Literature Analysis #1

The Catcher in the Rye

1. The Catcher in the Rye is told by Holden Caulfield reflecting on his past, as he is now in a mental institution.  After getting kicked out of three prep schools, he is then expelled from a fourth, Pencey Prep. He chooses to run off to Manhattan. It soon becomes evident that Holden doesn't have any close relations.  He is in awe with a girl named Jane, whom he casually dated but didn't keep much contact with. He meets with Sally Hayes, a girl he once dated.  Not long into their date, he asks her to run away and elope with him, where she refuses.  The night of Christmas Eve, Holden sneaks into his parents' apartment to see his little sister, telling her he was kicked out of Pencey Prep.  Confused on where he is going, Holden decides to leave home for good.  He ends the novel explaining that he got "sick," explaining why he is now in a mental institution.

2. The major theme of The Catcher in the Rye is separation from society.  Holden acts as if he is better than everyone else.  Due to this, he has had a hard time forming close with relationships with others. This in turn has led to the loneliness that Holden feels, and is often the reason behind his faulty reasoning.

3. The author's tone, as portrayed by Holden Caulfield, is very pessimistic.  He seems to feel as if there is no important meaning in life.

“Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules.” 

“Yes, sir. I know it is. I know it.” 

Game, my ass. Some game. If you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then it’s a game, all right—I’ll admit that. But if you get on the other side, where there aren’t any hot-shots, then what’s a game about it? Nothing. No game.

“Like hell it is.” I took it off and looked at it. I sort of closed one eye, like I was taking aim at it. “This is a people shooting hat,” I said. “I shoot people in this hat.”

“One of the biggest reasons I left Elkton Hills was because I was surrounded by phonies. That's all. They were coming in the goddam window. For instance, they had this headmaster, Mr. Haas, that was the phoniest bastard I ever met in my life. Ten times worse than old Thurmer. On Sundays, for instance, old Haas went around shaking hands with everybody's parents when they drove up to school. He'd be charming as hell and all. Except if some boy had little old funny-looking parents. You should've seen the way he did with my roommate's parents. I mean if a boy's mother was sort of fat or corny-looking or something, and if somebody's father was one of those guys that wear those suits with very big shoulders and corny black-and-white shoes, then old Haas would just shake hands with them and give them a phony smile and then he'd go talk, for maybe a half an hour, with somebody else's parents. I can't stand that stuff. It drives me crazy. It makes me so depressed I go crazy. I hated that goddam Elkton Hills.”

4.

• Direct Characterization -- “But there was one nice thing. This family that you could tell just came out of some church were walking right in front of me – a father, a mother, and a little kid about six years old. They looked sort of poor. […] The kid was swell. […] He was making out like he was walking a very straight line, the way kids do, and the whole time he kept singing and humming. […] It made me feel better. It made me feel not so depressed anymore.”

• Holden describes in detail a family he sees on the street.  Observing others, as he did here, often helps him to not feel so depressed and alienated from the world.

• Flashback -- “Anyway, it was the Saturday of the football game. […] I remember around three o'clock that afternoon I was standing way the hell up on top of Thomsen Hill. […] You could see the whole field from there, and you could see the two teams bashing each other all over the place. […] You could hear them all yelling.”

• The entire novel is a flashback, as Holden is giving an account of his life from the mental institution he is now living in.  

• Symbolism -- [Ackley] took another look at my hat . . . “Up home we wear a hat like that to shoot deer in, for Chrissake,” he said. “That’s a deer shooting hat.”
  “Like hell it is.” I took it off and looked at it. I sort of closed one eye, like I was taking aim at it. “This is a people shooting hat,” I said. “I shoot people in this hat.” 

• The hat in this case is symbolism to Holden’s deviation from the real world and the people in it.

• Imagery -- “I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff—I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all.”

• Here Holden connects to the title of the novel. He shows he wants to be the “Catcher in the Rye”, that helps children remain pure and unharmed.

• Foreshadowing -- “I have a feeling that you’re riding for some kind of terrible, terrible fall. . . . The whole arrangement’s designed for men who, at some time or other in their lives, were looking for something their own environment couldn’t supply them with. . . . So they gave up looking.”

• Mr. Antolini warns Holden that he is afraid that he is riding a “terrible fall”, which in turn really translates to his deterioration of life, and ultimately his enrollment in the mental institution.