Catcher and the Rye- a review
...s language was a true and authentic rendering of teenage colloquial speech. Holden Caulfield’s character is very thorough in the way he behaves and speaks throughout the entire novel. His speech was of a very typical teenage boy, slangy and trite, but at the same time it was very individual and distinct. Even Holden’s grammar was very self-conscious; as he mentions in the book that English was the only subject he was getting by in. Salinger does not fail to forget that trait about Holden, and consistently writes in poor grammar as Holden narrates. In the first chapter Holden vaguely introduces himself to the psychoanalyst (the reader) and prepares to tell his story: “If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.” This is the very first sentence in the novel, Salinger has arbitrated Holden’s character to be direct and very open, which essentially makes the novel what it is, and the novel’s wittiness and straightforward approach is what makes the reader keep reading. As well, another important aspect of this novel was Salinger’s ability to write creatively through Holden’s character. There never seemed to be a dull moment with Holden Caulfield, he always had an idea in the air, or an interesting story to tell. Salinger created Holden Caulfield to be honest and realistic. Although his ideas and behaviour wasn’t exactly conventional or routine, it was still very realistic and true, he never tried to hide anything or lie, and most importantly Holden had a very fantastic mindset and personality. One of Holden’s fantasies for example is the one that occurs after Maurice humiliates him. At that moment Holden’s desires revenge upon Maurice and all the “spiritual tramps” like him. He draws upon the dream merchant’s dreams to satisfy man’s need in this world for love, revenge and adventure and life itself. These daydreams and fantasies that Holden has throughout the novel enable the reader to identify and understand his character a little more. As well, all of the stories Holden has about his past gives the reader a better understanding about him and allows Salinger to introduce new characters to the reader with some background information about the new character being introduced. Although Holden Caulfield is portrayed to be the “hero” of the novel, in my opinion, I don’t think he is very heroic at all. I enjoyed this novel very much, and I though Holden was a very interesting character to read about and he was very different from any other main character I...