The Cathcher In The Rye

The Catcher in the Rye is a novel whose protagonist is a 16 years old boy, Holden Caulfield, who is struggling to find his place in the world he’s living in. A world he doesn’t like but in which he has to live.

By the time he tells the story he is 17.

Holden , the first person narrator, represents in a certain way the figure of the adolescent that finds himself uncomfortable and not accepted in the world he’s living in, and who, as a consequence of that, tries to isolate himself from society and hides in a shell made of cynical comments and freakish behavior. Holden is a character of the 1950s but it’s pretty obvious that this kind of adolescent, that rebels against society and mostly against the grownup world , existed before that and it exists also today.

A teenager can definitely relate to some of Holden’s actions and struggles as being the desire for independence, the curiosity and yet fear for sexuality, the individual view of the world, the questioning about his religion, the language characterized by swearing and slang, the teenage pressures such as drinking and smoking.

Throughout the novel we can see several aspects of Holden’s life and personality . As it was said above, when talking he uses slang and profanity and he probably does it to distinguish himself from others and to rebel to society. During my evaluation, several aspects of the young boy’s personality will be pointed out and better analyzed.

The story begins with Holden telling his story in a cynical voice, distant from his present life because he sees it as “ all that David Copperfield kind of crap” and he prefers to talk about “this madman stuff” that happened to him the years before around Christmas.

"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth."

These expressions he uses suggest us that what happened in the past had a big impact upon his life and personality and the thing that he doesn’t feel like talking about it underlines this aspect even more. From what he says in this passage,” and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me”, his parents probably neglected him and this might be another reason for his anger against grownups.

We can see right away the type of language that Holden uses. For example when he says: “ I was standing way the hell on top of Thomsen Hill, right next to this crazy cannon…You could see the two teams bashing each other all over the place. You couldn't see the grandstand too hot, …scrawny and faggy on the Saxon Hall sideвЂ¦Ð²Ð‚Ñœ

The underlined words are obvious examples of slang terms, which are used by Holden all through the novel.

The story is about our main character’s last day at Pencey Prep, with him telling how he stood on Thomsen hill watching the football game and preparing to leave the school, not only because the winter holiday was coming but also because he had flunked again. Flunking is quite normal for him since Pencey is the third school he was in because of that.

We can see right away that Holden is a lonesome person. He is not at the game with everyone else. He prefers to maintain the distance. At the same time he is trying to feel “some king of a good-bye” but he cants , and this thing really bothers him.

In the first two chapters we can notice another important aspect in Holden’s personality.

Despite the fact he had flunked history, he goes to say farewell to Mr. Spencer, his history teacher. Mr. Spencer has been kind with him and at first, Holden seems to respond to this kindness. However, he feels uncomfortable at “old Spencer’s” house because of how his teacher presents himself and because of the unpleasant smell of Vicks syrup and medicines. Mr. Spencer was wearing his pajamas and had his hairless legs out. Holden doesn’t like sickness and ugliness and he sees them as destroyers of the outside world’s beauty and innocence. Further on we will better understand why.

Another important fact is that Holden always calls his teacher “Spencer” or “Old Spencer” and not even once Mr. Spencer. We can understand that he doesn’t respect and like him as much as to call him “Mr.”

Spencer’s behavior is motivated by his concern for Holden’s situation, but the last one takes it as mean-spirited and seems to be looking for reasons not to listen to him.

From the following quotation: “Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules.”

“Yes, sir. I know it is. I know it.”

Game, my ass. Some game. If you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then it’s a game, all rightвЂ"I’ll admit that. But if you get on the other side, where there aren’t any hot-shots, then what’s a game about it? Nothing. No game.” we can see once again that Holden feels alienated. He is on the wrong side of life, alone , and he has the right side against him.

Holden is a first-person narrator but he is not 100% reliable and this because he describes his own experience in his own words and from his own point of view, and as a consequence his point of view is necessarily limited. He is unreliable also because he if often contradictory and he criticizes certain behaviors in others and in a second moment he has those behaviors himself. He hates liars but at the same time he lies a lot. For example when on the train, going to New York, he meets this lady that turns out to be the mother of one of his phony classmates, he tells her just lies and when he realizes that she is a nice person he feels sorry for his behavior. We can notice that Holden is quite superficial from this point of view. "Then I started reading this timetable I had in my pocket. Just to stop lying. Once I get started, I can go on for hours if I feel like it. No kidding. Hours." He tags people in a negative way before getting to