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Summary: Holden's World
Review: J.D. Salinger's _The Catcher in the Rye_ is a story about a disillusioned teenager named Holden Caulfield and his subsequent two-day visit to New York and the things he encounters there after being expelled from his prep school. Holden Caulfield is a perceptive, sarcastic, intelligent personality who has resonated with readers everywhere. He makes critical, and often times humorous, observations of the adult world. He is able to see through all the "phoniness" and "crap" he encounters in New York's underbelly of bars and night clubs. But, at the same time, he struggles with his own burgeoning sexuality and loss of innocence as he makes his way closer to adulthood. Holden tells his younger sister Phoebe that he wants to be a "catcher in the rye." Holden wants to be the one who stands at the edge of the cliff and save children from falling off. Holden's standing at the edge of the cliff represents his adolescent stage in life and his nearness to becoming an adult himself. He is in that angst-filled in-between stage in which he is still searching for an identity. The bottom of the cliff represents adulthood and the "phoniness," insincerity, moral corruption, and ridiculousness that is synonmous with it. Holden wants to save children from plunging into that adultworld where a child can inevitably lose his innocence.
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Summary: The Catcher in the Rye
Review: J.D. Salinger's, The Catcher in the Rye, is an exceptional portrayal of the problems and situations that teenagers experience in their lifetime. Holden Caulfield, a seventeen-year-old boy, writes about his previous expulsion from Pencey Prep. He tries to cope with the death of his younger brother, his obsession for lying, and the problem relationships with his peers and teachers. Before Holden came to Pencey Prep, he lived a hard life. His father is an obsessive businessman, and his mother has yet to recover from the death of his younger brother, Allie. Holden fails in school, tends to get drunk and uses vulgar language. Throughout the rest of the novel, Holden encounters other students and teachers that just don't understand him and give him a hard time. Mr. Spenser, his history teacher tries to be sympathetic to Holden's problems, however he fails after a while because it is sometimes frustrating communicating with Holden. The headmaster asks Holden to leave the prep school as he is failing four of five classes and not applying himself. Holden returns home, borrows money from his ten-year-old sister, Phoebe, and leaves for the night. After that night, Holden decides to leave home, for good, and head west. Phoebe begs to leave with him, but Holden refuses. He remains confused about returning to school. The novel ends with Holden in a mental institution. I thoroughly enjoyed The Catcher in the Rye because of the complex problems that Holden faces throughout the novel. Not all plotlines have to portray perfect lives of people. It is nice to have a different and unique plotline for once. It relays real-life experiences that teenagers still face today. Although this book was written 50 years ago, it remains a good lesson for children and young adults to learn today. This book kept me on the edge of my seat, wondering what was going to happen next. I read it all in about 3 hours, and I usually don't like to read books, however this book was different; I never wanted to put it down. Just remember, like Holden, be true to yourself, but don't overdo it and waste your life failing out of classes and getting drunk. The first step to success is succeeding in yourself and knowing who you are and what you have to do to succeed.
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Summary: Holden's Reality Filled With Extremes
Review: J.D. Salinger, through Holden Caufield's use of extremes with death and temperature, displays his distaste of reality. Death is an extreme that is used quite often throughout the novel. The book begins with Holden talking about why he is not at the big football game, and how the students were "supposed to commit suicide "if they lost (2). This clearly shows the distinction between Holden and everyone else in reality. He takes the normalcy of attending the football game and places himself at the other end of the spectrum, and then aggrandizes it by saying how the mere loss of a football game could supposedly result in a mass forfeiture of life. Suicide arises as an extreme measure that occurs in reality over sometimes-small things like a loss in a football game. Holden mocks this occurrence within reality. When Holden meets the three girls in the bar, his attitude labels them as the norm of girls in New York. Holden relates how the girls did not speak and then he talks about how they "nearly committed suicide," when they saw an actor (74). From the beginning Holden displays how he abhors the movies. This shows the reality of how the three girls are affected by society to the point that they would go to the extreme of committing suicide to see a mere person, an actor. Holden ends up hating the girls and this parallels with his distaste towards reality. Holden also belittles a couple who were "feeling each other" as the male spoke about a kid committing suicide. This clearly shows how disturbed people in reality become and how Holden hates the phoniness of them. To all these stories and observations, Holden replies with "It killed me (119)." This remark soars in every other page at least a couple of times. In a way, it does kill Holden, for his view of the good in reality deteriorates with each of his revelations. This leads to Holden's obsession for an Odyssey-like voyage away from reality. Temperature also plays an important role in overwhelming the reader with the depressing mood of reality. Holden uses temperature quite often to make the reader feel uneasy and uncomfortable as he reads. This lets one feel Holden's misery and allows one to incorporate the hatred of the reality through Holden's eyes. Holden characterizes the temperature in the beginning as "cold as a witch's teat (2)." Holden then describes why he feels