The Catcher In The Rye Sparknotes

A final theme tells us when everything else disappears, there is always love. Ishmael learns this the hard way. He has a kind of family unit with the soldiers that actually carries over into the love and friendship between him and Alhaji. Then, there is the love of Uncle Tommy and his family and their willingness to make Ishmael a son and a brother. Finally, there is the love of people like Esther and Laura who accept him unconditionally and welcome him into their homes when he most needed help and love.

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.

When Ishmael had to run away to find safety, he stated, “I walked for two days straight without sleeping. I stopped only at streams to drink water. I felt as if somebody was after me” (Beah 47). Ishmael had to find a way to survive that he is not normally used to. He has to drink any water he can find, and he can never rest because he feels as if somebody will find him and hurt him. He feels this way because the rebels from the war have killed many people just like him all over the continent and right in front of his eyes. Also, Ishmael began to feel alone when he stated, “It was during the attack in the village of Kamator that my friends and I separated. It was the last time I saw Junior, my older brother” (Beah 43). The war has not only made him have a new lifestyle, but it also took away many people that he loved away from him. During the first attack on his own village he lost his family because they all ran in different directions and never found each other again. Ishmael and his older brother, Junior, were able to stick together, but another village was attacked and they lost each other. Now Ishmael was alone and had to fight for himself with no one to guide him. Ishmael was a victim because the war caused many events to occur that affected Ishmael’s

He realized that the time he is living in is “every man for himself.” Even if the little boy was not any trouble, Ishmael realized  that if he ended up caring for the boy; in a dangerous

Ishmael was forced into being in the war because he knew he was going to either die, or join the army against the rebels. Ishmael fits the role of both a victimizer and a victim because he has experienced both like no other.       Throughout the story, Ishmael is portrayed as a victim. He loses family members, loved ones, and friends. He also is targeted to be a boy soldier and do things that he would never have done before.

These experiences before the war, during the war, and after the war all change his perspective on life and how he copes during and after traumatic situations. Ishmael values family and friends throughout this memoir, with each view on family changing as he is exposed to love and hate. Ishmael thrives off family, and finds comfort in any situation he finds himself in. He finds comfort in his mother, father, brother, and friends before the war, but also finds family and comfort during the war with his squad, gun, and drugs. After his experiences in the war, he finds comfort in Esther and his new family who love and care for him the way his mother and brother loved him before the war.

I find the fact that they were able to even smile during this morbid time was extremely uplifting. To still have such spirit when so much had been taken away from them is astonishing. This shows so much character in Ishmael, how he does not let the war get to his head. He still preserves whatever happiness he has left. It is so important not to take life for granted, as shown in this memoir. In one instant Ishmael was a boy, in another he was a boy soldier. He manages to find joy in a terrible time.

The response Ishmael gave reveals the minuscule amount of trust he held for Esther as he states his reaction to be, “I jumped up and hugged her, but immediately held back my happiness.” (Beah 154) This small gesture affects Ishmael a great amount as he slowly opens himself up to her. She also was able to engage with him more by offering him a pen and notebook to write down song lyrics. This interaction excited Ishmael as he was able to share his interests with her and made their relationship grow stronger.

Taking into account, the effects of storytelling and conversation in Ishmael’s life, it is clear his grandparents play a crucial role. Firstly, they provided him with many excellent stories, which led to him feeling compelled to re-tell them and in result regained peace at heart. In fact, his grandparents, especially his grandmother, are more or less associated with oral stories. She always told him and other children stories that were morally powerful and with no doubt memorable. For example, much of Ishmael’s life, or we had better say his

Holden Caufield emphasizes on the loss of innocence in children. He feels that once they lose their innocence, they will soon turn into phonies like everyone else. The loss of innocence is very common in the development in human existence. It is caused by many factors. Past a certain age, children are either forced or led unintentionally into a pathway of corruption. A child is also known to lose their innocence by desires, fantasies, and attention. But once they lose their innocence, they tend to desire to go back and pretend to be young again. In the Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden discusses the importance of innocence in children's lives. He feels that once a child loses his/her innocence, he/she will soon be leaded to a

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.

The source of this conflict is that Ishmael is struggling to put the past behind him because of all the gruesome acts he’s witnessed and the guilt he feels for what he’s done as a soldier. This is shown through the nightmares Ishmael has every night, his lack of communication with the staff in his rehabilitation center, and his violent outbursts and fear to share stories from his past with Esther. Since he refuses to talk about it, his past experiences cloud his mind day and night. On Pg. 153 Ishmael recalls, “I was quiet for a bit, as I didn’t know what to say and also didn’t trust anyone at this point in my life. I had learned to survive and take care of myself.

Social Injustices in A Long Way Gone There are countless examples of social injustices in the book A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah. In his Memoir, Beah is greatly affected by the civil war taking place in his homeland of Sierra Leone. He is forced away from his normal life and to survive became a boy soldier.

The Catcher in the Rye is a novel by J.D. Salinger. It is narrated by Holden Caulfield, a cynical teenager who recently got expelled from his fourth school. Though Holden is the narrator and main character of the story, the focus of Salinger’s tale is not on Caulfield, but of the world in which we live. The Catcher in the Rye is an insatiable account of the realities we face daily seen through the eyes of a bright young man whose visions of the world are painfully truthful, if not a bit jaded. Salinger’s book is a must-read because its relatable symbolism draws on the reader’s emotions and can easily keep the attention of anyone.

As well as being Akbar’s ears and voice, he acts as a teacher, always introducing and explaining new topics to Akbar. The authority Ishmael has over his father is demonstrated throughout the text when Ishmael does things like scold Akbar, reminds him of his bedtime, and sets up a shop so Akbar can support the family from home. Ishmael serves as much more of a patriarch than Akbar; he is told he must be the man of the house by his great-uncle and is viewed as more of a father than a brother by two of his sisters. The entire family heavily relies on Ishmael to fulfill his duties.