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The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
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The Catcher in the Rye

by J.D. Salinger

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Showing 1-5 of 351 (next | show all)
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is a novel that combines elements of depression and isolation into a rather entertaining plot. The story follows the main character, Holden Caulfield, after he is kicked out of his third boarding school due to lack of motivation. Before returning back to his home, Holden spends three days lingering around New York City contemplating the world and his role in it. Holden encounters a multitude of different people in relatively social situations, yet at the same time, feels oddly alone and secluded. Readers are able to follow Holden’s thoughts and read along as he realizes that everyone in the world works only for their own personal benefit. Everyone, in Holden’s opinion, is a “phony”, only basing their actions off of what they believe to be the most beneficial to themselves.
I was very entertained while reading The Catcher in the Rye. Although the novel deals with serious topics such as depression and adult insensitivity, the tone of the novel is rather light, not at all dark like one may believe. This tone is due somewhat to the fact that this novel is written in first person point of view. Holden’s experiences in the book are read through the eyes of the character himself, and in turn, readers are able to realize the simple mindedness of the child even though he deals with feelings that seem quite complex. This point of view shows readers that maybe even Holden does not exactly know why he feels the way he does about certain things.
The Catcher in the Rye is a story that any reader can relate to, no matter the age. Holden’s story is merely one in which he confesses all of his feelings, completely uncensored, to the readers. However, Holden never says any of his thoughts out loud, which I think is something that readers can sympathize with him for. Holden represents the mind of the average person and the first person point of view definitely enforces this.
I enjoyed the novel for its pure honestly and comical play of events. I would recommend The Catcher in the Rye to anyone that wants to read an entertaining, comical novel that deals with serious subjects. ( )
  rzalegowski | Nov 21, 2009 |
2001
  katiemertz | Nov 20, 2009 |
First read in 10th grade, then again about 20 years later. Not sure what all the fuss is about. ( )
1 vote woodge | Nov 20, 2009 |
Do not read this book. I don't care what people say. It's not a work of art, the story is terrible, and the skill of Salinger's writing is overrated. This book is 297 pages of the biggest complainer telling the reader about how he "hates phonies" and "doesn't like it when people have cheap suitcases." There are a few intersting symbolic characters, but there is nothing entertaining about this book at all. Nothing interesting or exciting happens, and when it seems like something will, Holden does the opposite of what you want him to do, and you are annoyed once again.
  billsrage55 | Nov 13, 2009 |
Prior to reading this book, I was advised that it was amazing or just really bad. It just depends on your outlook of the story. I personally found the several different levels of this novel intriguing, though I did not catch on to them at first.
J.D. Salinger ingeniously portrays the main character, Holden Caulfield, as a multi-leveled teenager and captures every aspect of his young, teenage mind. His use of colloquial jargon adds to the extent to which teenagers today can relate to Holden. Throughout his life, Holden confronts several arduous situations to which he turns away. For his entire life, Holden feared growing up and held onto his childhood, hoping things would stay as they were. With his brother Allie's death constantly on his mind, Holden would constantly get frustrated, denying the fact that his brother was gone. His psychological issues took part in his failure in school and his resort to wandering around the city alone. However, for Holden, with every hardship came a learning experience, and his red hunting hat was there to comfort him the whole way. With his red hunting hat, Holden separated himself from the "phonies" in the world and portrayed his individuality.
Being that Holden's mind was filled with complications and mistrust, it was hard for him to find someone whom he could trust. His close relationship with his sister, Phoebe, gave Holden courage and subconscious happiness. He had told her, one day, that if he could do one thing for the rest of his life, it would to be the catcher in the rye.
This novel, though confusing, becomes quite exciting and very relative to the life of a teenager. I plan to read this novel when I am older to see if my outlook on this novel has changed over time. Overall, a good read. ( )
  redelstein | Nov 12, 2009 |
Showing 1-5 of 351 (next | show all)
"Some of my best friends are children," says Jerome David Salinger, 32. "In fact, all of my best friends are children." And Salinger has written short stories about his best friends with love, brilliance and 20-20 vision. In his tough-tender first novel, The Catcher in the Rye (a Book-of-the-Month Club midsummer choice), he charts the miseries and ecstasies of an adolescent rebel, and deals out some of the most acidly humorous deadpan satire since the late great Ring Lardner.
added by Shortride | editTime (Jul 16, 1951)
 
Holden's story is told in Holden's own strange, wonderful language by J. D. Salinger in an unusually brilliant novel.
 
This Salinger, he's a short story guy. And he knows how to write about kids. This book though, it's too long. Gets kind of monotonous. And he should've cut out a lot about these jerks and all at that crumby school. They depress me.
 
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Series (with order)
Canonical Title
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Awards and honors
Epigraph
Dedication
To my mother
First words
"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want the truth."
Quotations
"After I got across the road, I felt like I was sort of disappearing. It was that kind of a crazy afternoon, terrifically cold, and no sun out or anything, and you felt like you were disappearing every time you crossed a road".

"What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote is was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it".

"Sex is something I just don't understand".

"I always pick a gorgeous time to fall over a suitcase or something".

"It always smelled like it was raining outside, even it if wasn't, and you were in the only nice, dry, cosy place in the world".

"Every time I came to the end of a block and stepped of the goddam curb, I had this feeling that I'd never get to the other side of the street".

"I thought what I'd do was I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes".

"I thought it was "if a body catch a body"', I said. "Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around -
nobody big, I mean - except me. and I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. what I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. that's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be. I know it's crazy".
Last words
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Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (3)

American Museum of Natural History

Six Degrees of Separation (play)

The Catcher in the Rye

Book description
The first-person narrative follows Holden Caulfield's experiences in New York City in the days following his expulsion from Pencey Prep, a fictional college preparatory school in the fictional city of Agerstown, Pennsylvania.

Amazon.com (ISBN 0316769487, Mass Market Paperback)

Since his debut in 1951 as The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield has been synonymous with "cynical adolescent." Holden narrates the story of a couple of days in his sixteen-year-old life, just after he's been expelled from prep school, in a slang that sounds edgy even today and keeps this novel on banned book lists. It begins,

"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them."

His constant wry observations about what he encounters, from teachers to phonies (the two of course are not mutually exclusive) capture the essence of the eternal teenage experience of alienation.

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:03 -0400)

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