...The Catcher In The Rye was an interesting read. This coming-of-age novel by J.D. Salinger was copyrighted in 1945, 1946, 1951, and renewed in 1979. This book kept me hooked in through all 234 pages. The story begins with Holden Caulfield explaining how Pencey Prep is the fourth school he has been kicked out of. He describes that he failed every class except for English. While everybody else in the boarding school is watching the football game, Holden decides to go see his former history teacher Mr. Spencer to say goodbye and also because Mr. Spencer sent Holden a note to see him before he left town. The visit starts out nice, but Holden cuts the meeting short when the conversation gets too serious. Mr. Spencer starts to lecture Holden about...
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...Catcher in the Rye: FLE In J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield expresses his love of innocence as he sees it in others, in numerous ways. He demonstrates this through the way he talks about others and the way he acts around them. We learn that Holden lost his own innocence at an early age after his “perverty” (193) encounter with Mr. Antolini. Because of this, he cherishes, and wants to protect innocence in others. This is really a reflection of his desire to be innocent himself. Allie is a paragon of innocence to Holden. I know he’s dead! Don’t you think I know that? I can still like him, though, can’t I? Just because somebody’s dead, you don’t just stop liking them, for God’s sake–especially if they were a thousand times nicer than the people you know that’re alive and all (171). Innocence is lost in adulthood. Since Allie never becomes an adult, he is for Holden the epitome of innocence, consequently, Holden’s love for him is very deep. Holden’s memories of Allie will always be of an innocent Allie. Holden says that he will not stop liking Allie just because he is dead. The other people he talks about are the adults that Holden sees around him. He does not like any of them because they are phony, and have lost their innocence. Mr. Spencer is one person in the book who definitely has lost his innocence, but Holden does not dislike him. Although Holden says he likes Mr. Spencer, he does imply that Mr. Spencer is a phony. There are other...
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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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...The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, like many other great works, was met by scornful criticism and unyielding admiration. However, many literary critics also admired Salinger's use of language, which is used to make Holden Caulfield, the protagonist, extremely realistic. Such language includes repetition of phrases, blatant cursing, and bold statements in order to capture the informal speech of the average, northern American adolescent. Through Holden's thoughts and dialogues, Salinger successfully created a teenage boy that changed the literary world. The language used in The Catcher in the Rye has long been a topic of controversy to literary critics. Holden Caulfield's thoughts and comments serve to deepen his personality and to provide entertainment. Salinger wants to create a typical teenager while keeping Holden as an individual at the same time. Like most teenagers, Holden speaks in trite sentences. However, he also uses words in places that were then uncommon. Holden often leaves his sentences dangling with words like "and all" and "or anything." Salinger intentionally used such speech repetition to individualize Holden, and, at the same time, make him a believable teenager of the early 1950s. Moreover, Holden has other expressions that appear consistently throughout the novel. In some places, the expressions only serve to make Holden more realistic, while in other places Holden is trying to reinforce his values. Holden repeatedly comments on his hatred towards...
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...The Catcher in the Rye, a novel written by J.D Salinger, is about a sixteen-year-old boy named Holden Caulfield who is troubled and misunderstood. He is critical and skeptical about the world he lives in, and only respects his deceased brother, Allie, and his younger sister, Phoebe, because of their innocence. Phoebe isn't “phony” like everybody else is to Holden, and because of this he truly admires and trusts her with his inner thoughts. In a way, Holden and Phoebe are each other's heroes without even knowing it. Holden yearns to live in a world that is genuine, and it's clear that Holden is fighting a psychological battle within himself, which makes depression and conflict major themes throughout this novel. Salinger's novel is extremely controversial because of the teenage angst displayed and the language used by Holden, but it is an accurate look inside the mind of someone who feels alienated. The literary critic, Michicku Kakutani, mentions that Salinger gave Holden “a voice that enabled him to channel an alienated 16-year-old's thoughts and anxieties and frustrations, a voice that skeptically appraised the world and denounced its phonies and hypocrites and bores.” Holden fails out of school and goes to New York where he interacts with people, but he thinks they are all phony, so he spends a lot of time feeling like a failure. Past events that occurred in Holden's life definitely make him judgmental, such as when his former English teacher, Mr. Antonlini, pats him on...
