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...