The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is a novel published in 1951. Holden Caulfield is the sixteen-year-old protagonist in the novel. He's a cynical character who has allowed grieving from his eleven-year-old brother’s death from leukemia to form the way he thinks about life, society, and himself. After getting kicked out of Pencey, a boarding school, he goes on a journey to New York City where he tries to connect with people he knows, like Sally Hayes, Carl Luce, and Mr. Antolini, and people he meets, including girls at the bar, the prostitute Sunny, Maurice, two nuns, taxi drivers and little kids. He protects himself a lot and prevents himself from connecting by using critical cynicism. He alienates himself from other characters through this misanthropic view on life, but he connects with readers through a conversational and informal style and his sense of humor. Though Holden has a …show more content…
In Catcher in the Rye, Holden remains in unchanged, in a constant stage of immaturity and judgement toward people. As Holden visits the Natural History Museum, he thinks about how the exhibits stay the same and that people instead change. “Nobody’d be different. The only thing that would be different would be you” (121). Yet Holden never really healed properly from his brother’s death, and the repetition of his thoughts and actions shows through many situations how it affects him. This character is relatable to readers these days. Especially those who are adolescents and stuck in this complicated state of mind. This book is also relatable to people of all ages because it covers different points of views. Many will connect to the character, seeing life differently and how growing up can and does change you. Holden Caulfield wants to be the catcher in the rye, to catch the kids that are growing up to become the phonies he doesn’t like. Though he’s on the edge, he resists going over and growing