Catcher in the Rye 5

A detailed Summary of Catcher in the Rye 5

"I keep picturing all these kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's big but me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff -What do I have to do, I have to catch them. I mean their running, and they don't look where their going, so I must come out of somewhere and catch them."(Salinger,173)

J.D. Salinger, in his timeless classic, The Catcher in the Rye, a novel depicting the complications of life as an adolescent, uses reality verses allusion, phoniness in society, and the loss of innocence as themes in his novel, to present the true inner character of Holden Caufield. Beginning to learn the truths of society and growing up, sixteen year old, Holden has a hard time adjusting to maturity. After the death of his younger brother Allie, his inability to remain in one school, and his ongoing dislike of many people and their morals, Holden has been driven to depression in which he dispenses to a psycoanaylgist throughout the novel.

Through his novel, Salinger incorporated the theme reality verses allusion, to demonstrate how the mind of some adolescents are so unwilling to face the truths of society. As stated above, Holden wishes to accompl

"Since 1888 we have been molding boys into splendid, clear-thinking young men."(Salinger,2) Throughout the novel, Catcher in the Rye, Holden expresses his distaste for the majority of society. Specifically, he claims most people act in a superficial manner, and observes the masses to be phony and unthoughtful in nature. Yet he himself acts phony, attempting to portray himself as someone else, someone better, and older, at points. Such an example would be when he speaks with Ernie Morrow's mother. In this instance, he characterizes himself as someone he hates. Another depiction of phoniness would be Stradlater, Holden's roommate at Pencey. Stradlater presents the perfect phony attitude that Holden has such distaste towards. His main worry seems to be that he must illustrate himself as the perfect jock; built, clean-cut, and gorgeous, and that bothered Holden to no end, because Stradlater never presented his true character, he constituted the word fake. Movie actors are yet another example of the phony attitude Holden so dearly dislikes. In his mind, actors always exemplify someone they aren't. In his supposition, they just play some part they are requested for money, not a part that resembles their thoughts or personality. In public, movies stars also carry out that fake attitude, where they act as though they are better than everyone else. Lastly Holden dislikes actors and movies because their phoniness demoralizes children, and allows them to explore with the mature corrupted world. Society's phoniness causes the main reason for Holden's insecurity and isolation for the outer world. He becomes so fearful that he too will become part of the fraudulent society similar to everyone surrounding him.

In his novel, The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger, presents the themes of phoniness in society, reality versus allusion, and loss of innocence, to depict the thoughts and problems of adolescent life, in such a sixteen year old as Holden Caufield. Life as a teen, presents both challenging and questionable events, and in the mid stage of his adolescent life, Holden begins

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Approximate Word count = 1404
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels