The Catcher In The Rye, written by J.D. Salinger, is a fictional novelthat was first published in 1965. The novel takes place in New York City and inPennsylvania over a duration of four days. This novel tells the story of anemotionally disturbed teenager who has been kicked out of a boarding school. Thestory is told from the point of view of a teenager who is the narrator of thestory.
The main character in this novel is Holden Caulfield. He is sixteen yearsold and serves as the narrator of this novel. Holden does not like anybody oranything around him. He is an emotionally troubled kid and has many problemswith his life. Phoebe is Holden’s little sister. She is ten years old andlives at home with their parents. Phoebe really admires and loves her bigbrother, Holden.
This novel begins when Holden is in a mental hospital in California. Thenovel is a flashback of the events over a time period of four days. Theflashback starts off when Holden gets kicked out of his boarding school, PencyPrep, because he is failing most of his classes. Holden decides to go into NewYork City for a couple of days until his parents will be expecting him home forChristmas 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. Phoebeis one of the only people that Holden actually loves. Holden talks to Phoebeabout his life being a failure. He is trying to understand life and his placein the world. Holden decides that he wants to go see Mr. Antolini, an oldteacher, to help him get a better understanding of his life. At Mr. Antolini’shome, Holden discusses many of the problems that he is facing.Mr. Antolinitells Holden that he has to learn not to hate everyone around him. He has tolearn to love people. Holden is told that he has to think about his future. Hehas to decide when he is going to start to take life seriously and apply himselfin 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 hisproblems. 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 amental hospital in California. The hospital is where Holden is before theflashback.
Holden was a very true-to-life character. Holden’s problems are similarto many teenagers of today. A lot of teenagers do not know what they want inlife just like Holden. Holden has many problems in school similar to theprobelms other kids have in school. Mr. Antolini says to Holden, Many, manymen have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now.
His statement is an example that shows that Holden is not the onlyperson in the world with these problems. Their problems might not be as severeas Holden’s, but they are similar. Many teenagers don’t know what they want todo in the future just like Holden. Holden is a very true-to-life character,because his problems relate to the problems of many young people today.
The reader of this novel might dislike some of the actions and find themto be unrealistic. It is unrealistic that a sixteen year old kid would go toNew York City for four days by himself with no one worrying about where he is.
In real life, most kids would not have the money to go into New York City forfour days. A normal school would contact the parents if the child was expelled.
Therefore, the parents will know that the kid is coming home and the kid willnot be able to go off on his own for four days without supervision. This novelhad some actions in it that just would not happen in real life.
In conclusion, I really enjoyed reading this novel. I can relate a lot ofthe problems that Holden was facing to people that I know. This novel kept myattention, because I wanted to know what was going to happen to Holden. Theauthor probably wrote this novel to relate some of the problems that he had inlife with the problems of people reading this book. The author was attemptingto impress upon his readers that it is okay to not know what you want in lifewhen you are young. I believe that he was successful, because he made mebelieve that it is okay for me not to know what I want to do in life. Thisnovel was very well written, and I would give it an eight on a ten point scale.
