boy who drastically differs from the rest of the teenager population because of his alternate point of view on life. This non-typical teenager with the name of Holden Caulfield has a negative perspective on everything he and others do, and does not attempt to find the light in certain situations. While teenagers may not attempt to find the best in a certain outcome, they tend to have a positive outlook on specific things in their life. Holden appears to only switch between 3 emotions throughout the book, and never gives anything his all, or consideration. As a result of this, he does not act like a typical teenager would. However, Holden does have a limited amount of traits that classify him as a typical teenager: his need for connections to others and learning to be independent on his own. He also has distinct traits that isolate him from the others, making him out to be this negative, apathetic character. A typical teenager is someone who conforms to what others are doing, but Salinger creates Holden to be a non-typical teenager who sees everything differently and executes what has to be done in his own unique way.

Every child must grow up because that is the process of life. There are many challenges and obstacles that we have to go through, but we learn how to overcome them as we grow. Life gets more challenging as we go through it and even though adolescents may not realize it, there are much more significant problems in the world than not getting the toy they wanted from Santa Claus. Our problems get larger and they get harder to deal with as we get older. In the novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, the main character is a teenage boy named Holden that is facing problems that he is having a hard time dealing with. He is having a hard time growing up because he doesn’t know how to face the problems that come his way. Salinger tells the journey of a teenager that portrays the hardest part of growing up is realizing that you’re not young anymore and living how you’re expected to live at your age.