What do You Think the Author Wrote this Story? Important Message?

   This is sort of a tough question. I mean there could be so many answers for this and probably all be correct. In my opinion I think J.D Salinger is someone who observes humankind, notices and picks out different acts of bad human behaviour he see's. I believe he wrote this book in an attempt to show people how they tend to act and think on a daily basis. Holden for an example would be of a typical person who is so brought down by the world for no reason and feels the need for constant judgment and the feeling of superiority over others. This is why thousands of people across the world say they are Holden because they recognize themselves in his behaviours and attitude. This disturbs me because it only accentuates the fact that majority of people are so judgemental, pessimistic and overall just act like everything sucks. This would be the first problem Salinger wanted to address in humankind. He wants to emphasize the amount of unhappiness and negativity in our world, when we have so much beauty around us, and so much to be thankful for.


    It's crazy if you think back to the book and analyze every single character in the book, finding that there's some kind of lesson to be learned, or some negative type of behaviour to be addressed. In example, Horowitz. People should be kind to one another and not rude and irritated when someone speaks or asks something. People constantly feel like someone's wasting our time when really it takes so little to be kind and make someone's day. Furthermore, from Sally Hayes we learn to just be who you really are and not have two different personalities. Sally is a great symbol of the amount of people in the world who act "phony".


  The list could go on and on. The book is full of meaning and messages that Salinger included to stop the reader and reflect on their actions. It goes from characters to daily struggles Holden experiences to the way people act towards one another. J. D Salinger was really trying to draw attention to bad habits and awfully negative behaviours humans demonstrate without even acknowledging or realizing they're doing it.


   Basically the bottom line is people are so consumed in their own lives they forget to be nice to each other and often times forget to look around and realize¸what the important things in life are again. The author ultimately wrote the book to get people to realize their wrongdoings and use the examples in the book as a guide to something we shouldn't do or be.

What tone does the author use?

  I mean all I'm going to say is that J.D Salinger is an excellent writer. The text is so full of different tones and emotions that you basically feel like you're Holden in New York City. That's how you know you're reading a good book. Anyways, the tone used throughout most of the book is very pessimistic, glum, and overall negative. But that's because its mostly always Holden talking or narrating haha.. Salinger often uses swear words, and other unkind words when Holden is angry or too busy judging someone he just met. This sort of unhappy, dismissive tone reflects what J. D Salinger thinks about certain topics and issues, such as how people are not themselves all the time, often being "phony". Certain parts of Holden also carry the authors traits as he wanted to show the world through a story the problems he see's in people everyday. In most ways I would say Holden is an edited  version of Salinger. He's also quite known for a couple of his famous quotes which state that he himself is sometimes frightened by the horrible human behaviours he has come to see. I think in this book he was trying to create a protagonist with both negative and positive traits which people can closely relate to. The overall book is meant to display various characters with different attitudes, and situations, so that people can observe and notice the things society does. These exemplars are meant to get us to use them as either things we should be doing or ways we shouldn't be acting. J.D Salinger appeals to all audiences for the reason of making every reader feel like someone from the novel in some way. The author feels a change needs to be made in how we treat one another. Salinger seems like a pretty deep guy. So insightful. :)

How Does the Setting Reflect Character?

   So the whole story takes place in The Big Apple (a.k.a New York City). But if you read carefully, you notice that the book is set in the winter season, often raining or snowing. Without a doubt J.D Salinger did this on purpose. He decided to use pathetic fallacy, which is when the weather mirrors the characters emotions and text. It is evident Holden has multiple mental illnesses caused by Allie's death, and is almost always in an angry, irritated, or sullen mood. This is exactly when the weather would be described as gloomy to help set the scene for the reader. It really helps to understand Holden more and the emotions he's feeling by visualising the cold, dark setting. Those words I just used for explaining the weather could easily be used for describing Holden because the setting mirrors him. Near the end when Holden starts to understand important ideas and realizes that everything will be okay in the future that's when the weather starts to become more sunny and ultimately give off a happy, uplifting vibe. Without a good setting I don't think it would be so easy to understand exactly how Holden was feeling such as his depression. Wow, J.D Salinger really was a smart guy..

How do characters evolve and change throughout the story?

   Obviously the character who noticeably evolves throughout the story would have to be Holden. Since it is written in first person the reader knows the most about him and understand what he's thinking or feeling. Holden is a very judgemental person who likes to comment on every little thing or person. Some would call it being brutally honest. He is understood to have an odd attitude towards sex,  and finding all adults to be "phony". These issues are narrated as Holden goes through them. For most of the novel Holden tries to lose his virginity, but once the time presents himself when a teen prostitute comes to his hotel room, all he wanted was some company for his loneliness. By the end he realizes that sex should be kept for people who care for, and respect one another and not some meaningless event. Holden really demonstrated maturity as he comes to understand this.




   As for his issues with finding almost all adults to be "phony", Holden judges everyone he meets and always points out something that is fake about them. He is obsessed with making conclusions about people and analyzing them. Not only is it rude, but it demonstrates how he feels he is never phony and how all children are so innocent. The way he perceives adults and the way they act, causes him to be afraid of growing up because he never wants to end up a "phony" just like everyone else. As the novel progresses he meets characters like the nuns who completely blow his mind because there is nothing fake about them. From this point on it seems as though Holden starts to view people differently and becomes okay with growing up as he see's that you don't have to end up that way and everything is okay.

