The Catcher in the Rye
by J. D. Salinger
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Book Reviews of The Catcher in the Rye
Book Review: Holden's Reality Filled With Extremes
Summary: 5 Stars
J.D. Salinger, through Holden Caufield's use of extremes with death and temperature, displays his distaste of reality. Death is an extreme that is used quite often throughout the novel. The book begins with Holden talking about why he is not at the big football game, and how the students were "supposed to commit suicide "if they lost (2). This clearly shows the distinction between Holden and everyone else in reality. He takes the normalcy of attending the football game and places himself at the other end of the spectrum, and then aggrandizes it by saying how the mere loss of a football game could supposedly result in a mass forfeiture of life. Suicide arises as an extreme measure that occurs in reality over sometimes-small things like a loss in a football game. Holden mocks this occurrence within reality. When Holden meets the three girls in the bar, his attitude labels them as the norm of girls in New York. Holden relates how the girls did not speak and then he talks about how they "nearly committed suicide," when they saw an actor (74). From the beginning Holden displays how he abhors the movies. This shows the reality of how the three girls are affected by society to the point that they would go to the extreme of committing suicide to see a mere person, an actor. Holden ends up hating the girls and this parallels with his distaste towards reality. Holden also belittles a couple who were "feeling each other" as the male spoke about a kid committing suicide. This clearly shows how disturbed people in reality become and how Holden hates the phoniness of them. To all these stories and observations, Holden replies with "It killed me (119)." This remark soars in every other page at least a couple of times. In a way, it does kill Holden, for his view of the good in reality deteriorates with each of his revelations. This leads to Holden's obsession for an Odyssey-like voyage away from reality. Temperature also plays an important role in overwhelming the reader with the depressing mood of reality. Holden uses temperature quite often to make the reader feel uneasy and uncomfortable as he reads. This lets one feel Holden's misery and allows one to incorporate the hatred of the reality through Holden's eyes. Holden characterizes the temperature in the beginning as "cold as a witch's teat (2)." Holden then describes why he feels that way, which includes that someone stole his jacket and gloves, while he was at his Pencey Academy. This leads to the emphasis on the appearance vs. reality of Pencey. Pencey mounts supposedly to an ambiance of well-educated and morally right men, while Holden instead shows how thieves roam the halls and rooms. The reality of Pencey scars him mentally, and impels his apathy towards his eternal suspension. The reader finds out that, "At Pencey, you either froze to death or died of the heat (23)." This foreshadows the extremist view of Holden. Here, he displays the lack of finding a middle area, and both ends suffering the same consequence. This also is analogous with his view of reality, that either way you are cooked. Holden relates himself to the ducks and wonders where they go when the lake freezes over. In a sense, he feels his life has frozen over and he needs to escape reality like the ducks. The most extreme form of cold temperature is ice, and that is where Holden feels surrounds him. The temperature outside never raised, it was only frigid. This shows how the reality of the world could be escaped when he departed to a house, but he always ends up cold again. He talks about how hot he felt when Mr. Antolini pats him on his head inside Mr. Antolini's house, then the next thing "I [Holden Caufield] was getting sorta cold (95)." The temperature relates to how people can evade reality, but they always have to come back in the end. Holden parallels the two extremes of death and temperature when he says, " I kept worrying that I was getting pneumonia, with all those hunks of ice in my hair, and that I was going to die." This correlation portrays Holden's reality and its virulent extremes. Holden expresses how the extremes of death and temperature exist in every day life, and portrays them as flaws in order to incorporate his purpose of displaying his aversion towards the reality of the world. I enjoyed the novel and Holden's depiction of the real world, and the way the book did not hide the truth. The world is full of corrupt and phony people. Holden views this phoniness and through his book attempts to educe it to his readers.Book Review: Holden's Reality Filled With Extremes
Summary: 5 Stars
