Rhetorical Analysis Of The Catcher In The Rye

Literature has always relied on techniques to catch the reader’s attention and format the story, and “the Catcher in the Rye” is no exception. Salinger brought many different writing styles into his novel to make it a bestseller. With his knowledge, Salinger was able to depict the persona of Holden to the reader without directly stating his characteristics. Salinger proves Holden is a lonesome figure who wanted to fit in but struggles to be accepted. The Catcher in the Rye depicts Holden as one who struggles with his sexuality and adulthood and wants to save children from adulthood because of the difficulties that it has brought himself. Salinger greatly expresses Holden through the use of metaphor, imagery, symbolism,

Holden is affectionate towards his sister and other children in his attempt to save them from adulthood. When Phoebe puts on the red hunting hat on Holden, J.D Salinger emphasizes Holden’s affection towards his sister: “Then what she did—it damn near killed me—she reached in my coat pocket and took out my red hunting hat and put it on my head” (212). Holden must really care for his sister since it “damn near killed him”. This is the closest that Holden has gotten to truly expressing his feelings. When Holden asks a girl in the park where Phoebe would be,

Holden's younger sister Phoebe, is also in need of Holden's protection. He must protect her because he failed to protect his brother Allie from death. Holden feels that it is his responsibility to protect Phoebe from whatever may put her in danger, even himself: "I was glad. All of a sudden I wanted her to cry till her eyes practically dropped out. I almost hated her. I think I hated her most because she wouldn't be in that play any more if she went away with me." (207) He does not want Phoebe to turn out like himself. He wants

The Catcher in the Rye, like many other great works, was met by scornful criticism and unyielding admiration. However, many literary critics also marveled at Salinger's use of language, which was used to make Holden Caulfield, the main character, extremely realistic. Such language includes both repetition of phrases and blatant cursing, in order to capture the informal speech of the average, northeastern American adolescent. Through Holden's thoughts and dialogues, Salinger successfully created a teenage boy.

The relationship between Holden and Phoebe forms a major theme that the novel aims to deliver. The fact that he is having this conversation with Phoebe, a child who is anything but simple and innocent, reveals the oversimplification of his worldview. Holden himself realizes this to a degree when he acknowledges that his idea is “crazy”, yet he cannot come up with anything more pragmatic; he has trouble seeing the world in any other way. His “catcher in the rye” fantasy reflects his innocence, his belief in pure, uncorrupted youth, and his desire to protect that spirit. On the other hand, it represents his extreme disconnection from reality and his naïve view of the world. Phoebe exposes to Holden a living embodiment of childhood. And it is a scene with her where she exposes to Holden the illogical nature of his supervisory actions, indicating that his desire to preserve her innocence will only halt her own inevitable development. Phoebe is the Greek word for “protector of children” (Bloom 2009, p185). Within the novel she is Holden’s protector. She comforts him, provides him with financial security, and protects him from getting in trouble with their mother. Reiff describes this reversal of roles between Holden and Phoebe as “Now, instead of saving the world by protecting the children, Holden wants to reject the world and shut himself off from evil by becoming a ‘deaf-mute’ in the West. It is Phoebe who rescues him from this total withdrawal” (Reiff 2008, p71). Phoebe forces Holden to view her as a human—living and progressing— rather than as a forever preserved child, and it is this humanization that causes Holden to accept her eventual progression into

The point of interest is that in this scene, Holden tries to make his sister Phoebe happy because she is always by her side to understand his problems; so he wants to thank her. “Boy,

Holden is very fond of Phoebe and also very protective of her, when Holden goes to her school his protective attribute is very relevant. When Holden gets into Phoebe’s school Holden is surprised with extreme profanity on the walls in the school, during his time in the school he sees the words “Fuck You” written on the walls thought the school. The first time Holden saw the words he instantly began to think of how Phoebe and the other kids would feel if they were to see it. It upset Holden so much that he thought, “I kept wanting to kill whoever’d written it… I’d smash his head on the stone steps till he was good and goddamn dead and bloody. (p.201)” His obsession with innocence was so strong that Holden felt compelled to kill the “perverty bum (p.201)” Though he could never act on his feelings he decided to make an effort to clean the graffiti off the walls, once again protecting and preserving innocence. A more personal and compelling occasion where Holden was the protector of Phoebe’s innocence is when they went to the carrousel near the zoo. While approaching the carrousel Holden thought of his past when D.B, Allie, Phoebe and himself use to go to the carrousel all the time and how Phoebe couldn’t get enough of it. After remembering how happy it made her Holden told her she should go on, Phoebe declined claiming she was too big to ride even though she really wanted to but after insisting, she got on. Holden then watched her go around in circles while he sat on one of the benches. “[Holden thought to himself] I felt so damn happy all of a sudden, the way old Phoebe kept going around. I was damn near bawling, I felt so damn