  

Character Analysis?

   This book features quite a variety of characters, both major and minor, who demonstrate different personalities. As the reader follows Holden on his journey through New York after he leaves the snobby Pencey Prep School, we come across plenty of characters every step of the way. Holden's life is constantly filled with some human being whom he gladly judges. The whole book is basically about who he meets, how they acted, and whether he thought they were "phony" or actually alright. In my opinion, I really didn't like Sally Hayes. She is a 17 year old girl who is loud, chatty and likes to flirt. She doesn't sound that bad, I know. But, as she goes on a date with Holden she becomes this super shallow, annoying girl. The reader doesn't really see this new side to her until Holden brigs up the crazy idea of getting out of New York together, getting married, and living in a cabin for the rest of their lives. Now of coarse Holden is super bizarre and impulsive on this, but Sally goes ballistic on him. Instead of being this cute, fun girl she drops her phony act and becomes irritated and lame. Holden makes a rude comment to her and she immediately gets up and walks away. I mean I know she probably doesn't sound that bad, especially since Holden has some pretty odd ideas, but my biggest pet peeve is when people are fake. Yes, Holden and I are the same in some way its very weird. As I was saying, it really bothers me when a person pretends to be someone their not in order for people to like them. When we met Sally some way into the novel, she immediately struck a nerve and became someone I disliked. She probably isn't a bad person its just the way it seems as though she has a split personality that didn't sit well with me.


    As for the rest of the characters, I thought J.D Salinger did an excellent job at including different characters as several places and events that shifted the mood or plot line. This basically happens in every chapter and makes you to want to scream because everything shifts so much. The only other character I disliked would've been Horowitz the cab driver. He was so incredibly rude, agitated, and annoyed at Holden, just for asking a somewhat stupid, somewhat valid question about where the ducks go in the winter. I mean sheesh you could be a little bit more pleasant. I sure hope I never have a cab driver like him.
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The Climactic moment of the Text

  I mean I'm not going to lie.... This book was unlike others and really didn't have a distinctive climactic moment. It didn't really even seem to have much of a rising action either, it was just stuck on some continuous point between Exposition and Rising Action. So, we'll call it The Exposirise Action. Haha.. Saying that, this does not mean at all that this was a boring book. In fact, It was anything but ordinary. It's a short novel, yet it throws you through more emotional hoops than a 500 page book. Anyways, if I really had to choose a climactic moment in the story it would have to be the point in which Holden is watching Phoebe on the carousel. All throughout the novel Holden is fighting with his internal conflict of growing up, and at this point as he is watching her go around  trying to reach for the golden ring he realizes that some things just need to be let to happen. He mentions being worried that Phoebe could fall off but decides to let her be a kid and not interfere. At this point it seems as though he finally finds peace with his struggle and realizes that things will turn out alright. This is highly significant because it marks the moment Holden truly saw things through an adults perspective and got over his fear of growing up. He really demonstrated true maturity.












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The Subplot of The Catcher in the Rye

   Losing a relative or a family member is one of the hardest things to go through, especially when you don't talk to anyone about how you're feeling. Keeping all the emotions and thoughts inside is not only super difficult and draining, but is only amplified when you're an adolescent and already going through other possibly irrelevant problems, lol.


   Throughout the novel Holden is seriously struggling with multiple mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety and stress, which are all effects of a past tragedy in his life. This brings me to the point of this post, which would be to address the death of Holden's younger brother Allie, as the subplot in The Catcher in the Rye. I cant even begin to imagine how Holden was able to keep it locked inside and not speak to anyone about it, but then again I guess its a matter of personality, and the fact that his mother is too struggling with depression and his father is a busy man who is tired of him getting kicked out of schools. So level of support = 0. The reason behind Holden's issues could not be understood if the reader didn't read between the lines and understand that his odd, arrogant manners and actions are all a product of his grief.  He pretends to be this cool, mature, nonchalant guy, but really he doesn't know how else to deal with it then cover it up. Holden basically lives by the saying "fake it till you make it".


    If you think about it the subplot of the story is actually so incredibly important because without it Holden wouldn't be the impulsive, angry guy he is. Seriously, there would be no 'Catcher in the Rye' if Allie's death hadn't happened because the whole tale is Holden's recounts of that year, which he writes while in a psychiatric hospital.


   Again, Allie's death is extremely important because it marks the day Holden's life changed and he became this struggling 17 year old. The death caused him to develop stress and depression as he mentions he really liked his brother. Holden also turns to detrimental habits like smoking many, many cigarettes a day and drinking alcohol frequently as an obvious relief method for him when things get too overwhelming.


   If you didn't feel like reading the whole thing all i'm basically saying is that Allie's death is highly significant in Holden's attitude because it causes him to develop mental issues, resulting in peculiar, egotistic interactions and situations. So yeah, overall Holden is super weird and very hard to understand but at the same time he's almost relatable?? Its a love/hate relationship you know?