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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE
By J. D. Salinger
“I got bored sitting on that washbowl after a while, so I backed up a few feet and started doing this tap dance, just for the hell of it. I was just amusing myself. I can’t really tap-dance or anything, but it was a stone floor in the can, and it was good for tap-dancing. I started imitating one of those guys in the movies. In one of those musicals. I hate the movies like poison, but I get a bang imitating them. Old Stradlater watched me in the mirror while he was shaving. All I need’s an audience. I’m an exhibitionist. ‘I’m the goddam Governor’s son,’ I said. I was knocking myself out. Tap-dancing all over the place. “He doesn’t want me to be a tap dancer. He wants me to go to Oxford. But it’s in my goddam blood, tap-dancing.’” (The Catcher in the Rye, page 29, paragraph 2.)
After reading The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, I have truly earned a new appreciation for this extraordinarily different style of writing. The book is about a young man, Holden Caulfield, and his life over the period of about a week after he is expelled from Pencey Prep School. Holden is expelled from Pencey only a few days before the rest of the students were to leave for Christmas break, and decides that instead of going home early and breaking the news to his parents himself, he would spend a few nights in New York and wait until they received the letter from the Dean. He meets a series of interesting people - and also revisits some of his old friends - along the way. As the reader, one is introduced to his roommate at Pencey named Stradlater, a wealthy, conceited, but pretty nice guy, and one of Holden’s ex-girlfriends Sally Hayes. During his adventure in New York Holden befriends a pair of nuns who interest him greatly, meets a pimp and one of his prostitutes at a hotel, and a few impatient cab drivers. The reader also witnesses a close bond that Holden shares with his younger sister, Phoebe. The book itself is written differently than any other I’ve read, and I think that it made the book much more interesting and easy read.
I thoroughly enjoyed every single page of this book. The book was written in the first person from Holden’s point of view. The language that J.D. Salinger used to express the young man’s emotions was both hilarious and shockingly realistic. At times I was literally laughing out loud, others I felt bad for Holden for losing his younger brother, and quite often I found myself nodding my head in agreement with the way Holden looked at people. For example, there are numerous parts of The Catcher in the Rye in which he talks about how he dislikes people who are phony, people who make up reasons why someone is good at something instead of allowing them to just be good at it, and people who love going and sitting in movie theaters, along with many others.
I think the reason that I enjoyed this book so much is the language in which it was written. Holden is a young, witty, sarcastic, opinionated guy, and a very interesting one to follow through every imaginable type of experience in the big city of New York. The book is almost completely written in slang, using expressions like ‘willya?’, or ‘come on, hey’, and ending most sentences with phrases such as ‘boy’ or ‘and all’. The language being more like a common, slang, spoken language however does not disable it from being descriptive as well. I actually found that the book flowed much more nicely in the way it was written than using too many words to portray a simple thought. There was noticeable, clever humor in the writing and it was organized well moving from one day and one place to another quite clearly. The realistic plot was backed up by realistic dialogue, but at times the book took some unpredictable turns, making it all the more interesting to read. It reminded me of the book I read just before this one, (the one that actually inspired me to choose The Catcher in the Rye for my review,) called The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I have nothing but good things to say about either of these books. The Catcher in the Rye is engrossing, easy to relate to, humorous, and a fun and easy read.
I chose the quote mentioned earlier because I thought it really showed what type of personality Holden has. He proved to be a tremendously outgoing character, and often referred to himself as ‘a madman at times’. Easily bored, Holden was able to amuse himself by sometimes pretending he had been stabbed by a sword in the stomach, or imagining that he was the Governor’s son. These parts of the book stood out to me a great deal, because not only were they the most interesting, but they helped me to get much more of a feel for Holden’s character than anything else. These parts showed that he had a creative, spontaneous side to him that was really fascinating and fun to get to know.
I would recommend this book to anyone from the age of fifteen up, who can appreciate a different type of language and enjoys realistic fiction. I found The Catcher in the Rye to be the most enjoyable book I’ve read in a long time, and would certainly read it again. It is a capturing novel that in an indirect way can teach one a great deal about oneself without losing their interest for even a minute.