...trying to say by using symbols and imagery. To someone who does not examine the book, The Catcher in the Rye, it may seem to be about a “messed up” teenager who wanders around town and doesn’t care about life. But when a range of ______ are explored, one will find that this book has common themes of innocence, changing, growing up and also death.... [tags: Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger, ] 501 words (1.4 pages) $6.95 [preview] Symbolism in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye - Many novels cannot be fully understood and appreciated if only read for face value, and J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is no exception. The abundant use of symbolism in Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is of such significance that it “proclaims itself in the very title of the novel” (Trowbridge par. 1). If the symbolism in this novel is studied closely, there should be no astonishment in learning that The Catcher in the Rye took approximately ten years to write and was originally twice its present length.... [tags: The Catcher in the Rye] :: 6 Works Cited 2836 words (8.1 pages) $49.95 [preview] Catcher In The Rye - From the Outside, Looking In Despite the debate that may wage on regarding the status to be afforded J. D. Salinger's writings, the author's books have not quietly faded into obscurity. Although published almost a half-century ago, the author's most famous work, Catcher in the Rye, enjoys almost as healthy and devoted a following today as the book did when it was first...
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...On January 1st, 1919 in New York City, New York, Jerome David Salinger or J.D. as he was called, was born. J.D. Salinger was the second child to Sol and Miriam Salinger. His father, Sol Salinger, was of Jewish decent and ran his own ham and cheese import business. When his father was looking for a wife, it was frowned upon to marry a person of another race. Sol Salinger fell in love with Miriam Salinger, of Scottish decent, despite the norms of society. However, the family did their best to hid Miriam Salinger’s background and J.D. Salinger did not even know of his mother’s decent until he was fourteen (Biography). J.D. Salinger’s childhood was much like the main character’s in the Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield. Despite his immense intelligence, he did not do well in school. Like Caulfield he flunked out. His parents, Sol and Miriam Salinger, later decided to send him off to Valley Forge Military academy in Wayne Pennsylvania. After graduating, Salinger returned home for one more year and attended New York University. His father sent him to Europe after his studies to learn another language and observe business overseas. While in Europe, Salinger grew an interest for Vienna, Italy. He was enchanted by the Italian language but paid little attention to business strategies. Back in the United States of America, Jerome...
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...protagonist from The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, consistently struggles throughout the novel. He lost his younger brother, Allie, and his parents sent him away to boarding school. Now, Holden is sick and writes the novel from a type of hospital though it is unclear his full diagnosis. J.D. Salinger’s personality is seen periodically in Holden and the people he meets. Salinger and Caulfield have many similarities seen during Salinger’s life and the novel. J.D. Salinger’s experience coping with World War II is reflected through the PTSD Holden developed due to the lack of attention he received from his parents after the death of his brother Allie. Holden Caulfield shows signs of PTSD throughout the entirety of the...
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...Throughout The Catcher In The Rye JD Salinger is suggesting that even though you may not things to change; change is inevitably going to happen. In The Catcher In The Rye; Holden not only tries to protect others from change; he tries to protect himself. He is constantly trying to protect himself against the so called “danger” that comes along when you change. One example of Holden trying to protect himself from change is when Holden constantly fails out of school. "Well. . . they'll be pretty irritated about it," I said. "They really will. This is about the fourth school I've gone to." I shook my head. I shake my head quite a lot. "Boy!" I said. I also say "Boy!" quite a lot.’’( Salinger, J.D The Catcher In The Rye pg 9). This shows that Holden know he keeps failing out of school, and he dislikes it. Every time Holden has to change schools; he has to adapt and face a transitional change. Holden has to change as a person. Holden resists this change by just not going back to school. By not switching schools; he is allowing himself to be protected against the...
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...right time. Regarding the Socratic seminar that was held on January 15, students were given a video entitled, “American Masters: Edward Norton's Analysis of "The Catcher in the Rye" | Salinger | PBS”, and two articles, “Everyone has problems, don't they?”, written by editors...
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...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...
