The catcher in the rye’ is a monologue of Holden Caulfield, a young boy in his adolescent years. Unlike any typical literary work it is written in spoken English which makes you fall deeper into the abyss of thoughts of the protagonist. Holden seems to possess quite an enigmatic personality, he has a knack of being getting expelled from schools and the novel begins with him being getting axed from his current school.
After his expulsion he decides to live off some of his days alone in the hotels and streets of New York till the news of his expulsion reaches his home. The book revolves around his experiences of these lonesome days in New York. J.D. Salinger has portrayed Holden as a young teenager struggling with the dilemma of preserving the innocence of his childhood, because all he sees in adults is lies and hypocrisy. Though coming from a wealthy family, materialism does not interests him, he seeks purity and honesty in a person , of which he now finds even himself lacking, adding to his fury and depression. Lost in the maze of such desolated thoughts, he alienates himself from the outside world and begins to loathe the society which takes him closer to the abyss of misanthropy. But even though Holden’s character seems to be ill-disposed sometimes, his love for his little sister and his deceased brother underlines the fact that somewhere underneath all the loathing and hate, was buried his kind and affectionate heart for the pure and the innocent.
With The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger has certainly produced one of the best bildungsroman novels of English literature.
After his expulsion he decides to live off some of his days alone in the hotels and streets of New York till the news of his expulsion reaches his home. The book revolves around his experiences of these lonesome days in New York. J.D. Salinger has portrayed Holden as a young teenager struggling with the dilemma of preserving the innocence of his childhood, because all he sees in adults is lies and hypocrisy. Though coming from a wealthy family, materialism does not interests him, he seeks purity and honesty in a person , of which he now finds even himself lacking, adding to his fury and depression. Lost in the maze of such desolated thoughts, he alienates himself from the outside world and begins to loathe the society which takes him closer to the abyss of misanthropy. But even though Holden’s character seems to be ill-disposed sometimes, his love for his little sister and his deceased brother underlines the fact that somewhere underneath all the loathing and hate, was buried his kind and affectionate heart for the pure and the innocent.
With The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger has certainly produced one of the best bildungsroman novels of English literature.
No comments:
Post a Comment