Holden is
the middle son of a very wealthy family, composed by D.B, his older brother who
is a writer that works in Hollywood and his kid sister, Phoebe who is in
primary school. When Holden was 13 years old, he suffered the death of his
younger brother Allie, who died from leukemia. For Holden his brother Allie was
very important, and his dead caused him a huge sorrow and emptiness which he
never could repair.
The story
begins with Holden telling us that he is going to narrate the events that took
him where he is now, a place that at the moment is a total mystery.“I'm not going to tell you my whole goddam
autobiography or anything. I'll just tell you about this madman stuff that
happened to me around last Christmas just before I got pretty run-down and had
to come out here and take it easy.”
Then, he
tells us how he was expulsed from the fancy prep. Pencey School, because he
didn’t care about anything that had to do with the school. He thought that
everyone there were phonies, trying
to please other people that they didn’t even like. He had to go back to his
house to tell their parents the bad news; however, he had a fight with his
roommate, Stradlater that forced him to leave the school a few days early of
the end of classes. He didn’t want to talk to his parents immediately; because
that wasn’t the first time that he has been expulsed from a school, so he decided
to go to New York and stay a few days there.
During
those days in New York, Holden felt very depressed and completely lost. It is for
that reason that he desperately wanted to get some company and he put himself
in a lot of trouble, I REALLY don’t want to be a spoiler, but he even hired a
prostitute and that didn’t end up in something good.
With
regard to the analysis of the book, the beginning of the story is very
interesting because he is telling us that he is in some place in the future and
he is going to narrate us the events that triggered where he is now, which
creates a mystery and grab immediately our attention.
In
addition, as I said before, the story takes place from the perspective of a
teenager, so the language that the author uses is very colloquial, simulating a
friendly or informal conversation. “Most critics who looked at The Catcher in the Rye at the time of
its publication though that its language was a true an authentic rendering of
teenage colloquial speech.” Furthermore,
he used a lot of connectors when he talked, such as and all and though and he
constantly repeated words such as, phony
and corny, that he usually used when describing people.
In my
opinion, Holden’s character had a very turbulent journey to adulthood and the
reason why he always considered people as phonies
is because he related adulthood with this fake society of appearances. In my
case, when I was a little girl I lived in a bubble in which I thought that all
the people had good intentions and were sincere, but when I grew old I realized
that none of that was truth and the process of facing the truth was very tough
for me. Maybe it is because of that why Holden rejected adulthood.
Furthermore,
it really irritated me how cynical he could be too “They were these very inexpensive-looking suitcases--the ones that
aren't genuine leather or anything. It isn't important, I know, but I hate it
when somebody has cheap suitcases. It sounds terrible to say it, but I can even
get to hate somebody, just looking at them, if they have cheap suitcases with
them.” In
this quote, he was criticizing the cheap suitcases of his roommate, because
they weren’t of “leather” as his. It is funny how he always described people as
phonies, because they care too much
about appearances, he is doing the exactly the same. So Holden, maybe you are a
phony too!
To sum up,
the journey to Adulthood can be threatening, after all we are starting to question
life and the beliefs that our parents instilled into us and create our own
judgments about society and life. The
Catcher in Rye is a book that is able to make you put yourself in the shoes
of a teenager through Holden’s adventures. In addition, Holden’s character is
very complete and because of that reason he evokes diverse opinions about his
actions, you can either identify with him or judge him, it depends on you. I
invite to all of you to read this amazing book and judge by yourself, what does
Holden Copperfield evoke on you?
References
Costello, D.P. (1959). The Language of the Catcher in
the Rye’. American Speech, 34(3), 172-181
JD Salinger's the
Catcher in the Rye. Infobase Publishing,
2014.
Hey Allison! I liked your perspective of Holden also being sort of a phonie, this inner contradiction between his thoughts and his actions, but as you said, this was his own way through adulthood, so, who are we to judge him? . I think that Holden was living a process that we all lived at some point in our lives, and that at the same time, we all faced in a different way. Great analysis of the book!
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