The Catcher In The Rye Language Analysis

The narrative addresses the theme of authenticity through the invented dialogue presented by the narrator, and the choice of language. Throughout the narrative, dialogue seems to flow with a very prominent emphasis on digression on the narrator’s part; Holden, the narrator, will, for the most part appear not to have a point, simply because of his veering nature when it comes to telling his story. However, these digressions make up almost the entirety of the novel. They are the reader’s window into learning more about the narrator’s development as a character, including his ideals of authenticity, a prominent theme addressed in the particular digression being presented by way of a ‘hypothetical’ dialogue. This dialogue uses an interesting choice of language to get this theme across clearly without breaking the narrative. So, Holden’s veering method of communication and the author’s choice of language should be first in the impeding analysis. The author’s choice of language in the selected passage is a repetitively revised, unsure circumlocutory way of speaking, communicating to the audience that while, yes, this is a hypothetical dialogue, even in hypothesis Holden himself, though he hates ‘phoniness’ is clearly giving us a phony story, to some extent; one that reads like a bad movie scene, at that. He repetitively uses modal adverbs to qualify every action, even those that would normally appear to be rather strident; “…what I probably would 've done, I 'd have gone in his