Literary Analysis Essay On The Catcher In The Rye

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Catcher In The Rye Analytical Essay
At first glance, people can perceive someone to be sane or insane. It is a way society has classified people for many years, but in an mad world are only the mad sane? People who are supposedly sane are the ones who set the standards of insanity, so how can one person’s definition of insanity or sanity relate to the whole world. Holden Caulfield can, in many people’s eyes, be perceived as insane, but he’s actually the sane one in the insane world. Holden’s way of thinking that seem to be out of the realm of normal is just his way of trying to fit into the mold of ‘perfect’ and ‘sane’ that society has created.
A theme that shows up multiple times in the novel, “Catcher in the Rye” is how Holden copes with certain challenges in his life, and the way he approaches grief isn’t how other people would react. One example of this is how Holden reacted when he had found out that his brother, Allie, had died. “I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it. I even tried to break all the windows on the station wagon we had that summer, but my hand was already broken and everything by that time, and I couldn't do it.” (Salinger chapter 4) Holden lashes out, and everyone assumes that he is insane and sends him away. However, everyone reacts to grief …show more content…
Getting the highest paying job, getting into the best colleges, being the best in the class and being settled by a certain age, are things that not everyone can achieve. Society, for a long period of time, has shown that if you do not achieve these milestones, you are perceived as something other than normal and far from perfect. People, such as Holden, turn out to be sane people in an insane world because of the way they react to the insane conditions society has set for
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