J.D. Salinger, through Holden Caufield's use of extremes with death and temperature, displays his distaste of reality. Death is an extreme that is used quite often throughout the novel. The book begins with Holden talking about why he is not at the big football game, and how the students were "supposed to commit suicide "if they lost (2). This clearly shows the distinction between Holden and everyone else in reality. He takes the normalcy of attending the football game and places himself at the other end of the spectrum, and then aggrandizes it by saying how the mere loss of a football game could supposedly result in a mass forfeiture of life. Suicide arises as an extreme measure that occurs in reality over sometimes-small things like a loss in a football game. Holden mocks this occurrence within reality. When Holden meets the three girls in the bar, his attitude labels them as the norm of girls in New York. Holden relates how the girls did not speak and then he talks about how they "nearly committed suicide," when they saw an actor (74). From the beginning Holden displays how he abhors the movies. This shows the reality of how the three girls are affected by society to the point that they would go to the extreme of committing suicide to see a mere person, an actor. Holden ends up hating the girls and this parallels with his distaste towards reality. Holden also belittles a couple who were "feeling each other" as the male spoke about a kid committing suicide. This clearly shows how disturbed people in reality become and how Holden hates the phoniness of them. To all these stories and observations, Holden replies with "It killed me (119)." This remark soars in every other page at least a couple of times. In a way, it does kill Holden, for his view of the good in reality deteriorates with each of his revelations. This leads to Holden's obsession for an Odyssey-like voyage away from reality. Temperature also plays an important role in overwhelming the reader with the depressing mood of reality. Holden uses temperature quite often to make the reader feel uneasy and uncomfortable as he reads. This lets one feel Holden's misery and allows one to incorporate the hatred of the reality through Holden's eyes. Holden characterizes the temperature in the beginning as "cold as a witch's teat (2)." Holden then describes why he feels that way, which includes that someone stole his jacket and gloves, while he was at his Pencey Academy. This leads to the emphasis on the appearance vs. reality of Pencey. Pencey mounts supposedly to an ambiance of well-educated and morally right men, while Holden instead shows how thieves roam the halls and rooms. The reality of Pencey scars him mentally, and impels his apathy towards his eternal suspension. The reader finds out that, "At Pencey, you either froze to death or died of the heat (23)." This foreshadows the extremist view of Holden. Here, he displays the lack of finding a middle area, and both ends suffering the same consequence. This also is analogous with his view of reality, that either way you are cooked. Holden relates himself to the ducks and wonders where they go when the lake freezes over. In a sense, he feels his life has frozen over and he needs to escape reality like the ducks. The most extreme form of cold temperature is ice, and that is where Holden feels surrounds him. The temperature outside never raised, it was only frigid. This shows how the reality of the world could be escaped when he departed to a house, but he always ends up cold again. He talks about how hot he felt when Mr. Antolini pats him on his head inside Mr. Antolini's house, then the next thing "I [Holden Caufield] was getting sorta cold (95)." The temperature relates to how people can evade reality, but they always have to come back in the end. Holden parallels the two extremes of death and temperature when he says, " I kept worrying that I was getting pneumonia, with all those hunks of ice in my hair, and that I was going to die." This correlation portrays Holden's reality and its virulent extremes. Holden expresses how the extremes of death and temperature exist in every day life, and portrays them as flaws in order to incorporate his purpose of displaying his aversion towards the reality of the world. I enjoyed the novel and Holden's depiction of the real world, and the way the book did not hide the truth. The world is full of corrupt and phony people. Holden views this phoniness and through his book attempts to educe it to his readers.Book Review: An unpopular look at a literary `classic'...
Summary: 3 Stars
As one of those `classics of literature', it almost seems sacrilegious to criticize a critical success like `The Catcher in the Rye'. Well, I can't help but feel as though the novel's garnered respect and praise is a little much when you actually consider how little the novel really says about adolescence. Sure, it tries (and at times succeeds) to convey a feeling of apathetic innocence, but its construction is rather off-putting and it's overall anticlimactic result is less ambiguously rewarding and more strangely hollow.
`The Catcher in the Rye' is an ambitious story that attempts to say a lot but fails to really live up to its potential.
The novel tells of two mere days in the life of the recently expelled sixteen-year-old Holden Caulfield. Not wanting to face the wrath of his parents, Holden decides to avoid home for a few days (until he's expected back), living on his own in the city. The premise is merely a foundation for Holden's simplistic views and reasoning's concerning life and his future. He considers everyone around him to be fake and undeserving of his time, yet it is obvious that Holden is just as `phony' as the rest of them. He goes on dates, gets trashed at bars, sneaks off to visit his sister, imposes (or does he) on a former teacher and even has a run in with a pimp.
Sadly, all of this is conveyed in Holden's uninteresting and at times aggravating delivery.