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...Have you ever imagined that a book with obscene language, sex and an impulsive narrator to be permitted in high schools? Well ever since its release, New York Times Best Seller: The Catcher in the Rye has been debated over and over in the past 60 years on that exact issue. Some fool hearted people claim that the book is revolutionary and a piece of art capturing the teenager life, but ultimately they are just as clueless as Holden, living in their own fantasy world. In reality the novel by J.D. Salinger can really just be summarized in only one sentence; a kid who hates life that runs away from school after flunking. That sure sounds educational. So due to the combination of vulgar language, sexuality/sexism and an unreliable/arrogant narrator,...
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...humbly for one. Born on January 1, 1919, in New York, J.D. Salinger was a huge writer. His novel, The Catcher in the Rye, set a new course for writing during World War One America and made Salinger famous in the literature world. What inspired J.D. to write Catcher in the rye was the sights and sounds of a guy named Devon in the town of Tiverton where J.D. Salinger spent three months during World War 2. Salinger Served in the U.S Army and was one of the soldiers that landed on Utah Beach on D-Day while serving in the army Salinger wrote this well known novel “The Catcher in the Rye”. The main theme of the novel is the protection of innocence the story follows the life of Holden Caulfield and shows how he develops and comes of age. Holden starts out as a 17 year old boy that goes to school at a school named Pency High School which is a more formal and rich high school. In a result of not applying himself in school he was kicked out of the high school....
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...Raul Madrigal Professor Hendricks English Composition 2 1 December 2014 Bibliography Salinger, J.D. “The Catcher in the Rye” Little, Brown and Company. Boston: 1945. This source is the actual book The Catcher in the Rye which was written by J.D. Salinger. He writes of a boy, Holden Caulfield, the narrator of The Catcher in the Rye is a troubled teenager who switches between having a pompous attitude and feeling as if he is superior to others and then being aware of being alienated from his peers, to beginning to protect his innocence and that of other people. He begins to isolate himself from others because he doesn’t want to get hurt after losing a little brother, Allie. Other students looked down upon him and that is why he has possibly developed a dislike for other people. At first his isolation is more negative than positive. Holden is kicked out of the third school due to having poor grades. After being kicked out of school, he goes on a journey filled with various incidents that cause him to make grown up decisions. The story is narrated in first-person by Holden from a psychiatric hospital where Holden is for treatment. A quotation I will be using in the book is “I am always saying ‘Glad to've met you’ to somebody I'm not at all glad I met. If you want to stay alive, you have to say that stuff, though” (Salinger 87). Madrigal 2 “Catcher in the Rye the Alienation of Holden Caulfield” Humanities 360 Print. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2014. Humanities...
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...A creative work that has influenced myself and my ways of thinking has to be given to a novel by J.D. Salinger titled Catcher In The Rye. This book is a classic American novel that tells that tale of a boy named Holden Caulfield who through the period of 3 days experiences the epitome of teenage rebellion, confusion, and isolation. The reason this book has influenced my life so greatly is mainly the simplicity of the book and how it speaks so true to the realities of life. I first discovered this novel when I was in the 7th grade. I was currently going through a phase where I wanted to read all the classics and The Catcher In The Rye was on that list. There was many classics that I was reading that almost put me to sleep or that just didn’t...
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...Jacob Stelmach ENG4U Stelmach: 1 October 30th, 2015 Struggles With Change in The Catcher in the Rye: New Literary Criticism Approach Time and time again it has been proven that resisting change is impossible. The famous saying of “the only constant in life is change” is true in society and is shown in The Catcher in the Rye. For instance, in the novel the protagonist (Holden Caulfield) is clinging onto childhood, but despite his fears, change is inevitable . After reading the novel through a new literary criticism lens it is argued that author J.D. Salinger is informing his readers to avoid being overly attached to childhood because growing up is natural. Salinger engraves this message in his audience’s minds through the use of stylistic devices such as hyperbole, symbolism as well as indirect characterization. Salinger’s message of clinging onto childhood and resisting change is enforced on many occasions throughout the novel. Using hyperbole, in the first chapter of the novel, Holden emphasizes how tall he is and how he has gray hair, yet he admits that he still acts young for his age. “It’s really ironical, because I’m six foot two and half and have gray hair...The one side of my head...is full of millions of gray hairs...And yet I still act sometimes like I was only twelve.” (Salinger, 9) Salinger uses this hyperbole to really highlight to his readers that even though Holden might look like he is getting older on the outside, on the inside he...
