Resumo de Catcher In The Rye

The Catcher in the Rye is the sixteen years old Holden Caulfield?s story of his chaotic life a few days before Christmas in the 50's. The story begins at a time when Holden has just found out that he has been expelled from yet another in a long row of prestigious boarding schools. Holden tells his story in the shape of a monologue from, it later turns out, a mental institution in which he is recovering from his ordeals. Holden despises the existing atmosphere of falseness that runs through the very foundations of the school and after a fight with his room-mate he decides to leave earlier that expected. Although, he wants to give his parents some time to come to terms with the bad news from the school, and thus sign in to a hotel in New York, a few blocks from home. Holden spend a total of two days in the city, days characterised by heavy drinking and loneliness. He is also constantly tormented by the memory of his dead baby brother. Meeting an old friend and going on a date with an ex-girlfriend are experiences that just make him even more depressed. Holden thereby decides to sneak into his parents? house to meet his baby sister, since she seems to be the only person he can actually communicate with, and who can understand him. An unfortunate accident at the house of one of his old teacher?s make him even more despaired. Instead of the security that he believed to find, he is strongly upset by the falseness and stupidity that seem to exist everywhere around him. There is no place to where he can escape the omnipresent perversion. This becomes even more obvious to Holden as he even at his baby sister's school seen that someone has written bad words all over the walls. Holden is overtaken by a strong feeling of wanting to protect the children and to keep their innocence; he wants to become their catcher in the rye. Holden tells his baby sister that he is planning to travel west. He pictures a new life without a lot of complicated relations with foolish and false people. After a fight with the sister he finally decides to return home to his parents instead. He realises that no one can protect or be protected, entirely from the evil of the world. Holden never reveals what his diagnosis at the mental institution is, but judging from the language of the last few pages, the reader can guess that he is now more calm and has more perspective on his situation, even though if the loneliness and feeling of lack of guidance still shines through.

Resumos Relacionados