The Catcher In The Rye Novel English Literature Essay

The Catcher in the Rye is a fresh written by J.D. Salinger. The novel The Catcher in the Rye follows a male child called Holden Caulfield. Holden is the storyteller of the novel and is a tall, troubled 16 twelvemonth old adolescent. Holden had merely gotten kicked out of his prep school for his bad Markss and for non using himself. He leaves the school early and decides non to travel place. He alternatively decides to remain at a hotel for his three yearss before he is expected place and hold a small clip to make whatever he wanted in New York City. He goes partying, gets into problem, visited past familiarities and even sneaks in to his ain place to speak to his sister. In the novel The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger uses allusion, word picture and symbolism to depict how big society is superficial, corrupt and hypocrite while kids are guiltless, good and pure.

Jerome David Salinger was a superb American novelist and besides a short narrative author ( Liukkonen 1 ) . He grew up in New York City in a affluent household ( 2 ) . He like Holden was sent to Prep schools and did n’t hold the best classs ( 2 ) . Salinger was besides known as a sarcastic individual ( 2 ) . Salinger is a really quiet and private adult male and frequently avoided promotion and newsmans ( 9 ) . “ ‘I wish to compose. I love to compose. But I write merely for myself and my ain pleasance, ‘ said Salinger in 1974 to a New York Times letter writer ” ( 9 ) . “ Salinger continued to compose, but cipher was allowed to see the work ” ( 9 ) . “ From the late 60 ‘s he avoided promotion ” ( 9 ) . Many of the events that happen to, beliefs held by, and features of Holden are based after Salinger ‘s ain life, features and beliefs ( 8 ) . Salinger began composing his short narratives in the 1940s and wrote narratives which were published in Collier ‘s, Saturday Evening Post, Esquire, Good Housekeeping, Cosmopolitan, and the New Yorker ( 6 ) . The Catcher in the Rye was Salinger ‘s first novel and is best known for it ( 1 ) . Salinger was drafted into the ground forces and served in World War II. During his ground forces yearss, Salinger formed his thoughts about the phoniness of people and the corruptness in the universe ( 3 ) . These thoughts are expressed in The Catcher in the Rye through the character Holden who reflects Salinger himself ( 8 ) .

The Catcher in the Rye was published in 1951. ( 7 ) Salinger wrote The Catcher in the Rye right after World War II ( Cliffsnotes 1 ) . This was a clip of economic prosperity and roar. Wagess increased and work hours were reduced ( 2 ) . America was going a more conservative topographic point at this clip ( 3 ) . They were paranoiacs of communist influence and blacklisted many people, groups and books ( 3 ) . “ This spirit of repression is the context in which The Catcher in the Rye appeared ” ( 3 ) . The Catcher in the Rye was Salinger ‘s response to this phoniness of society that he saw ( 3 ) . The cold war had besides begun in this clip ( 3 ) . The Soviet Union set off the first atomic detonation ( 3 ) . Fear so became broad spread in America ( 3 ) . “ Schools took clip to teach pupils on the best manner to respond during a atomic onslaught. Although the purpose was benevolent, the most likely consequence was fright and confusion on the portion of waxy immature heads. This increased spread between grownup values and childhood artlessness may hold affected Salinger. . . ” ( 3 ) . Salinger wrote The Catcher in the Rye with this thought of childhood artlessness and grownup corruptness in head and desiring to show these thoughts ( 3 ) .

Salinger uses an allusion to the verse form by Robert Burns, “ Comin ‘ Thro ‘ the Rye ” to depict how kids are guiltless and pure, but as they enter the grownup universe, they become bogus ( SparkNotes Editors 14 ) . When he sneaks into his ain house, Holden negotiations to his sister, Phoebe, and he says, “ Anyway, I keep visualizing all these small childs playing some game in this large field of rye and all. Thousands of small childs, and cipher ‘s around- cipher large, I mean- except me. And I ‘m standing on the border of some brainsick drop. What I have to make, I have to catch everybody if they start to travel over the cliff- I mean if they ‘re running and they do n’t look where they ‘re traveling I have to come out from someplace and catch them. ” ( Salinger 224 ) . The kids playing games in this field of rye represents their artlessness and pureness. Falling off the drop represents come ining the grownup universe and society ( SparkNotes Editors 14 ) . It is a drop because Holden believes come ining the grownup society is something bad ( 14 ) . Holden believes that it will ensue in kids losing their artlessness and going mercenary and bogus merely like everybody else ( 14 ) . Holden besides says to Phoebe, “ That ‘s all I ‘d make all twenty-four hours. I ‘d merely be the backstop in the rye and all. I know it ‘s brainsick, but that ‘s the lone thing I ‘d truly wish to be. I know it ‘s brainsick ” ( Salinger 225 ) . Holden is really concerned and recognizes that the grownup universe is superficial and bogus ( SparkNotes Editors 14 ) . Holden wants to forestall good, guiltless kids from going like that as they grow up ( 14 ) . Holden sees it as his occupation to make this ( 14 ) . The rubric of the novel is “ The Catcher in the Rye ” ( 14 ) . Salinger puts this allusion in the rubric of the novel ( 14 ) . This reveals the importance of this allusion ( 14 ) . It was Salinger ‘s purpose and chief point of the novel to depict how big society is bogus ( 14 ) .

