Book Review: The Catcher In The Rye

The Catcher in the Rye is a novel written by J. D. Salinger in 1951. This book talks about teenage confusion and rebellion. The story talks about how Holden Caulfield, the protagonist in the story, struggle through his teenage life after dropping out of school. Holden had a dream of being “The Catcher in the Rye”, picturing a rye field near a cliff, and he wants to be the catcher that would “catch” or prevent the children from falling down the hill, losing their innocence and going into adulthood. This story is a good example of post modernist literature as it shows the lost state of Holden, after leaving school, leaving a meaningless life. Along his way he met up with different people that gave him inspirations that eventually caused him to come up with the idea of being “The Catcher in the Rye”, in a sense making sense of the world and his purpose.

In the story The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield was expelled from school after a term of poor results, and he left for New York in the middle of the night. He stayed overnight and met up with a prostitute named Sunny. Sunny began teasing Holden, and Holden felt uncomfortable. Holden then tells Sunny that he only wanted to talk, which put her off, and she leaves, only to come back with her pimp Maurice, to ask for money, and in the process giving Holden a punch. Holden felt lonely and bored, so he called up his old girlfriend Sally and asked her to go for a musical with him. Sally agrees but when Holden asks Sally to run away from with him, Sally rejects, and leaves after Holden scolded her. He then spent time alone in the city for a few more days before ending up in a museum. He compares the statues in the museum with him, saying that both are unchanged over so many years, and have been standing there doing nothing for the same period of time. This shows the pessimism of Holden towards his life and future. He had flashbacks about his family, his dead brother, and his younger sister Phoebe. He then went to Phoebe and shared his views of himself being “the catcher in the rye”, catching all the children from falling down the cliff of adulthood, preventing them from entering the sorry state that he is experiencing. He went to one of his teacher’s house for counseling on how he should live his life. His teacher Mr. Antolini gave him a lecture but Holden was too tired and went to sleep. He woke up with Mr. Antolini stroking his head, and misunderstanding him that he was homosexual, Holden left. He then shares with Phoebe that he wanted to travel west and leave New York. However, Phoebe wanted to follow him, which Holden did not want and he eventually got rid of the idea. The story ended with Holden going into Phoebe’s school, and he became optimistic about his future after going through so much.