Catcher in the Rye Essay: The Judgmental Caulfield :: Catcher Rye Essays

  The faultfinding(prenominal) Caul product line of The Catcher in the Rye          The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, is a classic novel about a sixteen-year-old boy, Holden Caulfield, who speaks of a puzzling fourth dimension in his life. Holden has only a few days until his expulsion from Pency readiness School. He first-class honours degrees out as the type of person who cant meet shammer people. He believes that his school and everyone in it is phony, so he leaves early. He indeed spends three aimless days in New York City. During this time, Holden finds out much about himself and how he relates to the world around him. He believes that he is the catcher in the rye I keep picturing all these microscopical kids playing barely about game in a big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobodys around-nobody big, I mean-except me. And Im standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What have I to do, I have to catc h everybody if they start to go over the cliff... (173). He briefly enters what he believes is adulthood and becomes a phony himself. By the end of the story, Holden realizes he doesnt like the type of person he has become, so he reverts into an idealist a negative, judgmental person. Holdens noble-mindedness is first brought forth when he describes his life at Pency Prep. It is full of phonies, morons and bastards. His roommate, Stradlater, was at least a pretty friendly guy, It was partly a phony kind of friendly... (26) and his other roommate, Ackley is a very nosy bastard (33). Holden cant stand to be around either one of them for a very unyielding time. Later, he gets into a fight with Stradlater over his date with Jane. Holden is upset because he thinks that Stradlater gave her the time and that he doesnt help about her the reason he didnt care was because he was a goddam stupid moron. All morons hate it when you foreknow them a moron (44). Holden not only sees his roomma tes as phonies and bastards, but he alike sees his headmaster at Pency Prep as a phony copper (3). This type of person is exactly what Holden doesnt want to be. He strives to be a mature adult caring, compassionate, and sensitive. Even when Holden goes out or reads a story, it is just full of phoniness, .