...Throughout most of the novel, Holden Caulfield's cynicism and eccentric thoughts reflect his alienation and his depressed attitude toward the world. His central goal was to resist the process of maturing into an adult, he feared change, and was overwhelmed by the complexity of nearing adulthood. However, J.D. Salinger wrote The Catcher in the Rye as a Bildungsroman in which Holden reaches maturity through interaction with his sister, Phoebe, in order to show that the maturation process is a time for taking risks and not being afraid to fall down and get back up. Through discussion, Phoebe tries to enter deep into Holden's thoughts to reveal his true desire in life. She gets him to describe his fantasy of an ideal childhood and of his role...
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...The Catcher in the Rye is a 1951 novel by J. D. Salinger. Originally published for adults, it has since become popular with adolescent readers for its themes of teenage angst and alienation. It has been translated into almost all of the world's major languages. Around 250,000 copies are sold each year with total sales of more than 65 million books. The novel's protagonist Holden Caulfield has become an icon for teenage rebellion. The novel was included on Time's 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923, and it was named by Modern Library and its readers as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. In 2003, it was listed at number 15 on the BBC's survey The Big Read. The novel also deals with complex issues of identity, belonging, connection, and alienation. Plot summary Holden begins his story at Pencey Prep, an exclusive private school in Agerstown, Pennsylvania, on the Saturday afternoon of the traditional football game with rival school Saxon Hall. Holden misses the game. As manager of the fencing team, he loses their equipment on a New York City subway train that morning, resulting in the cancellation of a match. He goes to the home of his History teacher named Mr. Spencer. Holden has been expelled and is not to return after Christmas break, which begins the following Wednesday. Spencer is a well-meaning but long-winded middle-aged man. To Holden's annoyance, Spencer reads aloud Holden's History paper, in which Holden...
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...4141- 4141--- Cherished and Cursed:Towarda Social History of The Catcher in the Rye STEPHEN J. WHITFIELD THE plot is brief:in 1949 or perhaps 1950, over the course of three days during the Christmas season, a sixteen-yearold takes a picaresque journey to his New YorkCity home from the third private school to expel him. The narratorrecounts his experiences and opinions from a sanitarium in California. A heavy smoker, Holden Caulfield claims to be already six feet, two inches tall and to have wisps of grey hair; and he wonders what happens to the ducks when the ponds freeze in winter. The novel was published on 16 July 1951, sold for $3.00, and was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection. Within two weeks, it had been reprinted five times, the next month three more times-though by the third edition the jacket photographof the author had quietly disappeared. His book stayed on the bestseller list for thirty weeks, though never above fourth place.' Costing 75?, the Bantam paperback edition appeared in 1964. By 1981, when the same edition went for $2.50, sales still held steady, between twenty and thirty thousand copies per month, about a quarter of a million copies annually. In paperback the novel sold over three million copies between 1953 and 1964, climbed even higher by the 1980s, and continues to attract about as many buyers as it did in 1951. The durabilityof The author appreciates the invitationof Professors Marc Lee Raphaeland Robert A. Gross to present an early version...
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...The use of language in J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, is an upper-class boy who has gone from one private school to another, searching for -- something. He expresses his frustrations in language highly characteristic of adolescence; his extremely colloquial speech sounds just like that of teenagers today, even though Salinger's novel was written in the 1950s. But a particularly striking factor of Holden's narration is his frequent use of the words "phony" and "crazy", as well as his ongoing lapse into second person -- "you". These characteristics attain greater significance given Holden's desperate need to actually reach out and communicate with someone, anyone, who just might understand him. The novel takes place in the two days following Holden's dismissal from his latest school, Pencey Prep. Much of this two-day period is spent either making or contemplating a huge number of assignations and phone calls, most of which are never made. Each of these represents an unsatisfied need to reach out, to affirm the validity of his place in the world at that moment and have it confirmed by the response of another person. In almost every case Holden holds back from really touching another person who could make a difference to him. In fact, his very name -- Holden -- may stand for this attitude of "holding", of keeping himself so close to the vest that he is unable to communicate with the people he so desperately...
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...Both "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D Salinger and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain contain the theme of rejection interwoven throughout them. Both extracts show teenagers rejecting society’s norms as, Holden begins his journey on the train to New York as a way of escaping his expectations much like Huck’s journey along the river in the other extract. In the late 1940s, teenagers were starting to be recognised as their own demographic, which Salinger explores in "Catcher" through the protagonist Holden Caulfield's rejection of both adulthood and childhood simultaneously. Similarly, Twain counteracts the norms of society throughout "Huckleberry Finn" wherein the eponymous character rejects society’s views and begins a journey down the Mississippi river with the slave, Jim. Both Holden and Huck reject the view that all children have to grow up and accept subordination in society rather than choosing to escape what’s expected of them and run away. Holden’s journey on the train is a microcosm for the main plotline, thus creating a physical and metaphorical mode of transport to steer Holden’s rejection of and escape from society. When Holden first boards the train he meets a woman who questions him on the “Pencey sticker” featured on one of his “Gladstones”. Although Holden continuously rejects Pencey for being “phoney” and “lousy”, he still keeps the sticker thus rejecting moving on from Pencey as the sticker isn’t a permanent fixture but he doesn’t remove it. This...
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