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...something immaterial; emblem, token, or sign. In the book The Catcher in the Rye, a novel by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield has multiple things that the reader can tell represents something else . The major symbols in Catcher in the Rye are Holden's red hunting hat, the graffiti on the wall in the school, and the ducks in the lagoon. One of the most important symbols in the book is Holden’s red hunting hat. Holden has a hat, it is very unique and it represents his individuality and the want to be different. It is also red and that's the color of Phoebes and Allies hair, and he puts them a pedestal. “People with red hair are supposed to get mad very easily, but Allie never did, and he had very red hair(Salinger pg 43).” Holden is telling the reader that Allie has read hair and that he never got mad. Holden is putting Allie again on a pedestal it is very unlikely that a child didn't get mad at something, even if it was a small temper tantrum. “But it was freezing cold, and I took my red hunting hat out of my pocket and put it...
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...2015 Catcher in the Rye Jerome David (J.D.) Salinger was born on New Year’s Day in the year 1919, in New York City, “the second and last child of Sol and Marie (Miriam) Jillich Salinger” (Alexander 1). As a young boy, Salinger was interested in theatre and dramatics. Growing up, he attended a public school on the Upper West Side in Manhattan. He was always a very quiet and polite young man. His parents, Sol and Marie, thought he would fit in perfectly in a private school – seeing how well-mannered that young Salinger was – they “enrolled him in McBurney School in Manhattan in 1932” (Alexander 2), but, just as one of his most famous characters, Holden Caufield, he did not fit in very well in the private school, struggling to keep his grades satisfactory. Concerned, Salinger’s parents sent him to Valley Forge Military Academy when he was just 15 years old. “There he was active in drama and singing clubs. He sometimes wrote fiction by flashlight under his blankets at night and contributed to the school’s magazine” (Alexander 3). Salinger graduated in June of 1936 from Valley Forge, and then went on to pursue a brief, but significant college career. He began his education at New York University, but quickly dropped out “to try performing as an entertainer on a Caribbean cruise ship” (Alexander 4). When he was 20 years old, he worked toward his college career once again. He enrolled in a class at Columbia University to learn and improve on writing short stories. “Salinger sold...
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...J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye Life Doesn't Always go as Planned J.D Salinger’s 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye, takes place in the late 1940s and is mainly about a pessimistic lethargic teenager that abhors almost everything revolving around him. The novel is a first person narrative, Holden Caulfield, is the indecisive teen that tells his story about a horrible weekend he once had and calls it “this madman stuff” (Salinger 1). His story begins at his high school Pency Prep in Agerstown, Pennsylvania which he just got kicked-out of for failing all his classes except English. Holden is supposed to arrive home days later, but he gets in an argument with his roommate Stradlater, and leaves to New York to stay at the Edmont hotel. He begins...
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...Catcher in the Rye in Class Essay In the novel The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D Salinger, Holden Caulfield the main character in is struggling with growing up. While living in Manhattan for a couple of days he goes through an emotional journey where the options are grow up or “disappear”. The key moments to Holden’s coming of age journey was his moments of separation, exploration, and his self-realization. As soon as the book starts we are given evidence that Holden constantly isolates himself from society. As soon as the book starts Holden tells us that he is watching the school football’s team game by himself “practically the whole school was there except me “(2). This shows how he chooses himself to not partake in society’s activities. Another experiencing in the novel that shows Holden separation from society is him leaving Pency Prep early instead of staying until the Christmas break. Holden constantly separates himself from the adult world because he is not mature enough to understand why adult’s act the way they do so instead he just calls everything they do “phony”. We see the word “phony” used often in the novel to show Holden’s hatred toward everything to do with adults. A large bulk of the novel was following Holden’s exploration of New York as a free man. He begins to have his first experience with the adult world. This stage of his journey was beneficial to his coming of age journey as he begins to realize the level of maturity you need to...
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