Resumo de The Catcher In The Rye

Sheanie Strong Strong 1
Mrs. Bishop
March 19, 2006
Lit Analysis

The Catcher in the Rye

In the Catcher in the Rye written by J.D. Salinger, the major themes of the story are compelling and complex. Salinger made the audience believe that Holden was the epitome of today?s youth. Salinger wrote this novel knowing the problems teenagers go through to try to fit in with society. The major themes that are portrayed include the innocence of a child (Holden), how death can affect a young mans life, and how growing up in this crazy world can influence the psyche.

In this story, Holden seems to be faced with things that are a natural part of growing up; yet, he does not know how to handle them. For example in chapter thirteen, Holden tries to "buy" a prostitute, and ends up trying to talk with her because at his emotional age he does not understand the complexity of sexual relationships. He says ?don?t you feel like talking anyway"(124). This explains that Holden throughout the whole book tries to prove to himself that he is a man and can handle responsibilities, when he really can not. He shows nothing but immaturity and innocence in the course of this novel because he is attracted to the trappings of adulthood: booze, cigarettes, the idea of sex,

Strong 2
and the kind of independence he thinks he has. He experiences all these on this excursion to "find himself". For example, he says in chapter fourteen "I tried to blow smoke from my cigarette in their face to you know look cool"(166). Holden tries to be older than he is but is not fooling anyone.

As well as Holden being an innocent child, he can also relate to death, when his brother Allie died at the young age of thirteen. He lost his best friend, his younger brother who died of leukemia. Allie represented not only death, but also hope. Whenever Holden was upset, he would talk to Allie and after he passed all he could do was reminisce on how he and his brother would just play baseball. Holden says ?Allie used to write silly little poems on his baseball mitt so that when he got bored in the outfield he could look at them and daydream"(155). Holden really cared about his brother, and when Allie passed, Holden had to go to a psychiatric ward because he had a mental break down. Holden brings up Allie up throughout the book many, many times.

In addition to Holden relating to death, he had a lot of growing up to do. Holden did not really understand the consequences behind his actions getting expelled from his private school, lying to his friends and family, and not being a role model caused Holden to face problems he could have avoided. His principal asks him, ?do you feel absolutely no concern for your future boy?"(20). Holden, gets in fights over girls. His roommate and

Strong 3
he go at it and Holden, being a small skinny fellow, ends up bleeding: " I just sat there instead of knocking him in the jaw?"(116).

As a final point, Holden thought he was grown up, but had a lot of growing up to do. If he understood how immature he was, he would not have gotten into so much trouble with the prostitute, the fight with his roommate and not being able to control his self all caused him problems. Experiencing death in a family, and realizing he could not stay a child it made him reevaluate his life. Holden may have made bad choices but from those bad choices, he found out who he was.

Resumos Relacionados