The Catcher in the Rye, a classic American novel
written by J. D. Salinger, tells the story of the main character, Holden, as he
gets expelled from yet another school. The main direction of the story explains
what Holden does to deal with getting expelled again, but it quickly turns into
an examination of the mind of a teenager. The reader gets a first person view
of Holden’s thoughts and mindset, so we get a better understanding of what
Holden is thinking when he does what he does. As the story continues the reader
really starts to question the sanity of Holden as he starts doing crazier and
crazier things after leaving his school for the last time. A key factor the
reader needs to realize while reading The
Catcher in the Rye is the age of Holden. He is portrayed to be in his
mid-late teens; almost finished with high school but not quite ready to face
the real world. The sense of adolescence and uncertainty we get from reading
the story through Holden’s eyes definitely shines light through the window of a
teenager’s mind. Although the sense of adolescence in the story could be
explained in many ways, it is best portrayed by the first person narrative, the
uncertainty and rashness of Holden’s decisions, and the overall demeanor of his
thoughts on the world.
Salinger’s first person narrative is the first reason why
Holden’s youth affects the direction of the story as a whole. When the reader
of any story gets the information and events of the story from one point of
view, it gets to the point where you might not know if the information being
given to you is actually correct, or is biased by the narrator. This is
definitely the case with Holden in The
Catcher in the Rye after reading about his descriptions of the world and
people around him. The main example of this in the story is how he calls
everyone phony. The first couple people he talks about and calls a phony might
actually be awful people that deserve to be called phony, but after a while it
gets to the point where Holden’s view of people is questioned. Another example
of Holden’s skewed view is when he is staying at Mr. Antolini’s house and he is
woken by Mr. Antolini “sort of petting me or patting me on the goddam head.” To
be fair this is certainly a little strange, but what is actually going on would
be better described by a narrator who wasn’t just woken up and doesn’t know
what’s happening. At times Holden gets worked up or mad for something small,
inconsequential, or something that shouldn’t concern him. Take the instance
near the beginning of the story with Jane and Stradlater. While it’s true (from
what we know of him) that Stradlater is a womanizer, Holden literally fights
him just because he went on a date with a childhood friend and Stradlater is
being kind of secretive about what happened. From the outside, we realize that
this really shouldn’t concern Holden, but for some reason he takes great
offense and fights Stradlater.
Taking offense at random things and making rash decisions
about what to do next is another indication of Holden’s adolescence. In the
beginning of the story, Holden misses the football game and returns to his
room, a completely normal reaction to the situation. As the story goes on;
however, Holden’s decisions and actions go in a downward spiral until the end
of the story where he actually wants to run away. The spiral beings when he
decides to leave the school and venture into the depths of the city, just
because he got in a fight. It continues when he gets into the city and he
starts making bad choice after bad choice that leave him hurting for money and
depressed. Looking back on it, Holden seems pretty crazy. He tries to drink at
a bar, but is denied because he’s a minor; even so he calls the guy a phony.
After paying the bill of a group of women that he should have realized he had
no chance with, he goes to yet another bar and gets hammered this time. Not
only is he now making stupid decisions, but he’s making those stupid decisions
while really drunk. After trying to hook up with multiple girls and even a
prostitute over the next couple of days, he finally makes a decent decision to
go home. All the action and adventure in the story seems to lead up to the
point where he visits his little sister and decides to run away. After being
persuaded against this course by his own conscious, he explains that “A lot of
people, especially this one psychoanalyst guy they have here, keeps asking me
if I'm going apply myself when I go back to school next September.” Things seem
to have worked out, but due to the lack of information the reader really isn’t
sure if they have or not.
Another aspect of the novel that contributes to the theme
of adolescence is Holden’s thoughts about the people and the world around him.
Multiple times, perhaps because he just got kicked out of school, he asks
himself why he has to go to school. In his fragmented opinion, school shouldn’t
be that important because the people there are all “phonies” and the “classes”
are stupid. This idea that school is useless brings about the notion of running
away, “I
decided I'd never go home again and I'd never go away to another school again.”
He imagines a life for himself where no one bothers him and he can just raise a
family; obviously this isn’t how life works, but he really thinks it does. At
times he also does the opposite: he dismisses things that might actually be
important. One example of this is when he’s leaving Mr. Antolini’s house. He
just dismisses it immediately. Another example is given in the form of his
sickness. We as the readers know that something weird is going on at the end of
the book. He really seems to be out of his mind, but he doesn’t take it
seriously at all and we are told at the very end of the novel that he gets
sick. Holden says to himself too often that people are phonies and want bad
things for him, instead of what seems like them trying to help him.
Overall, the adolescence in the story really brings it
together and makes the story completely different from one written from an
adult’s perspective. Every example of the first person perspective through
Holden’s choices and views adds to the novel as a whole. Clearly The Catcher in the Rye remains a classic
today because it tries to enlighten readers on the angst and adolescence of
teenagers.
by Top Lee
10th grade
The Georgetown School of Arts and Sciences
Georgetown, SC
I need essays from other people, as well! Parents and grandparents, I'm sure your kids have essays that they write for school. Send them in to littlesquirrelbookreview@gmail.com! -- TOP
