Friday, May 14, 2010

The Catcher in the Rye- Sarah Waltman

In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden ends the story with saying that he was “sorry that [he] told so many people about it,” it meaning his problems, and also just his life story (214). He also states that he “sort of miss[es] everybody [he] told about” in the story, which was ironic because most of the people he described throughout the story he was always annoyed with, but these people also seemed to be his closest friends, such as Ackley (214). Holden, in my opinion, always seemed to be sort of lost with who he was as a person, and also with what he wanted to do with his life.

Holden had many people supporting him, and giving him advice to “have a fair idea where [he] wants to go,” and then his “first move will be to apply [himself] in school” (189). Holden gets advice about school from not only Mr. Antolini towards the end of the story, but also from Mr. Spencer in the very beginning of the story.

One thing that I have noticed throughout this story is that whenever Holden is around younger kids, like his sister Phoebe, or whenever he remembers times when he was little and playing with Allie, he is always “so damn happy” to see how happy the kids are, or remembering them happy anyways (213). For example, when Holden watched how happy Phoebe was when she was riding on the carrousel, “[he] was damn near bawling, [he] felt so damn happy, if you want to know the truth” (213). Holden was also somewhat happy whenever he would look at Allie’s baseball mitt with poetry written all over it, and he would remember how “he had poems written all over the fingers and the pocket… so that he’d have something to read when he was in the field and no one was at bat” (38).

Throughout the story, Holden’s self discovery was what really interested me, and in some ways I can relate with him about the troubles of trying to be free in your own world, but I don’t think I would run away like he did! Overall I really enjoyed this Novel.

Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye. Little, Brown, 1951. Print.

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