Catcher in the Rye essay

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A classic American novel can be classified as one that is relatable, and immortal. Teenagers experience many problems, such as getting bullied, suffering from depression, and from having stress, which provide a connection for them on many different levels when they absorb the message from the novel. To this day, many classic novels are widely enjoyed although they were established in a different time. Therefore, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is considered to be a classic American novel because it is immortal. Salinger was able to create a classic novel by conjuring up a protagonist who suffered from problems with depression, which allowed readers from any generation to connect and reflect on his actions.
The readers were able to connect with Holden Caulfield because he was designed in such a way where his ideologies mirrored the ideologies of teens from any generation. His personality let teens realize that they are not the only ones who feel a certain way about society and people’s tendency to be “phony” as Holden accused people of being. After Holden gets beaten up by M...

Free Essays - Catcher in the Rye
773 Words | 2 Pages
J.D Salinger gives his personal vision of the world successfully through his persona Holden Caulfield in the ‘Catcher in the Rye’. Caulfield struggles with the background of New York to portray Salinger’s theme – you must live the world as it is, not as you would like it to be. There by exposing Salinger’s vision on the world.
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Catcher In The Rye Dialectical Journal Essay
673 Words | 2 Pages
1) This quote is an example of an allusion because Holden is referring to the book, David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. Moreover, it doesn't describe it in detail, its just a brief comment.
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The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
1106 Words | 3 Pages
... is apparent that he is a troubled young man through not only what is said and done, but what is also left as unspoken thoughts inside his mind. Holden Caulfield is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, mentally unstable. He is not classified as a "crazy person" or a "loon" but he is a young man who, as a child, had innocence and purity ripped away with no warning or mercy. Instead of reacting more positively and growing older at a young age, the tragedies caused him to year for the innocence of childhood that he knew in some dark corner of his mind had been long gone and was never returning regardless of how much faith and stubbornness he had.
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Catcher in the Rye Essay: Eight Early Reviews
802 Words | 2 Pages
Published in 1951, J. D. Salinger's debut novel, The Catcher in the Rye, was one of the most controversial novels of its time. The book received many criticisms, good and bad. While Smith felt the book should be "read more than once" (13), Goodman said the "book is disappointing" (21). All eight of the critics had both good and bad impressions of the work. Overall, the book did not reflect Salinger's ability due to the excessive vulgarity used and the monotony that Holden imposed upon the reader.
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Catcher in the Rye Essay: Rebel with a Delicate Psyche
1138 Words | 3 Pages
J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye provides a provocative inquiry into the crude life of a depressed adolescent, Holden Caulfield. Without intensive analysis and study, Holden appears to be a clearly heterosexual, vulgar yet virtuous, typical youth who chastises phoniness and decries adult evils. However, this is a fallacy. The finest manner to judge and analyze Holden is by his statements and actions, which can be irrefutably presented. Holden Caulfield condemns adult corruption and phoniness but consistently misrepresents himself and is a phony as well as a hypocrite.
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Free Essays - Catcher in the Rye Still Relevant Today
888 Words | 2 Pages
To begin, The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger is unique. The novel is written from the perspective of a teenager who lives in New York in the 1950's. From the context in the beginning and the end of the book, "I'll just tell you about this madman stuff that happened to me around last Christmas just before I got pretty run-down and had to come out here and take it easy" (page 1), "I could probably tell you what I did after I went home, and how I got sick and all, and what school I'm supposed to go to next fall, after I get out of here, but I don't feel like it" (page 213), we can infer that Holden Caulfield, the aforementioned teenager, is in a mental hospital. However, he tells the story through flashback of a three-day period sometime before Christmas the year before. This is unusual because most novels cover much more time than three days. This is one reason why this novel is so unique. Although the novel is spread over only three days, we learn so much about the protagonist, and many other characters, because all Holden's thoughts and feelings, especially about other characters, during these three days is portrayed, nothing is left out.
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Censorship for J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye
718 Words | 2 Pages
Most people who read this work do not really relate to the main character, Holden Caufield. Holden comes across as being a little mentally disturbed. He believes almost everyone is phony. Fitting in is not something he does well. He gets kicked out and expelled from schools. Most normal students would not want to be like Holden.
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Symbolism In Catcher In The Rye
1162 Words | 3 Pages