Salinger besides uses allusions to start civilization to exemplify the shallowness and phoniness of society. Before Holden ‘s day of the month with Sally which he set up the twenty-four hours after he arrived in New York City, he thinks, “ It was a benefit public presentation or something. I did n’t much desire to see it, but I knew old Sally, the queen of the hypocrites, would get down salivating all over the topographic point when I told her I had tickets for that, because the Alfred lunts were in it and all. She liked shows that are supposed to be really sophisticated and dry and all, ” ( Salinger 152 ) . The Lunts is a show known for being “ sophisticated ” . Sally and other people merely like a show because it is considered “ sophisticated ” . This reveals the shallowness and phoniness of people in society. In chapter 10 when Holden meets a group of misss at the saloon, one of the misss Tells Holden, “ I and my girl friends saw Peter Lorre last dark. . . The film histrion. In individual. He was buyin ‘ a newspaper he ‘s cunning ” ( 93 ) . The miss is so excessively happy and enthusiastic that she met a famous person. There should be no ground to be this aroused. This shows that people are so superficial and mercenary that they consider such shoal and nonmeaningful things like run intoing famous persons to be of importance. Subsequently when Holden was dancing with that same miss, he decided to gull and muss with her, “ I told her I merely saw Gary Cooper, the film star, on the other side of the floor. . . I ‘d merely interrupt her heart- I truly had. I was sorry as snake pit I ‘d pull the leg of her ” ( 96 ) . The miss is so superficial and mercenary. She is so unnecessarily disturbance that she did n’t acquire to see the famous person. Society is so bogus that they have all their precedences incorrectly and upside down. Meeting famous persons should n’t be something of significance, but it is in the hypocrite and superficial province that society is in. While on the train to New York City after go forthing his prep school, Holden meets a adult female on the train and he describes this adult female, “ She started reading this Vogue she had with her ” ( 76 ) . Peoples in society presents are so haunted with tendencies and things that are popular or in manner. This compulsion reveals the how mercenary and superficial people are. They hold such shallow and superficial things as of import.

Salinger besides uses allusions of things to make with amusement to demo how society is perverting the artlessness and pureness of the immature. While on the manner to purchase tickets before traveling on a day of the month with Sally, Holden thinks, “ There was this record I wanted to acquire for Phoebe, called ‘Little Shirley ‘s Beans. ‘ It was a really difficult record to acquire. It was about a small child that would n’t travel out of the house because two of her front dentitions were out and she was ashamed to ” ( 149 ) . Society is act uponing the immature in their hypocrite and superficial ways. Society is act uponing kids already to be bogus and superficial like them. Society is doing a immature child to be so ashamed of the manner that he looks that he wo n’t go forth the house. The immature are being corrupted. When Holden is speaking to his sister, Phoebe, in chapter 20 one, she tells him about the drama she ‘s in, “ ‘A Christmas Pageant for Americans. ‘ It stinks, but I ‘m Benedict Arnold. I have practically the biggest portion ” ( 210 ) . The school is doing a immature miss drama Benedict Arnold. Benedict Arnold is an evil, corrupt adult male who betrayed his state. Even the schools are perverting the artlessness of kids. Phoebe besides tells him, “ Think what I did this afternoon! What film I saw, Guess… The Doctor… It ‘s a particular film they had at the Lister Foundation… It was all about this physician in Kentucky and everything that sticks a cover over this kid ‘s face that ‘s a cripple and ca n’t walk. Then they send him to imprison and everything ” ( 211 ) . Children are even being corrupted at the films. Children are exposed to films about liquidator physicians who suffocate crippled childs. They are being influenced in bad ways everyplace they go.

