The Catcher in the Rye

In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, many symbols and images relate to the main character, Holden. Many of these symbols represent how Holden sees the life around him and what kind of person is Holden Caulfield. Such symbols include the red hunting hat, the ducks in Lagoon Lake, the museum, broken glass, a carousel, catcher in the rye, cigarettes and smoking, Allie’s baseball mitt, and the Little Shirley Beans record. These symbols are essential, for they are what started off with what looks significantly small, but later becomes the things that are essential to Holden growing up and becoming who he will become at the end of the chapter: acc¬¬¬¬¬¬epted.

While Phoebe was talking to Holden, he was thinking about something else. Suddenly he told Phoebe what he’d like to be. He mentioned the line, ‘If a body catch a body coming through the rye’ from a poem by Robert Burns. Holden kept picturing little children playing in a big field of rye with nobody big around except him. And he’d catch everyone if they went over the cliff by mistake. He just wanted to do that the whole day, be ‘the catcher in the rye’. Holden sees himself as the preserver of innocence in the field of rye. He wants to save these small innocent children from falling over and losing their lives.

J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye is widely recognized as one of the most self-destructive novels ever written. The novel’s protagonist Holden Caulfield is known for his anti-social behavior and his self-loathing, self-isolating character in the book. Holden’s traits could widely be compared to Napoleon Dynamite the protagonist of the 2004 film Napoleon Dynamite directed by Jared Hess. Napoleon is characterized by his clichéd “school nerd” behavior and of course his own self-isolating habit just like Holden. Like Holden, Napoleon tries to put down people to isolate him from others. But even though Holden and Napoleon are alike on how they assume the traits of the people they meet,

J.D Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, is the story of Holden Caulfield’s loss of faith in society, and in particular adults. Salinger uses a number of symbols to demonstrate Holden’s rebellion against the phony facade of society and his desire to preserve the innocence of children, especially those he loves. Chief among them is Holden’s misinterpretation of Robert Burns’ poem “Comin thro’ the Rye”, wherein Holden mistakes the original line, “If a body meet a body”, with “If a body catch a body”. Holden fantasizes about being the “Catcher in the Rye” who saves millions of children from metaphorically falling off the edge of a cliff, in other words, losing their innocence and becoming phony adults, . Holden’s fixation with preserving innocence appears to emerge after the death of his brother Allie, three years earlier. For example, when Holden is asked what he likes by his sister Phoebe he responds with “I like Allie” even though Allie is dead. Holden idolizes his younger siblings, Allie and Phoebe, noting that children that still have their innocence and have not been corrupted by adulthood, an example of this is the way Phoebe still puts sentimental value in the pieces of the “Little Shirley Beans” record, and the way that Allie wrote poems on the inside of his baseball mitt so that “he’d have something to read when he was in the field and nobody was up at bat.”

In the novel, “The Catcher in the Rye,” there are two characters that have many similarities but also differences. One difference that plays a key role in the novel is that Holden does not live at home, while Phoebe does. This plays a key role in the novel because this is mainly what the novel is about. At the beginning of the novel, Holden is in a mental hospital and basically goes crazy. Also, something Holden took very hard was the death of his brother, Allie. Phoebe did not take the death of Allie as hard as Holden did. Phoebe was young when Allie died so she didn’t really know what was going on, but Holden didn’t believe it when his brother died. He kept thinking over and over in his head that Allie was not actually dead. “I’d make believe I was talking to my brother Allie. I’d say to him

When people think of growing up we think of stress, maturity, and freedom, but some of us have a hard time growing up. This was the case for Holden Caulfield, Holden Caulfield is a 16-year-old boy who has a hard time bridging adolescence and adulthood together, thus making him have a hard time finding his own place in society and letting go of the past. Holden Caulfield is one of those people who doesn’t like growing up because of all the problems he’s been going through such as his brother Allie dying, he emotions, and letting go of his past. To begin, Holden grew up with a brother named Allie dies of leukemia when Holden has been just 13 years old which affected what he thought about of growing up. This affected him growing up because Allie was his only little brother that died at a very innocent age, which made Holden thinks that he doesn’t want to grow up.

