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Close Reading Of The Catcher In The Rye

Decent Essays

As Catcher in the Rye progresses, Holden’s experiences become more meaningful and reflective; as a result, the protagonist accelerates towards his inevitable breakdown, revealing a pain-riddled, lost, thoughtful, oddly hopeful, and utterly real personality in the process. Holden is increasingly disgusted with how normal people approach life, thus making him unsure in how to approach his own life. “People never think anything is anything really. I’m getting goddamn sick of it” (Salinger 190). This prodded question of what is meaningful reverberates throughout the movies, plays, books, stories, and other creative works that span the length of human existence. Nodding at the true root of his obsession with phoniness, Holden often struggles with …show more content…

Salinger frames observations about society and self in the crass, upper-middle class American vernacular of Holden Caulfield. Somehow, he finds a way to permanently slot this distinct, developed character into the consciousness of teens across the world - generation after …show more content…

“O Pencey, My Pencey!” Contemporary Literary Criticism, edited by Jeffrey W. Hunter, vol. 243, Gale, 2008. Literature Criticism Online, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/FKJSBC144834905/GLS?u=avlr&sid=GLS&xid=34245e04. Accessed 2 May 2018. Originally published in The Catcher in the Rye: Innocence Under Pressure, Twayne Publishers, 1993, pp. 27-49. Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Little, Brown and Company, 1991. Silverberg, Mark. "You Must Change Your Life: Formative Responses to the Catcher in the Rye." Contemporary Literary Criticism, edited by Jeffrey W. Hunter, vol. 243, Gale, 2008. Literature Criticism Online, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/UGTZGE555899909/GLS?u=avlr&sid=GLS&xid=6449beca. Accessed 2 May 2018. Originally published in In The Catcher in the Rye: New Essays, edited by J. P. Steed, Peter Lang, 2002, pp. 7-32. Whitfield, Stephen J.“Cherished and Cursed: Toward a Social History of The Catcher in the Rye.” Children's Literature Review, edited by Jelena Krstovic, vol. 181, Gale, 2013. Literature Resource Center, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/H1420114072/GLS?u=avlr&sid=GLS&xid=16e25638. Accessed 2 May 2018. Originally published in New England Quarterly, vol. 70, no. 4, Dec. 1997, pp.

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