Catcher in the Rye: A Book Review

About the Author

J.D. Salinger or Jerome David Salinger is an American author known for his novel, a classic literature, The Catcher in the Rye. He is considered a literary hermit due to being a recluse after the publication of the said novel in 1951. It is said that this novel is “almost autobiographical.”

Summary

The story began right before Christmas Vacation at Pencey Prep School in Pennsylvania, where Holden Caulfield, 16-year old was kicked out from school for failing all his classes except English. He was kicked out from other schools, too before Pencey.

He left school before he was dismissed and traveled to New York City, his hometown. However, he did not go directly home but spent time and money with a bunch of different people, including those he does not really like. He became more depressed so later on, he sneaked into their house to see his 10-year old sister, Phoebe.

Holden decided to move out from the country and find a job. He asked his sister to meet him to bid his last goodbye and while he was watching her riding on the carousel, he declared that he was happy and wouldn’t pursue his plan.

That was the end of his narration and back to the Holden a year later where it is suggested that he is telling the story from a hospital because he is “sick” in some way.

Review

Characterization

Holden uses profanity and insulting words, he smokes and lies about his age to drink liquor. He breaks rules in the dorm and spends most of his time criticizing people. He always has a negative say to something except for his dead brother, Allie, his older brother JB, and his 10-year old sister, Phoebe. He sees the world as full of phonies but he is also one of them. He wants to explore and  even paid a prostitute , but is afraid to lose his innocence.

For his age , he thinks a lot. He is smart but he does not know what he wants from life. When Phoebe asked to name one thing he likes, he answered Allie. But Allie was already part of the past, and based on this, we can see that a huge part of him is still grieving for Allie’s early death.

He represents people who are lonely and alone. He represents people that are falling apart, where healing is far-fetched. He represents all those who cannot find their purpose in life, and accomplish this by wandering and wasting time. He represents a soul desperately seeking attention to understand him and walk him through life. He wants to save children from falling from a cliff of rye (that’s why the book is titled Catcher in the Rye) but he cannot save his ownself. He, too could not save Allie. His weird hunting hat represents how different he is from others, and his question of where the ducks go when the lake freezes correlates with his lost of life of direction. 

Plot

If you are into fast-paced, action-packed genre, this would not be your thing. There were no climactic feel, nor page-turning twists. It was told in first person point of view using stream of consciousness. It seemed like a rant, a teenage angst! Honestly, it took me 2 days to finish reading it because it was repetitive and dull. A classic is a classic, that’s true, but the book did not exceed my expectations. 

The only thing I liked is the characterization of Holden. It will either make you hate him for his inappropriate behavior or sympathize with him. This is not a novel, it’s more of a character study. 

Literary Techniques

Symbolism is evident in the novel: hat, baseball glove, ducks, liquor, cigarette, carousel, phonograph, rain. Dialogues were average. I like how other authors and literary pieces were mentioned. This book is relatively short (26 chapters) and an easy read; however, it is not recommended for young readers due to its high profanity.

Recommendation

I rate it 2 out of 5 stars. If you’re looking for a classic, I won’t recommend this. I know when a book makes a huge impact; unfortunately, it failed to deliver.