It happened when I was young. I was outside at my friend’s house sledding. We were taking a break when I got that phone call from my mom; she was crying. My sister was on her way to the emergency room. I started sprinting through the neighborhood towards my house. My dad was waiting with my brother in the car. My mom went with my sister in the ambulance. I was so scared that I was going to lose my sister. We got to the hospital and we were in the waiting room. It felt like days before we heard about her condition. My sister had pneumonia and mixed with her asthma she was having a hard time breathing. She had a severe attack and couldn’t breathe. If the crew from the ambulance didn’t show up the doctor said she wouldn’t have made it. I know

Unlike other coming of age novels, Holden does not get through the struggle that is suppose to make him become an adult like majority of the characters and people. Holden was forced to become an adult in his younger years because of the death of a loved one in his family. On top of that, Holden’s parents send him away to private school, meaning he is basically on his own with little support. “What I was really hanging around for, I was trying to feel some kind of good-by or bad good-by, but when I leave a place I like to know I’m leaving it. If you don’t, you feel even worse.”

Jerome David Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye, describes Holden Caulfield’s journey to understand the complexities of growing up and his purpose. In the beginning, he is in a mental hospital somewhere near Los Angeles and is writing about this “madman stuff” to a psychoanalyst. Holden flunked out of Pencey Prep and leaves his dormitory to go on a journey around New York to find his way through post-war New York society. At the same time, he is suffering from depression and is on the verge of mental collapse. Eventually, he breaks down, thus the mental hospital. In Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield’s mental breakdown results from his self-imposed isolation, his environment, and his inundating grief over Allie’s death.

Now that we know that Holden is still trying to hold on to his innocence, we can now fully understand his fantasy world of phonies. According to Holden, most of the adults in the world is to some degree a phony during a football game at Pencey.. “I was surrounded by phonies.”(Salinger 17) This quote shows Holden’s contempt of the adult world. Holden’s old headmaster, for example, is a phony. “Mr.Hass… was the phoniest bastard I’ve ever met in my

When writing a summary for any class, one is often told to remember the five W’s. Who, What, When, Where, and Why. Each question plays an important role in the summary, for parts of the story would be lost without all of them. However, the first four are rather easy to evaluate while the ‘Why’ is the question which possesses the most difficulty. It is fairly simple to analyze cosmetic aspects as it is something one only needs to observe. On the other hand, the ‘Why’ requires inquiry and development which is something that many either avoid, or are unable to do- especially when analyzing the actions of one’s self. This evaluation can cause one to be more self reflective, as well as understanding of those around you, simply by focusing on why

In The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger uses symbolism to to show Holden Caufield’s search for maturity and a path in life.

J.D.Salinger’s the Catcher in the Rye is a classic American novel. The novel is based in the time period of the 1950’s. It’s a first person telling of a teenage boys life after his brother passes away and he is kicked out of his fourth school. Not wanting to attend school anymore with a bunch of “phonies” he decides to have himself a little vacation before returning home to his parents. On his night out on the town he acts the way a teenager would act when alone with a good sum of dough. He goes to a couple of bars and successfully gets drinks, buys his own room at a hotel to stay in for the night, even hires a prostitute. The reason behind all of his rebellion and getting kicked out of school is simply because he’s lonely and depressed. The

Imagine this: a school without an emphasis on letter grades. It may seem like a utopian ideal, however, this idea is being tested in English 1 classes. So that brings the question, can this concept be applied school-wide or will we succumb to society’s desire to quantify us?

Catcher in the Rye was a phenomenal work of literature. The novel has been able to withstand the test of time without ever making it to the big screen. Present day with a movie of the bestselling novel is coming soon, every detail must amaze the avid reader of the book. This includes, lighting, a flawless director, a cluster of A-list actors, outstanding scenery, and last but certainly not least, a soundtrack that will knock the viewer of the movie into a sense of amazement. A soundtrack can completely devastate a movie. If there is a scene where a character in the scene is crying because they lost their friend, it would definitely be strange if the music in the background was “Can’t Touch This” by M.C. Hammer. Soundtracks tell the audience what to feel whether it would be fear or excitement. With a soundtrack playing a critical position in a movie, the songs that have been chosen have transcended more than just the scenes they are played in, and turned into the embodiment of some of the major themes in the movie.