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Catcher in the Rye, a novel by J.D. Salinger, is the story of Holden Caulfield, a cynical sixteen-year-old with prematurely gray hair that appears older than his age. Holden is caught at the awkward age between adolescence and adulthood. Set in the 1940s, the story begins with Holden recovering from a breakdown stemming from his expulsion from Pencey Prep School. Holden has already flunked out of three other schools. This man/child is torn between his desire to take on the trappings of adulthood and his desire to preserve the innocence of childhood. The title is a reference to the way Holden sees the world and his desire to protect its purity.
Salinger's book concerns the isolation of adolescences and the personal struggle that one goes through during the quest to establish one's identity. I believe this novel's universal appeal lies in the fact that it addresses feelings that are common among young...
Holden's has a sensitivity that keeps him from finding his place in the world. This makes the character readily identifiable to many, teenagers as well as those who have memories of those days.
Holden's perspective on life keeps him from readily making friends. He also wants nothing to do with the "phonies" who inhabit the adult world. And though Holden claims he wants to be left alone, more than anything he wants to make a connection with someone. Everyone needs to be connected to something or someone.
Another theme Salinger links Holden's world view to his sexual repression. His repression is manifested not only in his chaste relationship with Jane but also in his wish to become a monk, his preference for the two nuns he meets over the other women, and his dismissal of the prostitute sent to his hotel room. Holden's adolescent repression of sexuality…
Works Cited
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1951. Print
Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger The Catcher in the Rye was first published in 1951. The novel deals with the issues of identity, belonging, connection and alienation. This paper will review five articles written on the novel. "Holden's Irony in Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye" This article by Lisa Privitera was published in Explicator in 2008. The article postulates that the irony of Holden Cauldfield is that the harder he
Because Salinger allows him to stay in that world, we can cling to Holden as a pleasant memory. The Catcher in the Rye is told from Holden's perspective and this aspect of the novel allows it to remain innocent and suspended in time, so to speak. Holden is like Peter Pan in that he does not wantr to grow up but he is facing the glorious future that includes his
An author is controlled by language just as much as he or she controls language when writing. The meanings imbued in a text do not belong to the author; they are universal human meanings. Authors are therefore not as omniscient as readers often imagine them to be. Coincidental with the "death of the author," then is the "birth of the reader." Readers are empowered by critical understandings of text
Rule of the Bone About the author The author Russell Banks writes in the manner that infused his stories with a sadistic honesty and moral goodness that his characters strive to live up to. He writes in striking and most often sad tones about the drama of daily life (Anderson, eye net). Furthermore, his themes of failure, of weakness, of the complexity of living an honest life were often desolating, but all his
Abstract Crafting a Catcher in the Rye essay on J.D. Salinger’s famed and beloved novel is an exercise both enjoyable and challenging. The book has done what so few pieces of literature have attempted to do and failed—it has remained relevant to youths everywhere, over half a century after its release. As a result of its celebrated quality, writing an essay on the novel can be daunting. This is because
'How else can men be when they live for their brothers?'" (Rand 151) Not only is there no separation between self and others but also living for others without thinking for one's self or tolerating disagreement, living in a kind of frozen state of agreement, is considered normal. Instead, Equality 7-2521 finally "discovers my will, my freedom. And the greatest of these is freedom. I owe nothing to my