Phoebe from the start had acted like an adult towards Holden because she knew exactly why Holden was here due to his failure of his class at Pencey Prep. Phoebe had tried to converse with Holden like what all parents would have done and didn’t want to hear any excuses from Holden because she knew that Holden had a vast potential of becoming something huge one day, but he had let his opportunities fade away due to his emotions were affected by Allie's death. However, in hindsight, we get a feeling that Holden had assured that his goal was to save children from being falsely entrapped into the adult world where the children were going to face these unexpected consequences, which he first showed the consequences to Phoebe. Holden showed his desire to accomplish his goal by "taking out his hunting hat out of his coat pocket and gave it to [Phoebe]. She liked those kind of crazy hats.

During her break in the story he describes Phoebe as exceptionally smart, very sensible( high praise as he calls almost everyone a “phony” at some point), and a great conversationalist, saying that she, “... kills everybody- everybody with any sense, anyway.”. Multiple times throughout the book Holden calls her a “little kid”, saying that when she was younger she was a “very little kid”, and he shows how he believes her to still be innocent to the world in how he reacts when he sees a “fuck you” written on a wall at her school, thinking, “I thought how Phoebe and all the other little kids would see it, and how they’d wonder what the hell it meant, and then finally some dirty kid would tell them- all cockeyed, naturally- what it meant, and how they’d all think about it and maybe even worry about it for a couple days.”, supporting my belief that some of his love and protectiveness of her stems from the fact that he wants to be a “Catcher in the Rye”, a defender of the innocent/innocence, and someone who can do something indisputably good for his whole life, never acting “phony” like he fears he would if he did other jobs. As he says to Phoebe when she asks him what he’d like to be, “I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff-

Holden has a bleak outlook on life, due to him believing that most people, things, and words are “phony”(Page 106). He wishes that you could just put some things in a glass case so they’d stay the same forever(Page 122). Phoebe is more cheerful and matured than Holden and understands that nothing lasts forever. Eventually, she encourages him to get some help towards the end of the book. Holden and Phoebe have differing personalities that compliment one another.

Not only does Holden feel great affection for Phoebe, Phoebe feels great affection for Holden as well. It isn't too hard to understand that she and Holden are especially close since one of their brothers is dead and the other lives miles from their home. It is also surprising on how quickly Phoebe realizes that Holden came home earlier than expected. It is obvious that Phoebe is much more mature and articulate for her age to realize something like that so quickly. It is as if she is Holden's older sister instead of the younger one.

If they fall off, they fall off, but it is bad to say anything to them.” (pg.211) In this quote Holden is saying that when children do things that you, as an adult know is going to go wrong and possibly harm the child let them learn for themselves because if you can continually tell them not to do something and they see other children doing it they are going to continue to do it until they learn for themselves. The author J.D Salinger shows that Holden, has a good relationship with his sister. This is one of the only two relationships J.D. Salinger chooses to show the good qualities that Holden sees in these characters. Overall, as I have stated Phoebe represents the youth and the innocence children carry with them. According to Ashley Lauren “Holden is a caregiver. Aside from the

Holden's sister Phoebe is the child he wants to be innocent the most. Phoebe is full of innocence and happiness, she is even going to be in a play. Holden does not want her to lose that. On the night of her play Holden said he wanted to meet her before he left, she did not want him to leave. While Holden was waiting for her she shows up with a suitcase bigger than her, implying that she wants to go with him.

On the other hand, Holden lies to Phoebe in order to protect her; he has to continue masquerading fear that he would be exposing his true nature and thus making himself vulnerable. Phoebe is a calming influence that brings out Holden’s sensitive nature. Holden attempts to assure the reader that Phoebe understands him best, so their meeting is highly important and emotionally charged. Phoebe, really offers the contrast to Holden in terms of his immaturity and unrealistic beliefs and attempts to give him the advice that would end the free fall he experienced at that moment. Phoebe’’s advice is the only possible solution to help Holden, but his incessent denial creates the platform for an argument with Phoebe, where she tells Holden he does not

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.