Two Main Themes in The Catcher In The Rye Essay

J.D Salinger gives his personal vision of the world successfully through his personal life as Holden Caulfield in the Catcher in the Rye. Caulfield struggles with the background of New York to portray Salingers theme you must live the world as it is, not as you would like it to be. There by exposing Salingers vision on the world.

Salinger went through many of the experiences Holden went though. Salinger much like Holden had a sister that he loved very much, in the novel Phoebe is the only person that Holden speaks highly of; both men also spent time in amental institution; Holden is telling the story from inside a institution; they were both kicked out of prep school and most importantly they were both a recluse from society. This is why Salinger uses Holden as his persona all though out the book. The catcher in the Rye is almost like an autobiography for Salinger. He is using Holden as his persona to let us, the reader, dive into his thought pattern and find out some of the thoughts that he kept locked up in there.

Salingers view of the world is lived out thought Holden his persona. The novel is Holdens steam of conscience as he is talking to a psychoanalyst what would a psychoanalyst doget you to talkfor one thing hed help you to recognize the patterns of your mind. At the start of the novel it is addressed directly to us if you really want to hear about it. This gives us a sense of reality as though it is us that are the psychiatrist. We see the random thought patterns of Holdens mind as he starts to feel more comfortable, Holden goes off on to many different tangents while he is talking. Salinger is using Holden as a type of easy wayout to confess his view of the world.

This view is portrayed though twomain aspectsof the novel. Firstly theme - you must live in a world as it is, not as you would like it to be. Holden cant seem to accept the world as it is and finds New York extremely phony. Holden has a great disliking for the movies, he finds them the phoniest of them all I hate the movies like poison and he cant believe that people actually make time to go to the there. But actually Holden is the biggest phony of them all. He does everything he says about other phonies. Holdens removal from the past schools he has enrolled in, the last one being Pency Prep suggests that he has unsuitable attitudes. He extremely immature in the way that he talks I've got a flit for you this is what he says as he insults Luce in the bar. He has met him even though he doesnt like him that much, Holden insults him and sees that this toilet humor is inappropriate but can seem to stop him. When Luce gets up to leave him he gives one last cry Please I'm lonesome as hell. Its the lack of love that Holden has that makes him so rejected from society. Its the lack of love that Salinger shows in the novel.

Holden spends three days in New York, in search of love. This is the second aspect setting. It is in this background of New York that we see a vast amount of people that Holden comes into contact with. Many different people from the old to the young (Mr. Spencer and phoebe), to the ordinary and the bizarre (nuns and Horowitz) but even with this wide array of people Holden cannot find that love he is deprived of from his parents. When Holden was younger his brother that he was very close to, Allie died. Each member of the family didnt know how to take this and all took the pain different ways. Holden lashed out and broke all the windows in his garage and his mum and dad tried to put it to the back of their minds by working more. Holdens parents not knowing how to handle him sent him off too many different private schools but Holden continued to fail at each one. It is this love that he is deprived from his parents that he tries to find in those three days in New York.

We could almost see New York as a character in the novel, with all of the museums, schools (Phoebes school and Pency), parks (Central Park), theatres bars and night clubs (Ernies). It makes it become more realistic for us as the reader and lets us relate to it more.