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Catcher in the Rye
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Catcher and the Rye In 1951 at a time when social conformity was the norm, J.D. Salinger decided to publish The Catcher and the Rye. In it he put profanity, an immoral protagonist, and the adolescent sexuality. Salinger (and his book) brought about issues of vulgarity, sexuality and the hardships of teens. Many teens identified with and felt sorry for Holden Caulfield the main character that felt depressed and sad about almost anything life threw at him. From the start J.D Salinger would incorporate symbolism as necessary tool for showing the full detailing of his novel. The novel begins with Holden isolated from the rest of his friends. He detaches himself from Pency’s social norm by sitting atop Thomsen Hill while the rest of the school attended a much celebrated football game. This would set the mood for the rest of the novel. Holden perceives himself as one of the few truly good and sincere people in his world and so he exemplifies this by sitting upon this hill, setting himself up above the rest, above and away from the school’s phonies and superficial characters. He despises these people and is ironic when nearby is a cannon. He might have noticed this and tells us so as to convey its potential. The audience goes on to see that Holden has much difficulty getting along, socially inadequate. Holden is extremely judgmental and overly analytical. Through his whining he often finds humor in his ‘obviously’ inferior peers. That “sexy bastard Stradlater and the ever rude, hovering Ackley. The most notorious word in Holden’s vocabulary is “phony”. He applies this term loosely to anyone too typical or conventional; people who mask what they are really feeling and thinking. It is enticing for the reader to follow his train of thought because he too wishes to persecute the ignorant and the fake but to take time to study why this is is to see that it is not so much that his phonies are superficial but are his views. Such as judging Stradlater by his good looks and Ackley with his acne ridden face. Holden often avoids more profound interpretations for simple generalizations and usages of labels such as being a ‘phony’. For J.D. Salinger’s generation, sex had become a taboo matter only spoken of during very fleeting and private moments. In The Catcher and the Rye, Holden openly explorers his sexuality with girls and the possibility of himself secretly being a ‘flit’. Homosexuality was not tolerated when first published but Holden’s character would revel in all that was unmentionable. Holden indeed had an odd outlook on the subject of sex for he often tells of his arousal towards girls he hates, does not like, and does not respect. All the meanwhile being Catcher’s protagonist he is strangely entranced by forms of kinky foreplays that include degrading his partner; such as spitting in their face.
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