The catcher in the rye

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1. A essay on "The Catcher in The Rye" A character Review of Holden and a
general overview of the book.
Written in english

Through Holden's Eyes

The Catcher in the Rye has truly earned it's place among great classic
works. J. D.
Salinger created a literary piece that was completely unique. The
entire novel was written in the
first person view of the 17-year-old, Holden Caulfield. The majority of
the story is compiled of
Holden's rudimentary monologue of 'complexly simple' thoughts, the rest
utilizing his relay of
previous dialogue. That and the use of unique punctuation, digressing
explanations, and
complex characterization, transformed the simple plot into the complex
literary classic.
The novel's dialogue and monologue alike, manage to relay the feel of
natural speaking
such as:
"I mean you'd be different in some way - I can't explain what I mean."

The contractions; you'd and can't - since they are common in everyday
language - establish a
very common and simple tone. Stress on the first syllable of
"different," reinforces the tone by
demonstrating how typically they speak, just as in reality. He uses
dashes for pauses and
signaling associative digressions. Instead of signaling pauses, commas
are used mostly where
mechanically required, for instance:
"So all of a sudden, I ran like a madman across the street - I d***
near got myself killed
doing it, if you want to know the truth - and went in this stationary
store and bought a pad and
pencil."

Holden Caulfield creates a thought provoking point of view. On the
surface many of his
thought patterns seem unrelated and straying from the topic. His
association of topic with
digression is used almost constantly throughout the novel. However,
realizing that these
digressions are very relevant and even crucial to the topic allow the
reader to gain true insight to
the character. His statements about his sister's intelligence, followed
by explanations of how
well she listens, reveals Holden's associations of intelligence with
being quiet and observant.
Another example would be his tension around the nuns. Even though he
enjoyed the
conversation, he worried about being asked if he was Catholic. He
stated they "...would have
liked it better if he were Catholic." This gives insight to his
discomfort with being judged morally,
and to his association of people of morals looking down on those who
don't share them.
In Holden's descriptions and thoughts, Salinger accomplished the most
unique aspect of
the story's point-of-view. Instead of using the popular - however
overrated - style of well refined
thoughts and flowery descriptions, Salinger describes things as they are
perceived upon a first
impression. Naturally the human mind does not instantly process first
encounters or experiences
into drawn out rhetorical metaphors. We must think about them first,
relate and compare them to
past experiences, then form associations. This is based on Jean Piaget
theory of assimilating
new situations, accommodating them with previous knowledge, then forming
generalizations for
understanding, called schemas. [Houghton-Mifflin Psychology, pgs.
49-50] That is exactly
how Salinger describes Holden's thoughts. Holden, like us all, has
difficulty explaining things
until they have been thought through. For instance, Holden observes
Stradlater's grooming and
his looks. Then he compares it to the way guys look in yearbooks, and
what parents say about
them. Last he concludes, through comparison, that Stradlater is the
kind of guy that your parents
ask about. He states: "I've had that experience quite
frequently."
In the more descriptive writings of other authors, it is difficult to
relate to the complex
associations. The majority of thought inspired by these works can
sometimes be just to figure
out the point. However, Salinger expresses the thought patterns of
Holden in the same inherent
ways that all humans think, and through that, relays a strong tone of
realism and active thought.
Despite the lack of dazzling rhetoric, Salinger's descriptions are no
less intricate. They inspire a
more natural style of analyzation that most can relate to easily. A
more logical and linear path,
relating to typical primal human thought, is followed instead of
abstract reasoning and artistic
representation.
Finally, the elements previously discussed, and a few independent ones,
will be used to
examine the characterization of Holden Caulfield. Such as how
Caulfield's tendency toward
constant introspection and analyzing of his world, his digression of
topics, and the nature in
which he speaks, gives us clues to his character.
His level of intelligence is in no way reflected by his lack of
knowledge on trivial issues.
He is adept at reasoning the things around him. Almost all of the
insight Caulfield spoke of were
things that would not have been taught to him. Such as repeatedly
displaying understanding of
human nature, pretensions, and thought processes. However, despite his
intuition, he applies
his often cynical and pessimistic reasoning to almost everything. This
fact illustrates ignorance
and a level of immaturity. This is obvious in his inquiry about the
ducks, thoughts concerning
women, obscene graffiti, and always getting a "pukey cab."
Since the fact that his mental health was brought up often with his
thoughts of being
crazy, with statements like "I'm crazy, swear to God, I am..." and
references of psychological
hospitalization in the beginning and end, a psychological approach will
be used to explain his
manner. Holden demonstrates tendencies associated with both OCD
(Obsessive Compulsive
Disorder) and bipolar Disorder, consisting of swings between manic and
depressive states.
OCD is characterized by obsessive thoughts and their motivation of
compulsive acts to
relieve the stress of the obsession. [Houghton Mifflin Psychology, pg.
539] It is quite obvious
that Holden is very obsessed with detail. He also demonstrates a common
symptom of OCD,
counting. At Grand Central Station, he mentions repeatedly counting
floor squares. Small
details trouble him endlessly. Once he becomes so obsessed with type of
luggage that his
roomate has that he hides his own under the bed.
Bipolar Disorder, the more severe of the two, is the most apparent in
Caulfield. He
displays an amazing amount of symptoms of this Disorder. He suffers
symptoms such as: little
need to sleep, difficulty remaining on topic discussions (jumping from
subject to subject), bursting
with ideas and insight, irritation with people who rationalize with
them, excessive spending of
money, impaired decision making (instances of people going to live on
the streets), cynicism,
and paranoia. The mania will give way to severe depression, in some
cases, in a matter of
hours.
The examples of the previous symptoms are demonstrated in Caulfield's
monologuos
thoughts and dialogue. The instances of his jumping from topic to
topic, and his insight and
ideas, have already been discussed. Holden comments on his "little need
for sleep" often like
after the clubs close he says, "I wasn't sleepy or anything." A great
amount of irritation is shown
toward Sally when she points out flaws in his plans of running away. He
becomes belligerent
and tells her, "you give me a royal pain in the a**." In the beginning
he comments on his
abundant supply of money, but by the end he is forced to borrow from his
sister. He frequently
pays for peoples meals and drinks, donated money to nuns, and offered
anyone a drink "on him".
A textbook example of his impaired decision making was his plans to run
away, pretend to be
mute, and build a cabin in the woods. His cynicism is constant as he
repeatedly generalizes
everyone on the basis of dress, status, and looks. The thoughts of
always getting a pukey cab
and obscene words being everywhere are prime cases of paranoia. Then in
his swing to
depression, he comments on people making him depressed, his feelings of
being "lousy," and
once expressed thoughts of suicide. When he spoke of people coming to
New York to get up
early, he voiced his wish to jump out of the hotel window.
Holden Caulfield, being afflicted with such handicaps, was doomed to
fail in school, and
his breakdown inevitable. Living in a time when clinical psychology
would not come for a few
years, Holden was forced to cope with this on his own. There was no one
to go to for help, so
his wish for it manifested itself into the one thing he would like.
So in his subconscious wishes
for control and help he 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 their 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."