I'm not trying to lighten the point which J.D. Salinger was trying to make, for it is a very poignant (maybe even more so today then when the novel was actually written) point. Our young ones are just as misplaced and confused as Holden, and so his tale of apathy masked desperation is one that we could all learn from; but Salinger loses my patience with his redundancy. Some have complained of the same thing, which I was pleased to see (it proves that some people are willing to think outside of the preordained box). Holden says the same thing on just about every page, so much so that the surprise is stripped from us and we are left with a predictable tale of teenage angst. Maybe that was the point, to expose the lack of genuine life that resides inside someone of Holden's nature. He thinks that he is the only `real' person around yet it is obvious to all onlookers that he is basically walking death. He is offering nothing, yet he `has' potential; or so we are told.
The story is crucial yet the delivery makes this a difficult read, one that you almost don't want to bother with. I've read novels that are hard to read due to their construction, yet they possess a certain otherworldliness that make then necessary (look at `A Clockwork Orange' for just that), but `The Catcher in the Rye' lacks the emotional connection needed to make it worth suffering through. In the end the novels brilliant moments (like Holden's confession as to what it is he really wants to be) are masked by all of the mediocre (or just plain uninspiring) ones, leaving us with a novel that feels incomplete and a concept that deserved so much more than it got.
And the ending, I just have this to say. I am all for the anticlimactic; believe me. I relish in the idea of a simple `stop' put to a novel, for it allows the reader to move on with a sense of personalized closure. I often think of Bret Easton Ellis, in particular `Less Than Zero' when I think of that sort of ending; an open ended closing that leaves you deciding the fates of the characters yourself. If often works beautifully, but here it seems rather empty as apposed to rich with meaning.
I just kind of shrugged it off because I didn't really care what happened next.
One might protest that that is the point, that we aren't supposed to care about Holden, thus furthering the poignancy of Salinger's point; but to them I have only this to say: "YOU HAVE TO CARE FOR IT TO MATTER." You cannot reach an audience if they are not moved. If we adopt the same apathetic attitude of the main character then we simply have not achieved the desired response. If this novel is to mean anything then we have to be stunned, mortified and moved to action because of it; and for that to happen it has to be delivered in a way that actually EFFECTS us. For me, and apparently a few others, Salinger didn't do that.
I know that I am in the minority here, but I have to speak my truth.
Book Review: A Book Review. It Really Is.
Summary: 3 Stars
What would you do before you had to confront your parents after just getting expelled from yet another school? The Catcher in the Rye, by Jerome David Salinger, is a book about a teenage 16-year-old boy named Holden Caulfield who has a problem staying in this all-boys prep school called Pency but then gets exempted from the school. Now he must confront his parents. Instead of deciding to face them with his failure, he decides to: take an early vacation, wander around the streets of New York City, and come into contact with some interesting characters.The majority of the novel takes place in New York City during post-war America which is in the early 1950's. The start of the novel takes place at Pency prep school. When Caulfield leaves Pency, he goes to various places in New York City, some of which are pretty popular. Areas of New York are very much like ghettos. An example description from the book would be, "The whole lobby was empty. It smelled like fifty million dead cigars. It really did." The journey begins just a week before Holden's Christmas break. But the real setting doesn't come till you read to the end. This is where the book's popularity comes from.
The narrator here is Holden Caulfield, the main character, who is an egomaniac because he thinks too highly of himself as not being "phony" and the only genuine person in mankind. As the story goes on he meets these strange, yet interesting characters he barely knows and criticizes them. He criticizes everyone! Not himself, just everyone else. He's a pretty smart guy, I'll give him that, but he's not so buff and tuff. Actually... he's very much a pacifist. His reputation is a bad one. He has flunked almost all his classes and has gotten the boot from three different boarding schools. The only class he's good at is English, and this is because he thinks all his other classes are "tedious" and "phony". Throughout the story Holden is pretty much the same because he can't let go the thought of his phony society around him. I like how he critiques all the common things done by the common people, it really makes me think.
The strange thing about this book is it doesn't have a real sticky plot. What I mean is... there is no plot! Hah! What kept me reading was the no plot idea and the unpredictability of where the book was headed. Holden is supposed to leave Pency and immediately tell his parents at home of his expulsion. He doesn't do it; instead, he wanders around in NYC. Then his favorite teacher betrays him. Mr. Spencer, one of the few teachers Caulfield liked, broke the news to his parents. This makes him even more terrified to go home so he travels incognito. Holden also gets into bizarre situations in the slums and hotels of New York. He feels like he can't speak to anyone except to his 10 year old sister named Phoebe, and he frequently recalls memories of his deceased little brother. At times, he even thinks about suicide or running away because of the "corrupt society around him".