that way, which includes that someone stole his jacket and gloves, while he was at his Pencey Academy. This leads to the emphasis on the appearance vs. reality of Pencey. Pencey mounts supposedly to an ambiance of well-educated and morally right men, while Holden instead shows how thieves roam the halls and rooms. The reality of Pencey scars him mentally, and impels his apathy towards his eternal suspension. The reader finds out that, "At Pencey, you either froze to death or died of the heat (23)." This foreshadows the extremist view of Holden. Here, he displays the lack of finding a middle area, and both ends suffering the same consequence. This also is analogous with his view of reality, that either way you are cooked. Holden relates himself to the ducks and wonders where they go when the lake freezes over. In a sense, he feels his life has frozen over and he needs to escape reality like the ducks. The most extreme form of cold temperature is ice, and that is where Holden feels surrounds him. The temperature outside never raised, it was only frigid. This shows how the reality of the world could be escaped when he departed to a house, but he always ends up cold again. He talks about how hot he felt when Mr. Antolini pats him on his head inside Mr. Antolini's house, then the next thing "I [Holden Caufield] was getting sorta cold (95)." The temperature relates to how people can evade reality, but they always have to come back in the end. Holden parallels the two extremes of death and temperature when he says, " I kept worrying that I was getting pneumonia, with all those hunks of ice in my hair, and that I was going to die." This correlation portrays Holden's reality and its virulent extremes. Holden expresses how the extremes of death and temperature exist in every day life, and portrays them as flaws in order to incorporate his purpose of displaying his aversion towards the reality of the world. I enjoyed the novel and Holden's depiction of the real world, and the way the book did not hide the truth. The world is full of corrupt and phony people. Holden views this phoniness and through his book attempts to educe it to his readers.
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Summary: reminds me of yeshiva dorm life
Review: J.D. salingers' classic brought back many memories of yeshiva dorm life for me. The competition, snobs [and jocks]... Trying to fit into clicks,however, ultimately coming to the conclusion that everyone is full of [it]. All the while failing to realize that you are as well. In Catcher in the Rye Salinger sums up very well what it is like to be a teenager, to feel alone and missunderstood by everyone.
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Summary: If you don't LOVE this book- there's something wrong w/ you
Review: J.D.Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye", is quite possibly the best book I will ever read. Some say it is for kids. I beg to differ. This book hit home for close to millions of people. It is a timeless classic. Holden is the guy we all identify with for many reasons. He is a loner, he's funny, he doesn't know what to do with himself, and his intentions are good. The book is hysterical at parts and sad in others. I love this book so much because I went to a school very much like the one described in this book and I know what Holden is talking about. The bottom line is: Catcher in the Rye should have gotten a Nobel Prize in literature because it is so right on the money. As a coming of age novel, or for any reader who hasn't read this yet, please read it. It will change the way you think! No other book has been so poignant in so many ways for so many people. Read it and find out for yourself.
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Summary: The exact description of typical teenager crisis
Review: JD Salinger describes the typical crisis that every one of us goes through during our teenage years. The author blends humor, sarcasm and depression to make this novel one out of a thousand!
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Summary: People are actually Supposed to read this?
Review: JD Salinger has been called a great writer. Considering this is all I have read written by him I guess i can't argue. The fact is though, this book is pointless, its like a docusoap on channel 5 (thats a UK thing!) shown at two in the morning, which noone watches anyway. Caufields life, and the book commenting on it, goes nowhere and this book just get boring after a short time. A *very* short time.
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Summary: I could not stand this novel
Review: JD Salinger is an idiot. The Catcher in the Rye has no artistic merit. I wrote similar pieces as a 2nd grader.
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Summary: The unknown future of Holden Caulfield
Review: JD Salinger wrote six stories for the New Yorker mentioning Holden Caulfield. Since the book began in 1941, I'm assuming the book took place around then - making his 1945 story, the last, true, and, ultimately, depressing as hell. Holden's brother, Vincent (or DB in the book, apparantly), narrates a very short story where he expresses disdain over Holden's being MIA. It's ultimately revealed that Holden Caulfield dies overseas, a mere four or five years after Catcher takes place. I don't know what's more depressing, that, or the fact that, in the book, the biggest phony of them all is Holden Caulfield.
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Summary: Holden is "phony"
Review: JD Salinger's loose style of writing is excellent. i love how its so easy to read and follow, this book is a very good book because of Salinger's writing technique, but Holden, a rich, depressed boy, is nothing but a hypocrite. I liked the story though because its almost funny to hear Holden bitching about other characters he believes are phony when he in fact is just like them. it reminds me about a lot of people i know, those types who say "i hate when people think there better then others" and "I hate when people talk behind eachothers backs" poor spoiled little rich kid :( i feel bad for Holden.
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