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Catcher In The Rye Persuasive Speech

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CLAIRE LIN Persuasive Speech Draft MS HILL Being a teenager isn’t always easy; everything is changing rapidly as we move from adolescence to adulthood. Although growing up can be exciting but it can also be extremely confusing and challenging. A book that explores most teenage issues is Catcher in the Rye, a controversial novel originally published in 1951 for adults by J.D Salinger. As we all know the feeling of isolation and being alienated is common. For the 16 year old protagonist, Holden Caulfield, he experiences just that. But Holden isolates himself in order to protect himself from rejection. Though Catcher in the Rye was written over half a century ago, all of the issues outlined are still very much relevant because I’m sure we can all agree that being a teenager can be very difficult. The experience of teenagers has changed considerably over the last 30-40 years; including a significant increase in the rate of anxiety, depression and behavior problems according to new research from the Nuffield Foundation. This is a major problem because depression has fatal effects especially on adolescents as their minds are at a vulnerable state. National Alliance on Mental Illness also states that depression is experienced by 20% of people during their teen years like Holden does. Throughout the novel, the author gives the readers tiny clues on Holden’s mental …show more content…

JD Salinger highlights the destructive impacts of depression and isolation in his book. Personally I think that all Holden really needs is somebody to tell them that they care. Even though Holden may be annoying to read about, we can all learn something from him. Communication is very important as it could lead to teens ending up in a mental institution like

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