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The Catcher In The Rye Character Analysis

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The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is narrated by the main character, a sixteen year-old boy named Holden Caulfield. The story starts out with Holden attending a prep school near New York City called Pencey Academy. Soon we discover that Holden has been “given the axe” because of his apparent apathy about school and his grades. Unfortunately, Pencey is only one in a series of schools that Holden has flunked out of. The plot is all about Holden going out on an adventure by himself and trying to find who he is in a society and world he cannot seem to find any contentment with. Some of the seemingly random this he does on his ‘escape’ include an exciting night in a New York hotel, a date with one of his old flames, a trip to a museum he …show more content…

The characters were very diverse, personalized, and complimented Holden’s personality well. Unfortunately this book used profanity quite a bit. Although swear words can sometimes be used to make a defining statement, most if not all profanity used was unnecessary and repetitive. J.D. Salinger did a great job with making Holden’s inner thoughts resound with the reader. Even though Caulfield’s comments appeared more driven and profound than a normal person’s, most people have felt and thought similar things and emotions that were expressed by Holden. The writing and style of this book were very good; however, the plot and story itself wasn’t interesting and exciting, but rather seemed to go on and on. Also, even though Holden is constantly complaining about what is happening around him, he never openly discusses his feelings or expresses what he feels about events. This antagonistic view on the world, where nothing is ever functioning as it should, was enough to drive you crazy. Perhaps this is a device J.D. Salinger used to personalize and connect with the reader more. No wonder Holden Caulfield was admitted to a mental hospital near the end of the book. A lot of Holden’s troubles can be directly attributed to his young age and immaturity. At the tender age of 16, it comes across as being that Holden has been subjected to the worst of the world and hasn’t been able to view the happy and wonderful things that humanity has

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