Book Review - Catcher in the Rye | Teen Ink

Book Review - Catcher in the Rye

November 29, 2018
By chuckw_6 SILVER, Salisbury, Connecticut
chuckw_6 SILVER, Salisbury, Connecticut
6 articles 0 photos 0 comments

The famous story Catcher in the Rye is written by J. D. Salinger in 1951. The story depicts the life of a boy, whose name is Holden Caulfield, in New York City for several days. 

Holden gets expelled by his school Pencey Preparatory Academy, where he flunks four of his subjects among five. English is the only class that he is still retaining above failing. He shows his English writing skills as he is writing the mitt for Stradlater, who is his roommate. 

Obtaining of own perspectives towards information is one of the most essential personalities for Holden. “Phony”, which means fake and insincere, is used in a number of times as he describes certain objects. Including words, actions, dialogues, and people’s appearance. This great identity of his really differentiates him from the crowd, since, instead of being true, people disguises themselves as a perfect person, for instance, to fulfill their satisfaction of vanity. They also make up themselves in order to get profit from someone by being a sycophant. In contrast, Holden’s disposition will help him to construe the world and the society in a genuine way that he can be benefitted from. “The worst part was, the jerk had one of those very phony, Ivy League voices, one of those very tired, snobby voices. He sounded just like a girl. He didn’t hesitate to horn in on my date, that bastard.” The quote delineates that Holden summarizes the boy from Andover by his observation on the boy’s voices and actions. Consequently, the propensity of critical thinking towards certain subjects helps Holden in his life. 


Holden also is a considerate person to certain people. He loves his sister deeply from his heart. Phoebe Caulfield is the first person that he sees after going home instead of his mom. In fact, Phoebe is trying to hide Holden when their mom discovered some distractions from her room. That demonstrates the position of Phoebe in Holden’s heart and vise versa. Holden also spends a great deal of time with his dead brother Allie. When Allie dies because of leukemia, Holden smashes all of the glasses in the garage, which causes him serious injuries. He misses Allie’s funeral because of his wound, as he stays in the hospital. “All I wanted to do first was say goodbye to old Phoebe. So all of a sudden, I ran like a madman across the street—I damn near got killed doing it, if you want to know the truth—and went in this stationary store and bought a pad and pencil.” The quote elucidates that Phoebe is the only person that he writes to when he decides to go to the West and go live a totally different life, as he is sick and tired of the phony life that he is having right now. This demonstrates, ultimately, the importance of Phoebe in Holden’s heart, and how much he cares about her. 

Holden Caulfield, the main character in the book Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, has his own representative temperaments that allow people to distinguish him from a big population. He is, first, a true person who has his own series of criteria on objects. Also, he is a person who considers for certain people. Phoebe will be a wonderful example under such circumstance. 



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