Ultimately, Holden Caulfield’s decisions were incredibly based on his yearning for innocence in life when it is slowly fading away from the world. The audience feels sympathy towards Holden because they know Holden’s past years have been traumatizing with his brother’s death and his moving of schools. The audience knows now that Holden’s alienation is because he does not want to lose his or anyone’s innocence. Thus, the overall lesson is that one cannot prevent another person to do what they want to do, and if they fall, let them.
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Catcher in the Rye Essay: The Need for Control
1636 Words | 4 Pages
Holden Caulfield creates a thought-provoking point of view. On the surface, many of his thought patterns seem unrelated and stray from the topic. His association of topic with digression is used almost constantly throughout the novel. However, realizing that these digressions are very relevant and even crucial to the topic, he allows the reader to gain true insight into the character. His statements ...
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Catcher in the Rye Essay: Levels of Meaning
901 Words | 2 Pages
Protected by a cocoon of naiveté, Holden Caulfield, the principal character in the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, therapeutically relates his lonely 24 hour stay in downtown New York city, experiencing the "phony" adult world while dealing with the death of his innocent younger brother. Through this well-developed teenage character, JD Salinger, uses simple language and dialogue to outline many of the complex underlying problems haunting adolescents. With a unique beginning and ending, and an original look at our new society, The Catcher in the Rye is understood and appreciated on multiple levels of comprehension. The book provides new insights and a fresh view of the world in which adolescents live.
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Catcher In The Rye Analysis
1522 Words | 4 Pages
“The innocent and the beautiful have no enemy but time.” This is an excerpt from “In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markiewicz”, a poem by Irish poet William Butler Yeat’s. Eva and Con were two sisters whose beauty had entranced a young Yeats. They are remembered in the poem as “Two girls in silk kimonos, both/beautiful.” As both girls become active in politics and the women’s suffrage movement they become exposed to the corrupted reality of life. The problems the two sisters endure eventually strip away their physical and spiritual beauty. Yeat’s poem indicates that time brings new and bad experiences. Experiences that strip beauty and innocence away from people. This is a recurring theme in the classic novel, The Catcher in the Rye, by
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5 Paragragh Essay: The Catcher In The Rye
589 Words | 2 Pages
From the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, the youthful protagonist Holden Caufield, employs the word “phony” to describe the behavior of a number of characters including Mr. Spencer and Ossenburger, however it is not them who are“phony”, it is the young main character. First, Mr. Spencer, Holden’s ex- history teacher, is not described as phony, but according to the adolescent, his choice of words are. Secondly, according to our main character, Ossenburger is not the generous philanthropist he portrays himself to be, but rather a greedy undertaker. Lastly, the protagonist could quite possibly be the authentic phony. All in all, the main character’s use to describe many other characters in the book is with the single word phony, when in fact the word phony would be the most probable word to describe the lead character.
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The Catcher In The Rye Literary Analysis
887 Words | 2 Pages
Some people feel all alone in this world, with no direction to follow but their empty loneliness. The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D Salinger, follows a sixteen-year-old boy, Holden Caulfield, who despises society and calls everyone a “phony.” Holden can be seen as a delinquent who smokes tobacco, drinks alcohol, and gets expelled from a prestigious boarding school. This coming-of-age book follows the themes of isolation, innocence, and corrupted maturity which is influenced from the author's life and modernism, and is shown through the setting, symbolism, and diction.
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Theme Of Childhood In Catcher In The Rye
1861 Words | 4 Pages
Upon introduction, Holden Caulfield gives the impression of being a textbook teenage boy. He argues that Pencey Prep, the all-boys academy at which he studied, is no greater than any other school and is “full of crooks.”(Salinger, 7) His harsh language only further argues that he is situated in an all-male environment and has no apparent filter for when swearing is inappropriate. Despite all of the indications that Holden is typical, it soon becomes evident that Holden’s personality does not conform to the teenage stereotype. Although he appears to have some friends, namely, his roommate, Stradlater, and ‘Ackley kid’, it is clear that he does not integrate well with his peer group. Holden’s inability to read social cues leaves him in the dust when all of his “friends” have matured enough to recognize his need for improvement. He is constantly making jokes out of everything without any thought as to how h...
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Catcher in the Rye
966 Words | 2 Pages
“Catcher in the Rye”, written by J.D Salinger, is a coming-of-age novel. Narrated by the main character, Holden Caulfield, he recounts the days following his expulsion from his school. This novel feels like the unedited thoughts and feelings of a teenage boy, as Holden narrates as if he is talking directly to readers like me.
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Catcher in the Rye essay

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Catcher In The Rye Dialectical Journal Essay

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger