I'm Crazy

He was a literary giant despite his really small body of works and reclusive lifestyle. His most famous and innovative novel, The Catcher in the Rye, set a new course for literature in post-WW2 America and vaulted Salinger to the heights of literary fame. JD Salinger’s Holden Caulfield, the main character of his novel, is to the 20th century the unforgettably haunting voice of the adolescent at odds with a very troubling world. Holden is an unhappy, rich and lost boy who has done a bunk from his

“The knowledge that makes us cherish innocence makes innocence unattainable.”(Irving Howe Quote) The classic novel, The Catcher in the Rye, demonstrates this loss of innocence through a young boy’s corruption of a poem by Robert Burns. The poem is titled “Coming Thro’ the Rye” but the young boy misinterpreted one of the lines. Instead of saying “If a body meet a body, coming through the rye,” the line from the original poem, he sang“If a body catch a body, coming through the rye.”(Salinger 129)

J.D. Salinger’s opinion of the world in The Catcher in the Rye shows both his hatred and fascination for the ingenuine nature of society. Throughout the novel Holden Caufield is conflicted between commenting on the “phoniness” of things around him, “a heading under which he loosely lumps not only insincerity but snobbery, injustice, callousness to the tears in things, and a lot more,”(Behrman) and the impulsive, self-loathing mentality he portrays. Salinger utilizes many aspects of his own life and

look better, and Holden does not skip one beat before pointing out his inauthenticity. The irony behind all of these instances when Holden calls others phony is that Holden has many cases building up himself. He lies constantly, and he even says, “I’m the most terrific liar you ever saw” (19). In one circumstance, Holden encounters a woman on the bus who happens to be the mother of a boy from Pencey, and he tells Mrs. Morrow one lie after another. He creates a fake name for himself, and begins “shooting

Rahul Gudivada EWA2 Literary Analysis 11/9/15 The Catcher in the Rye: The Expression of Individuality In the bildungsroman Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger employs the struggle of individuality, inevitable maturation, and the childhood corruption of adulthood to reveal Holden’s alienation from society. Throughout the novel Holden is rejected and exploited by the society around him. As he is conflicted with himself to find a purpose in life he constantly tries to connect with a superficial society

Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going. I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be "The Catcher in the Rye" and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be. (173) By saying this, Holden exposes

Times with little hope in our lives can throw us into a range of emotion. One of the most famous novels, The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger portrays one of life’s most important range of emotion that human beings can feel, the five stages of grief. The main character within this classic novel, Holden Caulfield, is trapped within these five stages of grief after his brother, Allie, dies of leukemia. Holden is then stuck in the five stages of grief after not being able to obtain closure. Holden’s

hints towards the lens of feminism. For most of the book Holden doesn’t have a set course of what he wants to do in life, but when he says to Phoebe, “Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around – nobody big, I mean – except me. And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have

He's having a conversation with his sister and she asks him what he plans to do with his life and he respond with "I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff—I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d

The Catcher in the Rye: Prompt 3 In the novel, Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger uses a variety of symbols to support the thematic idea that maturation and the loss of innocence are an inescapable rite of passage for all of humanity. Three significant symbols that signify the importance of alteration and losing one’s purity to become more suited to live in the real world are the ducks in the lagoon of Central Park, the “Catcher in the Rye”, and the carousel and the gold ring. Furthermore, these