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...The Catcher in the Rye is a 1951 novel by J. D. Salinger. Originally published for adults, it has since become popular with adolescent readers for its themes of teenage angst and alienation. It has been translated into almost all of the world's major languages. Around 250,000 copies are sold each year with total sales of more than 65 million books. The novel's protagonist Holden Caulfield has become an icon for teenage rebellion. The novel was included on Time's 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923, and it was named by Modern Library and its readers as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. In 2003, it was listed at number 15 on the BBC's survey The Big Read. The novel also deals with complex issues of identity, belonging, connection, and alienation. Plot summary Holden begins his story at Pencey Prep, an exclusive private school in Agerstown, Pennsylvania, on the Saturday afternoon of the traditional football game with rival school Saxon Hall. Holden misses the game. As manager of the fencing team, he loses their equipment on a New York City subway train that morning, resulting in the cancellation of a match. He goes to the home of his History teacher named Mr. Spencer. Holden has been expelled and is not to return after Christmas break, which begins the following Wednesday. Spencer is a well-meaning but long-winded middle-aged man. To Holden's annoyance, Spencer reads aloud Holden's History paper, in which Holden...
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...T he Catcher in the Rye is set around the 1950s and is narrated by a young man named Holden Caulfield. Holden is not specific about his location while he’s telling the story, but he makes it clear that he is undergoing treatment in a mental hospital or sanatorium. The events he narrates take place in the few days between the end of the fall school term and Christmas, when Holden is sixteen years old.As Holden goes out to the lobby, he starts to think about Jane Gallagher and, in a flashback, recounts how he got to know her. They met while spending a summer vacation in Maine, played golf and checkers, and held hands at the movies. One afternoon, during a game of checkers, her stepfather came onto the porch where they were playing, and when he left Jane began to cry. Holden had moved to sit beside her and kissed her all over her face, but she wouldn’t let him kiss her on the mouth. That was the closest they came to “necking.” Holden leaves the Edmont and takes a cab to Ernie’s jazz club in Greenwich Village. Again, he asks the cab driver where the ducks in Central Park go in the winter, and this cabbie is even more irritable than the first one. Holden sits alone at a table in Ernie’s and observes the other patrons with distaste. He runs into Lillian Simmons, one of his older brother’s former girlfriends, who invites him to sit with her and her date. Holden says he has to meet someone, leaves, and walks back to the Edmont. Maurice, the elevator operator at the Edmont, offers to...
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...Title: The Catcher in the Rye Author: J.D. Salinger Setting: Time: A long weekend in the late 1940s or early 1950s Place: Holden begins his story in Pennsylvania, at Pencey Prep. He then recounts his adventures in New York City. Themes: Alienation as a form of self-protection; the painfulness of growing up; the phoniness of the adult world Characters: • Holden Caulfield- he protagonist and narrator of the novel, Holden is a sixteen-year-old junior who has just been expelled for failing from Pencey Prep. Although he is intelligent and sensitive, Holden narrates in a cynical and jaded voice. He finds the hypocrisy and ugliness of the world around him almost unbearable, and he tries to protect himself from the pain and disappointment of the adult world. The criticisms that Holden aims at people around him are also aimed at himself. He is uncomfortable with his own weaknesses, and at times displays as much phoniness, meanness, and superficiality as anyone else in the book. • Ackley- Holden's next-door neighbor in his dorm at Pencey Prep. Ackley is a pimply, insecure boy; he often barges into Holden's room and is oblivious to Holden's hints that he should leave. • Stradlater- Holden's roommate at Pencey Prep. Stradlater is handsome, self-satisfied, and popular. • Jane Gallagher - A girl with whom Holden spent a lot of time one summer. Jane is extremely important to Holden, because she is one of the few girls whom he both respects and finds attractive. • Phoebe Caulfield...
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...Tyler Ryan Professor Wheeler English 101 April 22, 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...
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...The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger, depicts an excerpt from Holden’s life during which multiple boarding schools expel Holden, the narrator. After the headmaster of Pencey, one of these boarding schools, kicks him out, Holden tries to figure out what he wants to do with his life. After considering a plethora of possibilities, Holden decides to become the “catcher in the rye” because of his fixation with the museum at the park as well as the curse words written on the wall at his sister’s elementary school. Holden plans include nonsensical, impossible things such as catching children after they jump from a cliff. Specifically, Holden envisions himself standing on the edge of a cliff in a rye field and “catch[ing]...
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...In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger reveals his understanding of life and people by using the narration of the character, Holden Caulfield. The story of The Catcher in the Rye takes place from Pennsylvania to New York in a Christmas setting during the winter around the 1950s. As Holden was kicked out from his boarding school, he goes on an adventure to return home. Near the end of the story, after Phoebe gets mad at Holden for deciding to leave her and escape from his home, he decides that he will return home with Phoebe. He then walks to the park with Phoebe and convinces her to ride the carousel. As Holden sits on the bench and watches Phoebe on the carousel, he says, "The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the...
