Stuff About Books and Literature

Salinger's protagonist,  Holden Caulfield reveals his innermost thoughts through a stream of consciousness awash with slang, swearing, and references to death. Societal pressures intensely disturb the anti-hero of   The Catcher in the Rye , causing him to reject and pervert expected social conventions. Although Holden constantly engages himself in conversation, he equally explicitly demonstrates his dislike of dialogue and instead prefers to express himself through the medium of writing, a form of communication that creates a distance between himself and the reader but brings him closer to his older brother D.B., who is a writer. Holden Caulfield’s use of slang Through his writing, Holden discovers a vehicle for self-expression; however, the surface structure of his narration projects simple language, “lousy vocabulary” (8), and consistent vulgarities. Yet, with repeated occurrences of key words or groups of key words, a technique of this kind serves to symbol...

For Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of Salinger's   The Catcher in the Rye , the written word, especially word choice and tone, enables him to distance himself from, and express his dissatisfaction with society. In addition, writing provides him with a vehicle that brings the reader closer to the true essence of his character and background. If the reader pays attention, through this medium, Holden reveals his intelligence and deep sympathetic side,  not just the superficial,  dumb, vulgar and anti-social character he is playing. Holden’s transparent word choice A writer’s word-choice offers information in relation to social background and context. In each case, the distinctive features of a person’s language and idiolect mark them as belonging to a specific group. For instance, Holden Caulfield claims that “[his brother] was about fifty times as intelligent” (33) as himself and “[he’s] the only dumb one in the family” (60). Holden thus supports his disparaging feeling...

In his essay “Text Building, Epistemology, and Aesthetics in Javanese Shadow Theatre,” Professor A. L. Becker says that "an artist whose intent is self-expression creates and develops his own text, his own mythology, so far as he can and still communicate." (46)  Like the artist described by Becker, Holden Caulfield, the autobiographical narrator of J.D. Salinger’s novel,   The Catcher in the Rye , constructs his own text. Disillusioned and misunderstood, he develops and uses an idiosyncratic language system to disassociate himself from the constraints of his social class and withdraw from society. This post, one of a series, begins to reveal how Holden’s authentic style captures the depth of his personality and demonstrates his disparity with an environment he perceives as full of “perverts, morons, and screwballs” (54) . Holden an adolescent who avoids real communication While communities bind together psychologically and physically via the dynamics of spoken language, Ho...

The Catcher in the Rye - photo by Lesley Lanir Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of J.D. Salinger’s,   The Catcher in the Rye , is a troubled, unstable teenager. Caulfield displays many negative externalising and internalising behaviours but his pessimistic self-narrative also shows that he seems worryingly unaware of his own self-worth. Some of Caulfield’s behaviours, however, are in accordance with Professor David Elkind’s theories on adolescent behavioural development and exemplify his idea of “apparent hypocrisy” mentioned in his article “Understanding the Young Adolescent.” in Adolescence , 1978. Holden Caulfield - Apparent Hypocrisy - Intellectual Immaturity Professor David Elkind states that one of the patterns of behaviours common to teenagers is “apparent hypocrisy” which is normally noticed in obvious discrepancies between their words and their deeds. According to Elkind, “apparent hypocrisy” usually results from intellectual immaturity rather than defects in moral cha...

The Catcher in the Rye - photo by Lesley Lanir Holden Caulfield's behaviour in Salinger's The Catcher In The Rye , exemplifies Professor David Elkind's theory of "the personal fable". Adolescence is a time when a young person's physiological and hormonal development begins to approximate adult maturity and at the same time psychological maturity moves an adolescent in the direction of becoming a responsible part of society. Nevertheless, being a part of society for the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, in   Catcher in the Rye , by J. D. Salinger, is not possible due to his state of confusion. Interestingly, some of Caulfield's behaviours are predictable according to David Elkind in, “Understanding the Young Adolescent.” Adolescence , 1978, since Caulfield's actions exemplify Elkind's theories of  adolescent “personal fable.” Caulfield's Personal Fable – Centre of Attention Not only do teenagers misinterpret people’s intentions and believe they a...