Catcher In The Rye

Words: 686
Pages: 3

I have never been to New York, but the author J.D. Salinger made me feel if I was with the main character, Holden, in the book the Catcher in the Rye. Holden begins his story in his story at Pencey Prep, a private school in Pennsylvania where Holden has recently been expelled from. Holden decides he has had enough of Pencey Prep and catches a train to New York City, where he plans to stay in a hotel until Wednesday, when his parents expect him to return home for Christmas break.

The main character is Holden Caulfield, the narrator who actually tells the story to the reader while he is somewhere in California. Holden is very judgmental about almost everything and everyone. Usually, the word he describes most people is the word “phony”. Holden
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Holden checks into a worn down hotel and plans to stay there for a few days, but things don’t work out from there. Holden goes to bars and clubs. He talks and flirts with women. Holden also got into a fight. After Holden got tired of this, he eventually decided to check out of the hotel and sneak into his parent’s home before Wednesday. When he got home, Holden is met by his younger sister Phoebe Caulfield, who embraces him. He is forced to admit to Phoebe that he was kicked out of school, which makes her mad at him.When he tries to explain why he hates school, she accuses him of not liking anything. He tells her of him being “the catcher in the rye,” a person who catches little children as they are about to fall off of a …show more content…
The genre of this book was a “modern classic” and a “coming of age story.” I also think it is an adventure. I agree with this book being a modern classic because this book was written in the 1940s, but the Salinger’s style reminded me of more modern stories. You can truly say it was ahead of its time. A strength of this book was that it described New York in the fifties really well in my opinion. Another good point of this book was that I felt a special connection to Holden sometimes because Holden is deals with loneliness and trying to find his place in society. However, one thing I didn’t like about this novel was its use of profanity. Holden isn’t a good role model because he drinks, smokes, swears , lies, is rebellious, and makes adult references. Also, I struggled to follow along sometimes because I think this is a very complex