Literature analysis of J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye

1. The story starts of in therapy session where our character Holden Caulfield, goes on to tell us his story of how he ends up there. He starts off at Penecy Prep in Agerstown,Pennsylvania in where we find out that he is completly failing most of his classes because of his lack of effort. From here, due a series of events and emotions Holden feels like the best option for him at the monent would be to leave to New York City until Wednesday after his parents have recived the news about him not doing well in school. He then finds his way out of the school, on to a train, then takes a taxi to a hotel and is now in New York City. Holden ends up going in and out of bars and stuff because of very different reasons. It is now pretty late in the night and he walks his way to his hotel room. While in his room he lay there in deep thought about his brother Allie mostly who passed just a couple years before. The next morning he proceeded to get breakfast and then he goes for a walk and buys a record for his sister, Phoebe. Hoping to catch his sister at the park he goes but there is no sign of her. Holden had also set up a date with an old friend named Sally which he totally blows off and gets called a "royal pain in the butt" , by his date. After meeting with his old friend Luce at bar he poses a bunch of immature questions which made Luce leave. Holden is now alone and drunk and he goes out for a walk to the duck pond, as a result of this he got icicles because he had previously splashed water on himself in order to lower the effects of the alcohol. Leaving Holden worried he now wonders what he should do and ends up going back home to see if he can catch his sister Phoebe. After sneaking in to his house he looks for Phoebe and talks to her for a while before he called an old teacher who offered Holden to spend the night. He then goes back to Phoebe and dances with her before being interrupted by the opening front door. Quickly Holden tells he his plans of leaving New York and heading west and also receives the money that Phoebe generously offered. Holden is now on his way to Mr. Antolini's house to spend the night. Once there him and Mr. Antolini go on to get into some very deep conversations before finally going to sleep. He awoke to Mr.Antolini stroking his head and then finds his out of that apartment as quickly as possible. Although it is late Holden goes to sleep at a bench in the train station until the next morning where he then tries to find a way to get the money his sister has borrowed and then meets her at the museum. She comes with suitcases hoping that Holden will be okay with her going with him. He ends by telling us that he was at the zoo and then does not continue from there. He does tell us that he went home after all and that he end up getting very sick and now that bring us back to rest home in the therapy room.

2. I believe that the theme of this novel is loneliness because through out the story this what he mostly dealing with. Ever since the beginning he showed us that he was one of those kids who is not always at the games where everyone else was. When in new York he keep trying to meet people and meet up with old friend but in the end he always ends up alone and in some thoughts about his life. He is a very lonely person and you can tell he does not mind being alone for one thing since he decides to go to New York City all by himself with. Holden deals with his loneliness in may different ways throughout the story showing us very many different sides of Holden.

3. Well based on the author's tone I believe he is a lot like our character Holden. I think he is not the type of person to get up early. I think he is probably a very bitter person who mostly enjoys time alone and is always is not very optimistic. I feel like he would want coffee with a lot of caffeine to keep him awake throughout the day because of his late nights. I would imagine he's not a person of much exercise but he might enjoy walking by himself or meditation also. I believe he most likely does not eat breakfast because he thinks he does not need it. I can't really pin point any excerpts from the text but the things that made me think this was the was the main character Holden was describing his world. I feel like the author really gave me a sense of who he is through Holden in the ways he described a lot of thing and the way he see's the world.

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