Catcher In The Rye Literary Analysis Essay

In the novel Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger readers are introduced to a young man named Holden Caulfield who introduces himself and begins to tell his story of how and why he left his school; Pencey Prep. In the story, Holden explains how he is being kicked out of school and doesn't want his parents to know and so leaves school early. throughout the story, Holden explains what happens to him before he must go home and act like he is home from school for a break instead of being kicked out. When it comes to the topic of Author's purpose of The will of individual vs the will of the majority some will think the purpose is to show that Holden going against the will of society to rebel, however, I think the author’s purpose of The Catcher in the Rye was to show that the individual will manifest in his desire for isolation comes from his is fear and damage done by fear of pain, failure, rejection, and is unwilling or unable to go along with the majority. This all shown through Imagery, symbolism, and diction.

In the beginning of the novel Salinger portrays Holden as a antisocial person who is often seen alone and describes the world as a “ world full of phonies” one example of this is at the beginning of the book wherein the

Nobody’d move..Nobody’d be different. The only thing that would be different is you.”(chpt.16) This shows Salinger use of Imagery where you can see Holden in the museum all alone wanting to go back to a time where he felt safe and happy and he longs for that. This is important because it shows Holden fear of growing up and changing because he feels alone and isolated because he is growing up and through growing up things change and he changes and he is lost now. Holden wants to join society but he is afraid of rejection, failure, and etc that all comes with growing up and figuring out who you