The Catcher in the Rye (Английская Литература)

Recently I've read a book called “The Catcher in the Rye”. This novel was written in 1951 by an American short story writer and novelist Jerome David Salinger. He has also written “Nine Stories” and “Franny and Zooey” but “The Catcher in the Rye” is his most successful and popular novel. 

This book tells us about a few days of Holden Caulfield’s life. Throughout the whole book he is recalling a story that has happened at Christmas. Holden starts with the day he was expelled from Pencey - school that he used to study at. Holden doesn’t want to inform his parents about it, so he goes to New York and stays at a hotel for the weekend. During that time, he was trying to have rest and simply relax, but, besides that, he was thinking a lot.

Thinking about everything: how he likes books and hates films. How other people annoy him but he doesn’t want to be alone. On the one hand, Holden doesn’t like people at all but on the other hand, he can’t live without communicating.

After the weekend, Holden decides to visit his younger sister - Phoebe. However, he doesn’t want to meet his parents because he hasn’t told them about leaving the school yet. Fortunately, when Holden came home, his parents had already left. Although he wants to spend more time with Phoebe, he is afraid of being caught by parents, so Holden doesn't stay for long. 

The day after, Holden decides to start hitchhiking to the West. But first he needs to see Phoebe and say goodbye to her. And when they meet, Phoebe asks Holden to take her with him but Holden doesn’t want to. So, they reach an agreement that Holden won’t go anywhere and he will stay with his family. 

Here the story ends and in the last chapter Holden says that after it he got sick and he will go to school next autumn, instead of running away to the West.

As far as I understand, the author shows us the process of growing up and how it can be viewed by a teenager, by using the example of the character, Holden, who resists becoming an adult. In Holden's opinion, all adults are “phoney” (which is another word for “fake”), which is, obviously, wrong. He hates the hypocrisy and superficiality that he faces when contacting with the world, and it makes him want to isolate himself from everyone.

While reading this novel, one of the things that grabbed my attention was the style of writing. The book is written in a conversational type of speech. Some people may do not like it, but I do. To my mind, it makes the story “alive”, makes the reader feel like he is reading every Holden Caulfield's thought or like the reader communicates with Holden himself.