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...The Title of my book is Catcher In the Rye. JD Salinger wrote this book. Born January 1st 1919 to Marie and Sol Salinger in Manhattan, New York. He would go on to write one of the most popular books of all time. The Catcher in the Rye is his only novel but he did write more than one collection of short stories. This Book takes place in Pennsylvania and New York. It set around the 1950’s. The whole atmosphere is melancholy due to the narrator’s hatred for most things. “If there’s one thing I hate, it’s the movies. Don’t even mention them to me.” Goddamn money. It always ends up making you blue as hell.” The book is told in first person. Holden Caulfield, the 17-year-old narrator and protagonist of the novel, speaks to the reader directly from a mental hospital or sanitarium in southern California. Holden wants to tell what happened over a two-day period the previous year....
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...Ena Mišković Leonarda Lovrović Modern English Practice 1 15 January 2013 J. D. Salinger: The Catcher in the Rye The Catcher in the Rye is a novel written by the American author Jerome David Salinger. From its first publishing the novel has arose a lot of controversy. Salinger wrote his novel in the first person, addressing the readers in its very beginning, so the readers have a feeling that he speaks directly to them. Furthermore, sequences follow the exact thought processes of the main character, which brings him, as well as the complete novel, even more close to the readers. The story takes place mostly in New York in December 1949, just before the Christmas holidays. The plot follows a seventeen-year-old boy protagonist Holden Caulfield who retells several days in his life, giving his personal opinion of the society that surrounds him after being expelled from the third school in a row. The novel is presented as his own monologue written in a subjective style, which reflects the teenage colloquial speech of that period of time. A drop-out Holden has attracted a wide audience of adolescent readers, yet gained many negative critiques due to his rebellious way of thinking and acting, and his common use of street language; he expresses himself in slang, in a very witty manner, also using curses and swearwords quite often. However, the Catcher in the Rye has experienced a great success, and has been translated into many languages. It was and still is very influential book...
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...J. D. Salinger's notable and esteemed novel, Catcher in the Rye, reflects the hypercritical views of a troubled teenager, Holden Caulfield, towards everyone around him and society itself. This character has a distinguished vision of a world where morality, principles, intelligence, purity, and naivety should override money, sex, and power, but clearly in the world he inhabits these qualities have been exiled. Holder desperately clings to and regards innocence as one of the most important virtues a person can have. However, he son becomes a misfit since society is corrupted and he yearns for companionship, any kind of connection with another to feel whole and understood again. Ironically, despite his persistent belittling and denouncing of others, he does not apply the same critical and harsh views on himself. In Holden's eyes, society has influenced people to lose themselves. He is outraged by how easily citizens would bend to the ways of society to fit and prevail in it. He claims his own brother, D.B.--a talented writersold out his potential to Hollywood. In his mind, D.B. could be viewed as a prostitute that would sell himself, or his services, to whoever was the highest bidder. Ernie is too portrayed in such a way as D.B. is, as the accomplished and gifted pianist was depicted as using his talent to gain fame and money. Holden found himself disgusted by Ernie's corniness and the way of showing off his talent when passionately playing the piano to entertain as well as amazing...
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...Every human being has a different view of the world, a different view of those around him or her. Some may have a positive view, while others may think oppositely and have a negative view. Holden Caulfield, the main character in J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1951) is a peculiar teen boy with a pessimistic view on life, who sees other people in the world as “phony”. He goes through his life judging others, putting himself above them by distancing himself and not connecting with them. Holden’s characterization as a peculiar, judgmental, insecure teen boy helps exemplify how one’s false perceptions of others may lead him to distance and alienate himself from those around him, in order to protect himself from becoming like those whom he finds different. Holden is a teen boy who is extremely judgmental of everything and everyone around him. He sees those around him as phony, acting like or trying to be something that they are not. Holden says of his roommate, “Stradlater was more of a secret slob. He always looked all right, but for instance, you should’ve seen the razor he shaved himself with. It was always rusty as hell and full of lathers and hair and crap. He never cleaned it or anything… he was a secret slob anyway, if you knew him the way I did,” (27). He is very judgmental and critical about something so simple as a man’s shaving razor. In a way, Holden sees Stradlater as phony because he appears well-groomed and handsome...
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