Rhetorical Analysis Of The Catcher In The Rye

J.D Salinger’s, The Catcher in the Rye, follows the main character, Holden Caulfield, and his experiences that lead him to be talking to a mental therapist. Told through Holden’s eyes, his profane and blunt explanations of major moments in his life allow readers to see that Holden is not crazy but is actually struggling with transitioning from child to adult. Throughout the story, he fondly remembers his early childhood and is trying the best he can to run from adulthood. He fears that he, like so many around him, may become phony when he becomes an adult. This fear drives his actions and gives him a feeling of hatred toward phony adults and a feeling of obligation to shield children from the harsh adult world.

J.D. Salinger does not censor any of these aspects in his book which was unusual for the conservative times it was written in. This is one of the reasons why the book became popular back in 50s.The emotion of teenage angst is expressed through Holden’s bitter and sarcastic remarks towards the people around him, his falling grades, his need to not confirm to the rules of society. This is the reason Catcher in the Rye has a large number of adolescent fans and although technologically the times have changed, but on an emotional level the alienation that Holden’s character feels is still relatable to any teenager, making it a popular work even today. As Holden very aptly says in regards to the feeling of

In the novel “Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger, the main character, Holden acts very immature. He shows this through running away from home as well as Pency Prep, his school, in which he failed most of his classes. Holden changes his mind very quickly, and is incredibly fast to judge. He also shows immaturity by acting like a blind woman on the street. When people come to contact with problems, they face them head-on. Holden however, runs from them, but lies to himself that it was the right thing to do. Holden on top of all his immaturity, is calling anyone who isn’t him or his siblings a phony.

Throughout the novel, The Catcher In The Rye, by J.D. Salinger, Holden struggles to find himself and who he truly is in order to be happy. His struggles relate to many things that he does or say in particular.

In the novel The Catcher in the Rye J.D Salinger writes about a teenager struggling to find his place within the existence of the reality of others. Salinger creates shocking events that lay out the foundation of the the main character Holden Caulfield’s life in the novel. Salinger uses Holden’s characteristics throughout the novel such as Holden’s stubbornness to establish a much bigger theme in the book along with many other symbols.

In The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger, Salinger established Holden Caulfield’s introverted character through his background and experiences. As a sixteen year old student, Holden had to encounter many life and death obstacles. He becomes traumatized from witnessing the deaths of people close to him. Holden’s experiences with death changed his perspective of the world. For example, Allie’s death allowed him to realize the weaknesses that death has upon everybody, old or young. These realizations made Holden who he is now: bad-tempered, depressed and disconnected with others but, helped establish a closer bond with his sibling.

Holden Caulfield in the novel “The Catcher In The Rye” is a scrawny teen who loves his red hunting hat and can’t relate with anyone. His personality is reason he can’t relate, his personality sucks, it’s depressing, judgy, and sensitive. My first impression of him was that he sure complained a lot, and he says goddamn way to much, and he doesn’t care about himself. Holden is always talking about depression, every chapter he talks about being depressed, mostly when he remembers something that someone said. He gets depressed over the simplest things, he thinks to much about things, and he exaggerates situations. For example, on page 116, he states “I can understand somebody going to the movies because there’s nothing else to do, but when somebody really wants to go, and even walks fast so as to get there

The diction of this passage appears to be the key in unraveling Holden’s mood swings. Whenever Holden comments on other people, he calls them “phony” in order to distance himself emotionally and isolate his feelings. Even when talking about his sister Phoebe, with whom he holds the strongest emotional bond, he simply says she would “feel pretty bad if [Holden died]. She likes [Holden] a lot.” (173). In the instances Holden finds himself unable to insult a particular relationship to discourage himself from becoming attached, he

Holden Caulfield, the main protagonist in The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, embodies the classic teenager in the process of discovering himself, and how the world works. But, regardless of Holden 's rich, prep school lifestyle, the series of events that have mapped out his life up to this point have utterly affected his emotional well being and perception of the world. Many traumatic events such as the death of holds brother Allie, the death of a class mate, and countless numbers of awkward incidents with adults have all added up to affects Holden 's well-being and detach him from reality.

Salinger gave the tone of the book humorous so that the book can be more relatable to teenagers in society. He talks about how Holden is lonely and he’s lost like every other teenager but he more like he doesn’t see from the real world. He is judgmental, he judges everything he sees and knows. Salinger writes this book to let us know what some teenagers go through and how people stay strong no matter what. He’s wanting us to know how teenagers are all different and they go through different things and they act a certain way because of what they’re going through.

The fact that Holden calls everyone a phony, when he is the biggest phony himself. He starts off chapter 3 by stating “I’m the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life.” (page 16). He spends some time in the novel talking about how good of a liar he is. This refers back to him holding onto his childhood innocence. Children, especially lie all the time but usually about the smallest things, whether it be about candy or a toy. Holden carries on this trait by being a compulsive liar at age 16. After bragging about how much of a liar he is, he then tells the readers to “trust him”. Holden vented about how much he hated Sally but then continued to ask her on a date; which would be an example of situational

In the novel, Catcher in the Rye, the protagonist Holden is forced to face with the reality of growing up though he is trying to hold on to his innocence of childhood. Salinger uses many rhetorical strategies to reveal how Holden deals with being faced with the adult word.

Throughout the novel, J.D. Salinger uses slang as a method of style to not only show the time period when this book was written, but also the intelligence of Holden and his accompanying characters. In chapter two, Holden’s slang is especially evident when describing Mr. Spencer and the way he lives his everyday life. This chapter also depicts Holden’s feelings about Mr. Spencer and shows that Mr. Spencer is the only known father figure around Holden at this time and Holden just continues to disappoint and push Mr. Spencer further away. The author uses this passage and passages like it to further develop the characterization of Holden and show how he views the world and its inhabitants. This style is evident in the paragraph “They each had

Holden Caulfield, whose oddities include mentally branding everyone around him as “phonies” and constantly critiquing his surroundings with the utmost cynicism, is living in complete isolation. Author J.D. Salinger implements countless instances of gloomy and unstable inner-dialogue from the mind of Holden to convey to readers the various aspects of undying pessimism within the brain of this significantly damaged teenager. Analyzing this novel and the depths of the main character is crucial to truly comprehending the meaning of the work as a whole, as well as the reason behind Holden’s grave outlook on life. While

Many people have found that Holden Caulfield is just a reflection of Salinger himself and that, while Salinger used all of his works as a form of self-expression, Holden was truly his own voice. It can also be perceived that Catcher was heavily shaped by Salinger’s time in WW2. As Kenneth Slawenski said, “It is with Salinger’s experience of the Second World War in mind that we should understand Holden Caulfield’s insight at the Central Park carousel, and the parting words of The Catcher in the Rye. ‘Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.’ All the dead soldiers.” Holden Caulfield could have possibly been a much happier character if it weren’t for Salinger’s war time. Although I believe that Holden’s sadness is part of what makes him resonate so much with young people throughout the