The Catcher In The Rye
The Catcher In The Rye, written by J.D. Salinger, is a fictional novel that was
first published in 1965. The novel takes place in New York City and in Pennsylvania over
a duration of four days. This novel tells the story of an emotionally disturbed teenager
who has been kicked out of a boarding school. The story is told from the point of view
of a teenager who is the narrator of the story.
The main character in this novel is Holden Caulfield. He is sixteen years old and
serves as the narrator of this novel. Holden does not like anybody or anything around
him. He is an emotionally troubled kid and has many problems with his life. Phoebe is
Holden's little sister. She is ten years old and lives at home with their parents.
Phoebe really admires and loves her big brother, Holden.
This novel begins when Holden is in a mental hospital in California. The novel is
a flashback of the events over a time period of four days. The flashback starts off when
Holden gets kicked out of his boarding school, Pency Prep, because he is failing most of
his classes. Holden decides to go into New York City for a couple of days until his
parents will be expecting him home for Christmas 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. Phoebe is one of the only people that Holden actually loves. Holden
talks
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to Phoebe about his life being a failure. He is trying to understand life and his place
in the world. Holden decides that he wants to go see Mr. Antolini, an old teacher, to
help him
get a better understanding of his life. At Mr. Antolini's home, Holden discusses many of
the problems that he is facing. Mr. Antolini tells Holden that he has to learn not to
hate everyone around him. He has to learn to love people. Holden is told that he has to
think about his future. He has to decide when he is going to start to take life
seriously and apply himself in 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 his problems. 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 a
mental hospital in California. The hospital is where Holden is before the flashback.
Holden was a very true-to-life character. Holden's problems are similar to many
teenagers of today. A lot of teenagers do not know what they want in life just like
Holden. Holden has many problems in school similar to the probelms other kids have in
school. Mr. Antolini says to Holden, "Many, many men have been just as troubled morally
and spiritually as you are right now." (189). His statement is an example that shows
that Holden is not the only person in the world with these problems. Their problems
might not be as severe as Holden's, but they are similar. Many teenagers don't know what
they want to do 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.
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The reader of this novel might dislike some of the actions and find them to be
unrealistic. It is unrealistic that a sixteen year old kid would go to New 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 for four 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 will not be able to go off on his own for four days without
supervision. This novel had 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 of the
problems that Holden was facing to people that I know. This novel kept my attention,
because I wanted to know what was going to happen to Holden. The author probably wrote
this novel to relate some of the problems that he had in life with the problems of people
reading this book. The author was attempting to impress upon his readers that it is okay
to not know what you want in life when you are young. I believe that he was successful,
because he made me believe that it is okay for me not to know what I want to do in life.
This novel was very well written, and I would give it an eight on a ten point scale.
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