Catcher in the Rye Interpretation

Catcher in the Rye, J.Salinger.

The story under consideration is entitled “Catcher in the Rye”, written by Jerome David Salinger and published in 1951. The story deals with the burning issues of searching the truth and psychological maturing. To be more exact, it touches upon such problems as “phoniness” of the adult world, proper upbringing and relationships among a family and essence of the matter as well. Holden, the narrator, tells the story of his adventures before the previous Christmas, so the scene is laid in Pencey (the place, where he studied) and New York City (the place, where he lived). The main character of the story is Holden Caulfield and the supporting characters are his family, friends and his teacher. The atmosphere of the story is rather tense, sarcastic, gloomy, but dynamic at the same time.

In the centre of the plot we can see a young boy, Holden, who lost confidence in himself and felt discouraged and thus adopted a life style based on a mistaken way of feeling superior. He resorted to lies and rebellion. He was able to feel fond of his younger brother and sister because they admired him and hence make him appeared superior. At the beginning of the novel, we assume that Holden has had some neurotic symptoms which resulted in his being sent to some place to recover. He tells his story from the perspective of having been there a while, but what progress he has made is unclear. ("I'll just tell you about this madman stuff that happened to me around Christmas just before I got pretty run-down and had to come here and take it easy"). Holden told his own story in the play. He selected incidents that seemed important to him and interlaced those incidents with his opinions about life. That information is similar to the kind the therapist gets from his client, actually.

The story begins with Holden at Pencey School on his way to the house of his history teacher, Spencer, so that he can say goodbye. He reveals to the reader that he has been expelled for failing most of his classes. After he visits Spencer, he encounters his roommate, who asks Holden to write an essay for English class for him while he goes on a date with a longtime friend of Holden’s. Having agreed, Holden writes about the baseball glove of his younger brother, Allie, who died of leukemia. When Stradlater returns, he tells Holden that the essay isn’t good, and Holden gets angry. This causes Holden to storm out and leave Pencey for New York City a few days earlier than planned for Christmas break. Once he arrives in New York, he cannot go home, as his parents do not yet know that he has been expelled. Instead, he rents a room at the Edmont Hotel. His loneliness then causes him to seek out human interaction, which he does at the Lavender Room, the hotel’s nightclub. When he gets back to the hotel, he orders a prostitute to his room, only to talk to her. This situation ends in him being