Book Report: The Catcher in the Rye

Everyday, books are published all over the world. Many of these books will go unnoticed, many others will have their fifteen minutes of fame and a rare few become classics, books which some commit to memory and which are part of many people from many countries' personal libraries. J.D. Salinger's tale of the trials and tribulations of a young adult, The Catcher in the Rye, is one of these books. The following book report will briefly summarize this grand novel and introduce its main character, Holden Caulfield.

The plot is a very important aspect in every novel, and The Catcher in the Rye’s plot is no exception to this rule. The story begins while Holden is at Pencey Prep, a school which he has been expelled from. After getting in a fight with his roommate, Holden leaves the school in the middle of the night. He then heads for New-York city, where he ends up spending two days. During these days, Holden meets up with old acquaintances, spends an evening with a prostitute who he is unable to fully pay and thus gets a beating, visits his sister Phoebe, the person he is closest too, and spends the night at an old teacher’s house who seems to make sexual advances at him. All of these events only seem to make Holden more lonely, dazed and confused. Holden spends another afternoon wandering around the city, depressed by the fact that the world, full of phoniness and perversion, isn’t a good place to grow up. He then imagines himself as the catcher in the rye who would keep children from falling off a cliff at the end of a field, a metaphor for being a protector of the children, a guard at the gates of childhood. The book ends with Holden watching Phoebe on the merry-go-round in the park, reaching out to grab the golden ring. Holden is scared that his sister will fall off but finally realizes that being a catcher is impossible, that children must inevitably grow up on their own.

Another important part of a book is its protagonist who, in this case, is Holden Caulfield. Holden is a 16 year-old anti-hero and cynic who, by his descriptions of events and the people surrounding him, appears to be troubled and depressed, a feeling that grows in importance throughout the story. Furthermore, although the reader knows that Holden is telling his story from some sort of institution, he never gives much insight into his current state of mind or the events surrounding his going into the institution.

To conclude, J.D. Salinger’s novel is one which is well worth reading, having stayed relevant even though the times have changed since it was first published. Proof of this is the movie Igby Goes Down, which was produced in 2002 and was inspired in theme, plot and protagonist by The Catcher in the Rye.