NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
The Catcher and the Rye is not the kind of story with a meaningful story line, that is, knowing only that would indicate little on what it is about. The events told in the story, seem to unfold as flashbacks. We can sense a chronological order of events in Holden Caufield's story, although the order does not matter as much as acknowledging each event as its own story. Be what may, here is what was perceived as the story line.
Holden Caufield was telling his story (to the readers, or to some people with a psychoanalyst guy) to the point where he was sixteen years old. We learn bluntly of his failure in most of his subjects at his boarding school otherwise known as Pencey Prep, in Agers town, Pennsylvania. Due to this failure, he was kicked out of the school, in the sense that he can still choose to remain at the school for the remaining days until Christmas vacation begins. He went to New York City before the Christmas vacation started however.
A lot of events occurred in New York City, such as his encounter with three woman in a bar; the two cabdrivers; the case with Ernie (a pianist in a bar); him meeting a prostitute; Mr. Antolinis flirty pass at him; his mention of people he cares about (for e. g. , his sister Phoebe Caufield, Jane Gallagher, Allie Caufield). Personally, there is not much reason to describe them all. Because these events do not donate much to the story line, we can therefore take up to the point where he decided to see his sister Phoebe (maybe to search for someone to relieve him of his loneliness).
At that moment, he came up with a solution, that is, to pretend to be a deaf-mute (the idea was just appealing in the sense that he would not need to communicate with any phony people), and live in a cabin out in the west, near the woods. Presumably because of his sister, who also wanted to run away with him, he decided that it was probably best to stay with his family. Eventually, the story stops to where Holden was telling the story, in a hospital or institution of some sort. He says to us or the people at the hospital how sorry he is for telling the story. When reading the story, it seems that Holden represents the personality of most teenage boys, although I would exclude the fact that he is perhaps more sensitive than most. At the beginning, he sounded very casual in his manner of speech.
Take for example the introduction, where he gives us the message that his story is not at all important, that this kind of stuff bores him, and that it is not worthy enough to be heard. The readers can get the impression that they were already supposed to be curious about hearing his story in the beginning. This emphasizes that his story was not intended to hold the readers in contempt or to show that it was unimportant to our cause, or the cause of the people at the hospital. Most teenage boys are like this sometimes. Take me for example, I normally talk similarly like him usually around other people my age, as to blend in more, and to sound tough as well. A lot of times, when teenage boys talk among themselves, we keep a certain level of toughness in our speech, as to separate us from seeming too sensitive, a feature we do not find appealing.
Whenever Holden talks to an adult however, it is different because of language shifting. He talks to an adult, using extensive vocabulary with the kind of regard people use in interviews or to talk with teachers. This goes to show how absurd it can be to show someone how well you fit in the standards of well-brought up teenage boys. For certain issues Holden cannot describe fully or express extreme emotion, he sums it up by saying: it killed me, or it really does, or Im a madman, or this madman stuff, or or something like that, or very big deal (notice that throughout the whole book, he stresses the use of these expressions). We can relate this to how teenagers talk, because for example, I would say, Im going crazy instead of Im a madman, just to redeem myself from something stupid I did. This kind of figure of speech helps to generalize feelings that would be too inconsistent to describe in normal words.
Another example would be when Holden says it killed me, we can interpret this simply as something that made a huge impact on him, although we have to decide whether he meant it in a positive or negative way, and how big the impact was. As we read the story, the language style stays the same, thus it is hard to read because many things are rendered general with the use of his style of talking. Some things he says do not make sense although we get an idea of what he says. For example, I first started to contemplate about what he meant by, It was that kind of crazy afternoon, terrifically cold, and no sun or anything, and you felt like you were disappearing every time you crossed a road... When he said, disappearing, it could indicate an emotion or something from his imagination. For me, it could mean being surrounded by snow falling and by the view of deserted white covered ground.