The children represent all of his problems running rampid in his game
of life that "old
Spencer" told him of in the beginning. The absence of "big" people
portray no one being in
charge, and him the lone "big" person, express him as being souly in
control. The playing in the
rye field next to a crazy cliff would depict his nearness to his fall,
while being oblivious to the
danger. His one wish is to able to prevent this, to be in control.
Then after establishing his wishes he considers it impossible by expressing
thoughts of it's
craziness. He is resolved that he cannot be in control, but it is all he wants.
In a world before alternatives to his painful lifestyle, what can
Holden do but blindly play the game in the rye field, right beside his cliff
of sanity.
"But life is a game boy. Life is a game that one must play by the rules."


og en til:

This book has been steeped in controversy since it was banned in America after it's first publication. John Lennon's assassin, Mark Chapman, asked the former Beatle to sign a copy of the book earlier in the morning of the day that he murdered Lennon. Police found the book in his possession upon apprehending the psychologically disturbed Chapman. However, the book itself contains nothing that could be attributed with leading Chapman to act as he did - it could have been any book that he was reading the day he decided to kill John Lennon - and as a result of the fact that it was The Catcher in the Rye, a book describing a nervous breakdown, media speculated widely about the possible connection. This gave the book even more notoriety. So what is The Catcher in the Rye actually about?

Superficially the story of a young man's expulsion from yet another school, The Catcher in the Rye is in fact a perceptive study of one individual's understanding of his human condition. Holden Caulfield, a teenager growing up in 1950s New York, has been expelled school for poor achievement once again. In an attempt to deal with this he leaves school a few days prior to the end of term, and goes to New York to take a vacation' before returning to his parents' inevitable wrath. Told as a monologue, the book describes Holden's thoughts and activities over these few days, during which he describes a developing nervous breakdown, symptomised by his bouts of unexplained depression, impulsive spending and generally odd, erratic behavior, prior to his eventual nervous collapse.

However, during his psychological battle, life continues on around Holden as it always had, with the majority of people ignoring the 'madman stuff' that is happening to him - until it begins to encroach on their well defined social codes. Progressively through the novel we are challenged to think about society's attitude to the human condition - does society have an 'ostrich in the sand' mentality, a deliberate ignorance of the emptiness that can characterize human existence? And if so, when Caulfield begins to probe and investigate his own sense of emptiness and isolation, before finally declaring that he world is full of 'phonies' with each one out for their own phony gain, is Holden actually the one who is going insane, or is it society which has lost it's mind for failing to see the hopelessness of their own lives?

When we are honest we can see within ourselves suppressed elements of the forces operating within Holden Caulfield, and because of that I would recommend this thought provoking novel as a fascinating and enlightening description of our human condition. However, beware...for that very reason it is not comfortable reading.