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Catcher In The Rye Text Analysis

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Text Analysis Practicum Course Instructor: Dr. Lorelei Caraman Dimişcă Bianca-Melania Russian - English Childhood vs. adulthood in J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye” “The Catcher in the Rye” is a novel written by J.D. Salinger in 1951. The book is one of the most controversial books ever written and its popularity comes from the author’s rough attitude towards society from the perspective of a teenager. “The Catcher in the Rye” is thought to be J.D. Salinger’s masterpiece and it is listed as one of the best novels of the 20th century. In 2009 Finlo Rohrer affirmed that even 58 years later after the book has been published it is still considerate “the defining work on what it is like to be a teenager”. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Catcher_in_the_Rye) The novel tells the story of Holden Caulfield, a sixteen-years-old teenager that is being expelled from the 4th school up to the present. The cause of expulsion are the 4 exams he …show more content…

The frozen lake and the winter are the illustration of his own winter. The careless nature and the unkind winter are as ruthless as his teenage years. The migration of the ducks and their retuning is like a hope for a ray of sunshine after a disturbing storm. (http://www.shmoop.com/catcher-in-the-rye/ducks-fish-other-wildlife-symbol.html) His desire of remaining pure is illustrated within the description of The Museum of Natural History. The exhibits are unchanged no matter how many times you go there to see them. The world from the museum is his idealistic world where innocence and simplicity are infinite (“Nobody’d be different. The only thing that would be different would be you.”). This universe he found in the museum tears him down because he realizes every time he goes there he is different.

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