The Catcher in the Rye

A detailed Summary of The Catcher in the Rye


People ought to be careful about what they say. Throughout the book The Catcher in the Rye, by J. D. Salinger, Holden, the main character, has a major conflict with society, he abominates people that act phony. Salinger portrays Holden to demonstrate how conversations can be, and are, insignificant to be heard. Silence is not perfect either, someone, when is to speak, should be sincere and truthfully, so he or she do not try to impress people in vain. Every time he is talking to someone and they start being false, he gets "nauseous" of the person and says that: "It kills me." On the contrary, whenever someone speaks from the heart or does anything they want without thinking what other's reaction would be, makes him awfully delighted. To solve this problem with society, Holden has an idea of escaping to the country and pretend, for the rest of his life, that he is deaf and mute, therefore he would not have to put up with the ignorance and repugnancy of civilization.

Therefore, ninety percent of the people Holden has a conversation with in the book, as considered by him, are phonies. He does not like the usual way of socializing,


This ideas makes one ponder, what is actually the need of talking about stuff that does not really matter and nothing will change if it is said. Some people might think differently, but Holden Caulfield does have a point. His life is very simple; he hates the people that are artificial, and loves the sincere and truthful ones. This change in life that Holden whishes to have is very drastic and not very productive, but it sure would solve his social problems. One thing was left pending though, would he be happy with his isolated life? Who knows, it is for the readers to find out.

to him, everything that people say has no importance, they just do it to impress others, like "she was just trying to get in good with me, so that I would tell old D. B. about it"(Salinger 87). He absolutely hates that kind of personality, "They both kept thinking of places as fast as they could, then they would think of somebody that lived there and mention their name. It was all set to puke when it was time to go sit again" (Salinger 127), this kind of conversation had no point into it, it is just a "who is the coolest contest." Holden is a different

Some common words found in the essay are:
Salinger Holden, Holden Caulfield, , deaf mute, Brown Co, life holden, catcher rye, country pretend, people holden, Catcher Rye,

Approximate Word count = 770
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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