Salinger has an interesting way of writing, and brings out the reputation of his characters at the start. As far as difficulty is concerned, all you need to know are words like: conceited, phony, inferior, and complex, and you're set. He repeats statements and opinions over and over again to show Holden's strong opposition or power of his thoughts. The moral here is that everyone must grow up, it is inevitable, and that you can't change the opinions of others as easily as you think you can. Don't expect that criticizing people will help you change the world to the way you want it to be, the world is set and no man can alter it. I'm a person who doesn't find most fiction books interesting enough to finish, but when I got a hold of this book, I had to keep reading to finish it. After you read this book you really have to think about it for a while and find a revelation on your own. This is the major part of the book, and you'll appreciate this book for it. The only word that can describe this book is... "interesting" and it really makes you think to make you say out loud, "Wow!" Although there are some vulgar word usages here and there, I'd recommend this book to anyone, especially teenagers who can really relate.
Book Review: A Book Review. It Really Is.
Summary: 3 Stars
What would you do before you had to confront your parents after just getting expelled from yet another school? The Catcher in the Rye, by Jerome David Salinger, is a book about a teenage 16-year-old boy named Holden Caulfield who has a problem staying in this all-boys prep school called Pency but then gets exempted from the school. Now he must confront his parents. Instead of deciding to face them with his failure, he decides to: take an early vacation, wander around the streets of New York City, and come into contact with some interesting characters.The majority of the novel takes place in New York City during post-war America which is in the early 1950's. The start of the novel takes place at Pency prep school. When Caulfield leaves Pency, he goes to various places in New York City, some of which are pretty popular. Areas of New York are very much like ghettos. An example description from the book would be, "The whole lobby was empty. It smelled like fifty million dead cigars. It really did." The journey begins just a week before Holden's Christmas break. But the real setting doesn't come till you read to the end. This is where the book's popularity comes from.
The narrator here is Holden Caulfield, the main character, who is an egomaniac because he thinks too highly of himself as not being "phony" and the only genuine person in mankind. As the story goes on he meets these strange, yet interesting characters he barely knows and criticizes them. He criticizes everyone! Not himself, just everyone else. He's a pretty smart guy, I'll give him that, but he's not so buff and tuff. Actually... he's very much a pacifist. His reputation is a bad one. He has flunked almost all his classes and has gotten the boot from three different boarding schools. The only class he's good at is English, and this is because he thinks all his other classes are "tedious" and "phony". Throughout the story Holden is pretty much the same because he can't let go the thought of his phony society around him. I like how he critiques all the common things done by the common people, it really makes me think.
The strange thing about this book is it doesn't have a real sticky plot. What I mean is... there is no plot! Hah! What kept me reading was the no plot idea and the unpredictability of where the book was headed. Holden is supposed to leave Pency and immediately tell his parents at home of his expulsion. He doesn't do it; instead, he wanders around in NYC. Then his favorite teacher betrays him. Mr. Spencer, one of the few teachers Caulfield liked, broke the news to his parents. This makes him even more terrified to go home so he travels incognito. Holden also gets into bizarre situations in the slums and hotels of New York. He feels like he can't speak to anyone except to his 10 year old sister named Phoebe, and he frequently recalls memories of his deceased little brother. At times, he even thinks about suicide or running away because of the "corrupt society around him".
Salinger has an interesting way of writing, and brings out the reputation of his characters at the start. As far as difficulty is concerned, all you need to know are words like: conceited, phony, inferior, and complex, and you're set. He repeats statements and opinions over and over again to show Holden's strong opposition or power of his thoughts. The moral here is that everyone must grow up, it is inevitable, and that you can't change the opinions of others as easily as you think you can. Don't expect that criticizing people will help you change the world to the way you want it to be, the world is set and no man can alter it. I'm a person who doesn't find most fiction books interesting enough to finish, but when I got a hold of this book, I had to keep reading to finish it. After you read this book you really have to think about it for a while and find a revelation on your own. This is the major part of the book, and you'll appreciate this book for it. The only word that can describe this book is... "interesting" and it really makes you think to make you say out loud, "Wow!" Although there are some vulgar word usages here and there, I'd recommend this book to anyone, especially teenagers who can really relate.