The Mirrow Image (The Catcher In the Rye)
The novel Catcher In The Rye, written by Jerome David Salinger illustrates events of a troubled childhood of a teenager, named Holden Caulfield. Holden presents difficulty in his transition from youth to adulthood. He reveals very confused image throughout the novel and doesn’t know how to handle the fact that he has to grow up and become a responsible adult. The author gives Holden a very unusual and distinctive character. Holden has different ways of thinking and liking. He has an incredibly negative attitude towards people in general. He shows absolutely no signs of an optimistic person. Salinger creates such a tone to the novel that the reader becomes completely involved in Caulfield’s life and the reader in forced into thinking like him. Holden’s narration is very persuasive and we [the reader] have no choice but to be on his side in the situations presented in the novel. Salinger has written the novel in such a way for a purpose: Much of what has happened in Salinger’s life is discretely inserted in the novel using Holden’s character. Salinger has written the novel to somehow demonstrate past experiences in his life without having to let the reader know that he was writing about hims
Later in he novel, Holden meets up with an old friend, Sally Hayes. He takes her to a matinee and then they go ice-skating. Later on when they are having a drink at the ice-skating rink, Holden suddenly comes up with a very bizarre idea: Similar to Holden, Salinger figured out his way to run away also. After publishing The Catcher In The Rye, he stopped writing for publication. In the 1960’s he moved to his rural home in New Hampshire and became a recluse. He rejected publication of his work as “ a terrible invasion of his privacy.” (Salinger, J.D., Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2002). That was Salinger’s way of running from the media and being able to be alone without being bothered. Now it’s all very clear why was it that Holden came up with his absurd proposition to Sally. It came from Salinger and the fact that he also went to live in somewhat a “cabin” in some rural place in New Hampshire. The connection of both of them running away to a quiet place in the middle of the woods is now very clear. Salinger proceeded very well in keeping his work discreet but giving a significant meaning to certain details in the novel. He wrote an interesting and vigorous novel and was still able to place a biography of himself in the story without readers having to know that it all concluded to what his life was like. It was a way of not having an “invasion of his privacy” published. Instead, he created Holden, and Holden was mirror image that he invented. Here’s my idea. How would you like to get the hell out of here? Here’s my idea. I know this guy down in Greenwich Village that we can borrow his car for a couple of weeks…What we could do is, tomorrow morning we could drive up to Massachusetts and Vermont, and all around there, see…I have about a hundred and eighty bucks in the bank. I can t
Some topics in this essay:
Caulfield Holden,
Hills” Holden,
Sally Salinger,
Honest God,
Massachusetts Vermont,
Holden Army,
Catcher Rye,
Sally Hayes,
Columbia University,
Army Holden’s,
written novel,
salinger written novel,
“i didn’t,
holden’s character,
salinger written,
dough runs,
didn’t exactly,
feelings towards,
private school,
throughout novel,
fail schools,
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Approximate Word count = 1247
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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