A Loner's Intervention

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Recommended: Essay on the theme of the catcher in the rye

The 1951 novel, The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger, is a classic that should be read throughout the decades. Salinger accurately portrays the struggles of being a teenager and finding yourself. The author did base many of the situations presented in the book on moments of his own life: the moving from school to school, knowing an older Columbian student, and many other ones. Salinger did an impressive job in captivating his readers from page one to the end, and it probably has to do with the unusual protagonist, Holden Caulfield. The story of Holden Caulfield begins on a Saturday in December, and Caulfield has just failed out of Pencey Prep. The story is told from the perspective of Holden in the 1950's and the reader finds out pretty quickly that he is very pessimistic. The story progresses and he introduces many key characters such as Ackley the nuisance, Stradlater the “sexy bastard” of a roommate, Mr. Spencer the phony teacher, and Jane Gallagher the childhood friend. After a fight with Stradlater, Holden decides to stall going home to his soon-to-be furious mother, and heads to New York with some money he was given from his forgetful grandmother. On the train to the city, he meets a mother of a fellow student and is ashamed of his phoniness when he tells her what a great son she has, even though he is lying through his teeth. In New York, he is able to acquire a swanky hotel with a terrible view, and he meets many strange characters, as well as sees a few of them from his hotel window. Holden ventures to the Lavender Room, a club inside the hotel, to either get lucky or drunk, but gets neither one. He dances with three phony girls and then leaves, reminiscing about Jane Gallagher and their wonderful childhood together. H...

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...status”. J.D. Salinger created a book that will continue to stun the readers of many generations to come, and maybe eventually it will be removed from the banned books list. This is definitely a story that should be handed down, and although it is hard to decipher why this was the motive to shoot the famous Beatles singer, John Lennon, parents shouldn't be afraid when their child picks up this book at the library. Holden Caulfield, the unusual protagonist, is able to teach the people who read his story that being lonely is almost always self-inflicted; there is always someone around the corner waiting to enter your life, you just need to look up.

Works Cited

Salinger, J.D.. The Catcher In The Rye. 1951. Reprint. : , 1974. Print
"The Catcher In The Rye: Plot Overview." SparkNotes. SparkNotes, n.d. Web. 6 May 2014. http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/catcher/summary.html.

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