The Catcher In The Rye: Book Review
The Catcher In The Rye, written by J.D. Salinger, is a fictional novel
that was first published in 1965. The novel takes place in New York City and in
Pennsylvania over a duration of four days. This novel tells the story of an
emotionally disturbed teenager who has been kicked out of a boarding school. The
story is told from the point of view of a teenager who is the narrator of the
story.
The main character in this novel is Holden Caulfield. He is sixteen years
old and serves as the narrator of this novel. Holden does not like anybody or
anything around him. He is an emotionally troubled kid and has many problems
with his life. Phoebe is Holden's little sister. She is ten years old and
lives at home with their parents. Phoebe really admires and loves her big
brother, Holden.
This novel begins when Holden is in a mental hospital in California. The
novel is a flashback of the events over a time period of four days. The
flashback starts off when Holden gets kicked out of his boarding school, Pency
Prep, because he is failing most of his classes. Holden decides to go into New
York City for a couple of days until his parents will be expecting him home for
Christmas vacation. Holden goes to bars and meets with friends during this time.
On the third night, Holden decides to go and visit his sister, Phoebe. Phoebe
is one of the only people that Holden actually loves. Holden talks to Phoebe
about his life being a failure. He is trying to understand life and his place
in the world. Holden decides that he wants to go see Mr. Antolini, an old
teacher, to help him get a better understanding of his life. At Mr. Antolini's
home, Holden discusses many of the problems that he is facing. Mr. Antolini
tells Holden that he has to learn not to hate everyone around him. He has to
learn to love people. Holden is told that he has to think about his future. He
has to decide when he is going to start to take life seriously and apply himself
in school. Holden's conversation with Mr. Antolini is the climax of the novel.
This is the point of the novel when Holden starts to listen and understand his
problems. He realizes that it is time he put his life back on the right track.
The next day, Holden returns home to his family. Holden is taken directly to a
Holden struggles with himself mightily and cannot fulfill his responsibilities. One of Holden’s struggles is that he has a bad attitude towards everyone. For example, at the school he goes to, he hates his roommates and his teachers. In addition to not liking anyone, Holden
for New York city. During his time in New York, Holden rediscovers himself and his values.
Holden returns to school and goes to his bedroom in the dorm. In his room quietly reading, his neighbor Robert Ackley came in. Holden describes him as a pimply, insecure, annoying boy with a bad dental hygiene. When Holden’s roommate Stradlater who was “madly in love with himself” (27) arrived home after the football game, Ackley abruptly left. Stradlater tells him that he has a date with a friend of his, Jane Gallagher. Jane is someone that Holden really cares for and because he knows the way Stradlater is, Holden became worried for her. “It just drove me stark raving mad when I thought about her and Stradlater parked somewhere in that fat-assed Ed Banky’s car”. (48) Holden became depressed and lonely, so out of the blue Holden decides to pack his things and leave for New York a few days earlier. On the train to New York, Holden meets the mother of one of his schoolmates. Not wanting to tell his whole life story, he told her his name was “Rudolf Schmidt”, the name of th...
Holden often shares his dreams (good and bad) of what he would like to do as he moves from childhood
The overwhelming pain that Holden had suffered during the past was nonetheless an impact, which stained his future life. Some evidence that implies Holden’s characteristic is how he grudgingly criticizes and scorns at almost everyone he knows. After he leaves Pencey Prep School, he falls into a dilemma where he faces loneliness and depression. More so, he desperately seeks company from clubs, bars, and hotels to have someone to accompany him. The factors that affect this isolation of him are mostly because of the tragic death of his younger brother Allie and the life he has in school. He was an important person to Holden. He mentions how great and smart Allie was out of the entire family. When Stradlater told Holden to write an essay for him Holden decided that he wanted to write a paper about Allies baseball mitt, which had poems written on it and Holden still carries with him the mitt at school (38). The life he has in school is very miserable to him because he has already failed two other schools and it is happening to him again. He says that he did not mean to disappoint and hurt his parents’ feelings so he takes a few days out to Edmont Hotel (59).
Holden is by far sensitive and can be overly emotional sometimes. When his younger brother Allie died, Holden dealt with the dreadful event by breaking all the windows in the garage, "just for the hell of it." When he wakes up to find Mr. Antolini stroking his forehead, Holden leaves his apartment quickly, even though Holden identifies Mr. Antolini as a trusted mentor. Holden feels guilty about the death of his younger brother because he died so young. This feeling of guilt and the depression may help explain how overly sensitive Holden can be at times. Holden views himself as the "catcher in the rye", saving children and their innocence from going into the adult world that is crowded with "phonies." When he sees all the graffiti that says "fuck you", he becomes very distraught as the graffiti shows that the innocent world of children is already being affected by the vulgarness of the adult world. Holden exploits the "phony" world of adults often, such as when he li...
Holden Caulfield is the main character and narrator of the novel. Holden is a sixteen-year-old, high-school junior, who has just flunked out of another prep school. Holden is intelligent and sensitive, but his thoughts and feelings are full of cynicism and negativity. He sounds bored and tired with almost everybody and everything. Ho...
home early, so he just goes back to Manhattan and tries to survive on his own.
During the 48 hours that Holden spent alone in New York, pity for him can be expected to develop quickly. He’s so desperate to communicate with someone-anyone-that he is reaching out to absolute strangers, oftentimes even considerably older than himself. When Holden was still at Pencey, he was feeling so dejected after fighting with Stradlater that he actually reached out to someone that he had painted a picture of as a poor hygienist, and as a social outcast, because surely ...
Holden’s little sister Phoebe could see that he turned his back on school after Holden sneaked in her room early for holiday break. “You did get kicked out!” His old teacher and good friend Mr. Antolini saw that he had a tendency to turn his back on the world too. “…I can very clearly see you dying nobly, one way or another, for some highly unworthy cause.” Holden finally realizes too that turning his back on people isn’t good. “Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.”
that he is trying to hide his true identity. He does not want people to know who he really is or that he was kicked out of his fourth school. Holden is always using fake names and tries speaking in a tone to persuade someone to think a cretin way. He does this when he talks to women. While he is talking to the psychiatrist he explains peoples reactions to his lies like they really believe him, when it is very possible that he is a horrible liar and they are looking at him with a “what are you talking a bout?” expression. Holden often lies to the point where he is lying to him self.
Holden cannot accept the loss of innocence as a step into the growing up process. The ones that he loves most, are those who are younger to him, they are innocent, and untouched by society’s truths. Holden says, “…I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around-nobody big. I mean – except me.
it is inevitable that he will grow up. Holden is put in a psychiatric hospital.
Holden’s goal is to resist the process of maturing. He fears change and because of this, he comes up with two different personalities; one for childhood and one for adulthood. He feels more safe in one than
Holden is a teenage character who has suffered a lot in his life. He has suffered a lot. He doesn?t care about anybody other than his sister, Phoebe. He did not like the adulthood because he thought that every adult was a phony. Holden thinks that when people lie, they are being phony.