Anyhow, it is this kind of generalization, which sets the level of ambiguous ness in the story. He also says things like, Im quite illiterate, but I read a lot. Although it is contradiction, it makes sense because we can assume he is indicating his reading is not good according to his standard. I found that the book has many themes. Of those themes, I personally find that phoniness comes into play the most. To describe this phoniness, school can be served as an example.
The advertisement for example, would be something phony, especially the part about molding boys into splendid, clear-thinking men. The ad is phony to him, because he only considers a few people in that school to be clear-thinking. Movies are phony. The actors formulate how people should act in real life situations, although this is phony because they act too good. Holden perhaps hates movies in that sense, but he watches them anyway. We see this when he felt sorry for the three women at the bar who wanted to catch the first show at the Radio City Music Hall.
Even so, he made a date with Sally to watch a show with the Lunts (some people whom perform music or something). Nowadays, instead of movies, it would be T. V... He gave Sally Hayes (someone he used to go out with) later on as an example of someone phony. He says at first that she seemed intelligent, but that was because of knowledge. Knowledge does not signify the ability to think, and so, she would not classify as a clear-thinking person.
The reason I find, that he regards phoniness as a bad quality is because it shows how fake standards and values (like the school system) can replace innocence. Sally seems to have lost this innocence, and she reflects phony people because of her use of the word grand for example (language can make someone lie to their true feelings, or force someone to believe it is their true feelings), or the way she adores stuff like the Lunts. The way he excites her simply by saying anything to do with the Lunts shows her phoniness. It is phony because of how predictable it is to see her reaction.
The reaction was already planned for her, and thus, there is no innocence. Again, it was like she was lying to herself just to sound splendid to others. See more explication in the following theme. Another theme would be the catcher in the rye.
Holden tells his sister, he would like to be the catcher in the rye (the title of the book). This shows that he has a thing about children, that is, to protect them from falling off a cliff. We can take Phoebe as example, because she is still young. Holden really cares for children, because of their innocence. Things that corrupt this innocence, are phony things, such as profanity on the wall. They take away how a person sees things and teaches the person to become phony.
It worthwhile to note that the people he does not criticize negatively, are Phoebe, Allie, and Jane Gallagher. He remembers Jane as a girl who always kept her kings in the back row (because she said it looks nicer that way). We can see it as if, she dismisses the rules of the game (even if it means losing), which leads us to when Mr. Turner said to Holden that Life is a game. Innocence in children (for e.
g. , Jane keeping her kings in back) brings about a quality, and Holden intends on protecting that quality. This may be why he was mad at Stradlater (a roommate at Pencey Prep), who took Jane in his coach's car. He did not want him to change her, with ideas of sex or otherwise. Note that Holden never calls Jane in the story yet, perhaps due to his fear of finding out whether she was no longer the person that kept her kings in the back row, that is, to find out if the vulnerability and innocence was taken away as she grew up. The need of companionship or the aspects of loneliness is a possible theme. When Holden went to New York City, he was contemplating on calling Phoebe, or Jane Gallagher, or Sally Hayes.
He also asked people (like the girl stripper or the cabdrivers) if they would like to have a drink with him. Even though for practically everyone he sees or encounters, he criticizes them, whether or not he needs their companionship. When he heard Ernie play the piano, he hated the playing because in spite that it sounded good, it was corny. However, he then asked the waiter to ask Ernie if he would like to drink with him. In the end, he also said that he will even miss people like Maurice (elevator operator who beat him up), Stradlater, and Ackley (a generally nasty guy).
Basically, that part shows how people need other peoples presence, or they will become depressed and feel sorry for themselves. This could be the reason why Holden was in the hospital or institution, he suffered from depression (there was also something to do with T. B. , as mentioned in the beginning). Bibliography:
Free research essays on topics related to: kings in the back, sally hayes, holden caufield, catcher in the rye, telling the story
Research essay sample on Catcher In The Rye Kings In The Back
