The Catcher in the Rye
“Among other things, you’ll find that you’re not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior.... Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now... And it isn’t education. It’s history. It’s poetry” (Salinger, 246). These humorous lines from J.D. Salinger’s classic, The Catcher in the Rye refer to the monolog by Holden Caulfield. Holden defies the societal standards for the young adult at the time. Collectively, the 1950s evokes visions of nostalgia. The Nuclear family model thrived and men scurried between desk jobs and houses with picket fences. But for the newly coined “teenagers”, this time was very different for them. This generation was right after the baby boomers. There was a lot of rules and guideline that the new generation didn’t want to be part of, thus, a period of experimentation. Throughout this turbulent account of Holden terrible year, Salinger underscores …show more content…
Salinger’s life experienced is contrasted into the story by the inclusion of Pencey Prepatory academy. J.D. Salinger went to the United States Military academy at Valley Forge close to the end of the World War Two. Holden’s feeling toward Pencey Prep is very clear when he said “They advertise in about a thousand magazines, always showing some hot shot guy on a horse jumping over a fence. Like as if all you ever did at Pencey was play polo all the time. I never even once saw a horse anywhere near the place.” (Salinger, 4). But Holden sees Pencey preps as a school with adolescence running amok. Critic Laser says “Holden… as the champion of … hypocrisy and self-delusion” (Laser, 1008). As Critic Warren French says “Salinger’s earlier stories portray Holden as World War Two solider who was killed” (French, 435). The prepatory academy plays a big role in this story since J.D Salinger went to one in real and that Holden’s traits of rebellion and discontent stem from this