Catcher In The Rye Adolescence

J. D Salinger´s masterfully created coming-of-age novel,” A Catcher in the Rye " takes place on Pencey Prep School and New York City during the early 1950´s, when the world is just recovering from the physical and psychological damage WWII caused. Holden Caulfield, a failed student at every school he attends, is still trying to figure out what he wants to do with his life. Holden is not only the main character, but he is also the narrator of the story. “A Catcher in the Rye” is not only a timeless classic that will live forever in the memories of whoever reads it, but it is also an incredible representation of the hardships of a common American teenager, an asset that few novels can brag about possessing. One lesson this story exhorts is that when somebody feels too overwhelmed to face change, they isolate themselves and take it out on others. The story begins with Holden addressing us, the readers, to convey the message that he will not talk about his childhood. That is partially because it is a time that hurts him too

But while this is a good point, because there are many situations where we see this (like when he is chatting with professor Spencer, and he is telling him how he is just going through a phase at that moment, and Mr. Spencer answers by denying that with, “I don 't know, boy. I don 't know.”), it fails to account for how he treats people. The way Holden isolates himself makes him become more and more of a narcissistic jerk. The changes that either he causes or that simply occur around him always seem to make him worse as a person. It is not that Holden is misunderstood, but that Holden has never really understood himself and that is why he maintains himself within the confines of his own miserable loneliness. One real life example of this are bullies, who abuse and bother others because they are not comfortable with how they are so they take it out on other