Salinger ‘s word picture in the Catcher in the Rye of Holden and his beliefs reveals how big society is bogus, corrupt and superficial. When Holden goes to a saloon to run into his friend, Luce, he thinks, “ It ‘s one of those topographic points that are supposed to be really sophisticated and all, and the hypocrites are coming in the window ” ( Salinger 184 ) . Holden is characterized as concerned about the phoniness of society ( Novel Guide 2 ) . He sees that people go to topographic points merely because they think it is sophisticated. He sees how people are superficial and bogus ( 2 ) . When waiting for Sally to get for their, Holden thinks, “ Guys that ever talk about how many stat mis they get to a gallon in their goddamn autos. Guys those acquire sore and childish as snake pit if you beat them at golf, or even merely some stupid game like ping- niff. Guys that are really average. Guys that ne’er read books, Guys that are really deadening ” ( Salinger 160 ) . Holden finds it thwarting that there are all these atrocious, bogus cats in the universe. Holden despises how society is basically superficial, corrupt and bogus, and that the bogus cats that he described are accepted in society ( NovelGuide 2 ) . He considers this a major job and it angers him ( 2 ) . When speaking to Phoebe after mousing into his ain house, he says to her, “ What I may make, I may acquire a occupation on a spread or something for awhile. I know this cat whose gramps ‘s got a spread in Colorado. I may acquire a occupation out at that place ” ( Salinger 214 ) . Holden is afraid of the grownup universe and does n’t desire to be bogus, corrupt and superficial like the remainder of them ( Stoddard 9 ) . He does non desire to come in that universe so he wants to travel insulate himself and work on a spread ( 9 ) . When Holden gets a cocotte to come to his hotel room, he says, “ I do n’t experience really much like myself tonight, I ‘ve had a unsmooth dark. Honest to God. I ‘ll pay you and all, but do you mind really much if we did n’t make it? Make you mind really much? ” ( Salinger 125 ) . Holden does n’t desire to lose his artlessness by losing his virginity ( Stoddard 7 ) . He does n’t desire to turn up and make adult things like holding sex ( 7 ) . He wants to remain pure and guiltless like kids ( 7 ) .

Salinger ‘s word picture of Holden ‘s siblings in The Catcher in the Rye show that kids are guiltless, good and pure but are bribable by grownup society. In the really beginning of the novel, Holden thinks about his brother, “ He merely got a Jaguar. . . He ‘s got a batch of dough now. He did n’t utilize to. He used to be merely a regular author, when he was place. . . . Now he ‘s out in Hollywood, D.B. , being a cocotte ” ( 4 ) . D.B. has been corrupted and has become bogus ( Stoddard 2 ) . D.B. used to be guiltless and “ merely a regular author ” , but so he sold out and went to Hollywood. D.B. became superficial and mercenary merely like everyone else ( 2 ) . Holden hates D.B. for what he did and it disgusts him ( 2 ) . Selling out and going corrupt and hypocrite so becomes his favored peeve. While still back in his prep school in his residence hall room, Holden thinks about his brother, “ My brother Allie. . . You ‘d hold liked him. He was two old ages younger than I was, but he was approximately 50 times as intelligent. He was wonderfully intelligent. . . His instructors were ever composing letters to my female parent, stating her what a pleasance it was holding a male child like Allie in their category. And they were n’t merely hiting the dirt. They truly meant it. But it was n’t merely that he was the most intelligent member in the household. He was besides the nicest, in tonss of ways. He ne’er got huffy at anybody. ” ( Salinger 49- 50 ) Allie is a pure, immature inexperienced person male child ( Trevenen 7 ) . Allie is intelligent, everybody loves him, and is really sweet and sort ( 7 ) . Allie shows the artlessness and pureness of the immature ( 7 ) . Allie to Holden is person who wo n’t alter and go hypocrite ( 7 ) . He wo n’t of all time lose his artlessness and sell out ( 7 ) . Holden holds Allie beloved to his bosom and loves him really much ( 7 ) . When Holden had merely arrived in New York City, he thought about his sister, Phoebe, “ You ne’er saw a small child so reasonably and smart in your whole life. She ‘s truly smart. . . You ‘d wish her. The lone problem was that she ‘s a small excessively fond sometimes ” ( Salinger 87-89 ) . Phoebe is besides a immature miss who is guiltless and pure ( Ross 2 ) . She is smart, fond, reasonably and sweet ( 2 ) . She besides is an illustration of the artlessness and pureness of the immature ( 2 ) . Phoebe nevertheless is vunerable to society ‘s influence and to corruptness. Phoebe to Holden is one of the kids that he decides that he must protect from being bogus, selling out and come ining maturity ( 2 ) .

