Analyse af J. D. Salingers 'The Catcher in The Rye'

An Essay on J. D. Salinger’s novel ”the Catcher in The Rye”

Life is full of changes and a lot of decisions must be made. Therefore it can be a very difficult time for anyone going through these transitions and it can have an immense impact on your life. The story of Holden in the Catcher in The Rye explains how hard life sometimes can be and how he manages to get out on the other side.

Holden Caulfield is both the main character of the Catcher in The Rye and the narrator of the book. He is a student, who has been kicked out of multiple schools. Recently he has been kicked out of the school called Pencey Prep. He has no interest in an education and therefore he doesn’t care about it even though he got the ability to get an education. In the book Holden is going through a difficult time and he struggles with a lot of things but most of all he struggles with growing up. He dreads maturity and wants to stay in the innocence of childhood and not grow up to become a phony adult, which he finds every adult.

One of Holden’s other problems is loneliness. He doesn’t have the best relationship with his parents because they send him away to private schools, and he has the perception that his parents find him useless and that they have given up on him. Holden doesn’t have any real close friends either, but he has a desperate need of that. It is affecting him a lot and it has gone so far that he just wants to be with somebody and doesn’t care who: "I went into the phone booth. I felt like giving somebody a buzz. I left my bags right outside the booth so that I could watch them, bus as soon as I was inside the booth, I couldn't think of anybody to call up." (p 64 l 1-4). The quote from the book is an example of him being lonely. He wants to call somebody but he doesn’t have anybody to call because he doesn’t have any friends.