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How To Write A Book Report On The Catcher In The Rye

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For my book of choice, I decided to read the book The Catcher in the Rye, written by J. D. Salinger. This story was published on July 16, 1951, by “Little, Brown and Company”. The reason I chose this book was because of the controversy surrounding the book. Numerous shootings, assassination attempts, as well as the assassination of John Lennon have been tied to Salinger’s book. This book is intriguing but I felt that there was not much of a plot. The story focuses on Holden Caufield, an underachieving college student that has been kicked out of school for not applying himself. I found Holden to be very negative. He would often describe things with a negative attitude. He frequently uses the words “goddam” when describing something and he would often refer to the boys at his school as “phonies”. The story ends quite abruptly. Holden goes from one sequence of his life to another, then he tells the audience that everything past a certain point does not matter. He also states that he became sick, and is now in an institution. …show more content…

The man who assassinated John Lennon, and the man who attempted to assassinate Ronal Raegan were both fans of this book. I believe that that the characters and the themes presented in this book are the reason these men carried out their acts of violence. Holden is a depressed young man who cannot seem to find the positive in anything. However, near the end of the story, Holden tells his sister that his dream job would be to catch children from falling off a cliff while their playing games in the rye. To me, this seems like an odd occupation to desire. Although, I do believe that the cliff represents evil, and Holden is stopping them from entering the evil. Perhaps the assassins that read this book believed they were being told kill people who were capable of influencing a grand audience. Ultimately preventing them from spreading

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