Salinger uses the symbolism of Holden ‘s properties in the Catcher in the Rye to depict how we must non come in the bogus society and go superficial and mercenary. Towards the start of the novel, Holden merely thinks to himself while still back in his prep school, “ It was this ruddy hunting chapeau, with one of those really long extremums. I saw it in the window of this athleticss shop when we got out of the metro, merely after I noticed I ‘d lost all the goddam foils. It merely cost me a vaulting horse. The manner I wore it, I swung the old peak manner around to the back- really bromidic, I ‘ll acknowledge, but I liked it that manner ” ( 24 ) . The ruddy hunting chapeau is a manner he stays alone and separates himself from others by seeking to be different ( Lorcher 7 ) . Holden wants to divide himself from the universe and society because he does n’t desire to come in the society which is bogus and corrupt ( 7 ) . The chapeau symbolizes Holden ‘s isolation. When he merely arrived in New York City, he thinks about his siblings, “ She [ Phoebe ] has this kind of ruddy hair, a spot like Allie ‘s was. . . ” ( Salinger 88 ) . The ruddy hunting hat ‘s colour is besides the same as Allie and Phoebe ‘s hair ( Lorcher 7 ) . Holden wants to be like them, immature, pure and inncocent ( 7 ) . The chapeau besides symbolizes Holden ‘s desire to be immature, pure and inncocent ( 7 ) . He does n’t desire to turn up and come in the hypocrite grownup universe ( 7 ) . When thought of what to compose about for Stradlater ‘s composing in chapter 5, he thinks about his brother ‘s baseball baseball mitt, “ My brother Allie had this left- handed fielder ‘s hand ” ( Salinger 49 ) . The baseball mitt represents his brother ‘s and kids ‘s purity, goodness and artlessness ( Lorcher 6 ) . He hangs on and maintain the baseball mitt merely as he wants to maintain the purity, goodness and artlessness in kids and in himself ( 6 ) .

Salinger uses symbolism in the scene of The Catcher in the Rye to depict how we must non come in the bogus society and go superficial and mercenary. At the museum while Holden was seeking to happen Phoebe, he narrates, “ I kept walking and walking, and I kept believing about old Phoebe traveling to that museum on Saturdays the manner I used to. I thought how she ‘d see the same material I used to see, and how she ‘d be different every clip she saw it… Certain things they should remain the manner they are. You ought to be able to lodge them in one of those large glass instances and merely go forth them entirely ” ( Salinger 158 ) . The museum is a symbol of remaining the same or remaining unchanged ( Ellis 8 ) . The museum is how Holden wants kids to be ( 10 ) . Holden does n’t desire kids to pervert, conform and go superficial and hypocrite ; he wants them to remain good and guiltless ( 10 ) . When traveling to the school to give Phoebe a note, Holden narrates, “ Person ‘s written ‘F*** you ‘ on the wall. It drove me darn near loony. I thought how Phoebe and all the other childs would see it, and how they ‘d inquire what the snake pit it meant. . . ” ( Salinger 260 ) . The graffito on the school wall symbolizes the corruptness of young person ( Lorcher10 ) . Holden is disgusted by this, and does n’t desire kids to lose their artlessness and go hypocrites ( 10 ) . Holden, when go forthing the school, sees more graffito and he narrates, “ I went down by a different stairway, and I saw another ‘F*** you ‘ on the wall. I tried to rub it off with my manus once more, but this one was scratched on, with a knife or something, It would n’t come off. It ‘s hopeless, anyhow ” ( Salinger 262 ) Holden tries to acquire rid of society ‘s corruptness of kids ( Lorcher10 ) . Holden see ‘s at as his responsibility to make so, but he fails, is unable to and loses hope ( Lorcher10 ) . This seeking to take the graffito represents Holden ‘s bigger mission to acquire rid of all of society ‘s corruptness of kids ( Lorcher10 ) . At the very terminal of the narrative, Holden takes Phoebe to park ‘s carousel, “ She went and got on the carousel. . . All the childs kept seeking to catch for the gold ring, and so was old Phoebe ” ( 273 ) . The carousel symbolizes childhood ( Trevenen 36 ) . The gold ring is what the kids are making for and that represents the enticement of the grownup universe. Falling off the Equus caballus represents falling into the corrupt hypocrite grownup universe ( 36 ) .

How the society is superficial, mercenary and hypocrite while kids are pure and guiltless is described by the three literary devices, allusion, word picture and symbolism, used by Salinger in the novel. Salinger creates the character Holden to portray and reflect himself and his thoughts about the phoniness of society. Salinger besides writes The Catcher in the Rye to show what he sees is go oning in his clip period, the grownup universe is bogus and corrupt and is perverting the inexperienced person and pure kids. The verse form by Robert Burns, “ Comin ‘ Thro ‘ the Rye ” is an allusion used by Salinger to depict how kids are guiltless and pure, but as they enter the grownup universe, they become bogus. Allusions to start civilization are used by Salinger to demo the shallowness and phoniness of society. Allusions to amusement are used by Salinger to exemplify how society is perverting the artlessness and pureness of the immature. How big society is bogus, corrupt and superficial is revealed through Holden ‘s word picture. In The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger characterizes Holden ‘s siblings to exemplify how kids are guiltless, good and pure but are bribable by grownup society. That we must non come in the bogus society and go superficial and mercenary is revealed by Salinger ‘s usage of symbolism of Holden ‘s properties. Salinger uses symbolism in the scene to demo how we must non come in the bogus society and go superficial and mercenary.