Catcher of the Rye review

Personal opinions are also considered in book review. Books may be reviewed either for the following purposes for periodicals that are printed, newspapers and magazines, for school work and finally for internet websites of the books. This paper covers a review on the book titled Catcher of the Rye by J. D Salinger. Summary This book is set early in 1950s and a young man by the name Holden Caulfield narrates the whole story. On his train home, he meets a parent from their school. on arrival, he checks in at Edmont hotel. From his room, he could see clearly into the opposite rooms and the events happening in there. From the behaviors portrayed by the occupants in the opposite rooms, he gets sexually aroused and decides to call a girl whom he knew as a stripper to come over.

The girl complains that it’s late and suggests that they meet the following day which Holden does not agree to. Holden lies to the prostitute that he had had a spinal operation and thus wasn’t able to play sex with her but he would pay her the five dollars she demanded. She takes the money and leaves. Maurice comes back demanding for another five dollars as his pay. Holden refuses to give and Maurice beats him as Sunny removes five dollars from his pocket. Later, Holden pictures murdering Maurice with a weapon. He sneaks into the house while the parents are out and goes to where phoebe is. He considers her as the only person who can understand his feelings.

Phoebe is excited to see her brother but fast deduces that he had been expelled from school and she attacks him for his carelessness and dislike for everything. Holden in response shares a fantasy he had been worried about. He takes himself as the only guardian to so many children playing in a big rye field on a cliffs edge. He plans on meeting the sister to say goodbye. Phoebe insists on leaving with Holden but he refuses and instead quits the idea of going. Holden takes Phoebe to the park so as to make her happy. Finally Holden decides on meeting the parents that night and pretending to be sick. He suggests on joining a new school come September. He started writing and too joined the army and engaged in Second World War in Europe.

He later published the novel, The Catcher in the Rye. The events in the novel too are experienced in Salinger’s own life. For example the moving from one school to another by Holden. Such events appeared in the Second World War setting. This is highly portrayed by the events that took place in Holden’s life. In almost all the places he felt unappreciated and out of place. Holden stood for the young generation who grow up following rules and disengage themselves from the meaningful connection thus restricting them to blind cultural norms. Readers saw Holden as a sign of pure and unfettered generation in the age of cultural oppression. Evaluation of the book In evaluating the book, we are going to critically analyze the book by looking into its weaknesses and strengths and also the personal opinions about the literary work.

The novel is so rich in such comical observations and this interests the reader and psyches them to read more. The third strength is thus the use of humor in the book. An example is the character of Sally Hayes. She is so excellently drawn that it makes the reader feel like he or she knows her. Sally is the class president, prom queen and also described as a typical cheerleader. Characters in the book have to understand him although there are incidences of confusion like Mr. Antilini referred to him as weird since when he touched him Holden misinterpreted the signal to mean something different. Another weakness portrayed is Holden’s psychological weakness. He is in confusion between the childhood stage and adulthood.

He even fantasizes about preserving his innocence and still wants to engage in adult stuff like sexual behavior and going out to clubs to have fun. Finally, Holden is too much into himself and wants to be listened by every other character he meets. This is a behavior portrayed by any other adolescence. Conclusion J. D Salinger’s novel is an interesting work of art because of the humor and the way young generation is supposed to learn the realities of life as well as struggles between childhood and adulthood. The novel also puts clearly the code of conformity in the society and that’s why the narrator is criticized for using vulgar language and also engaging in activities that are contrary to the code of conformity set by those in the society.