Catcher In The Rye Evaluation

For my choice of a classic novel, I chose The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. The first section of three of the book consists of pages 1 through 74. Holden Caulfield, the main character of the story, is a teenager attending Pencey Prep, an all boys school in Agerstown, Pennsylvania. Though, he will not be a student at Pencey much longer; he is being kicked out because he is failing four of his subjects. Holden’s departure from Pencey is the conflict that causes most of the choices that he makes. The novel starts off by Holden giving the reader background information about himself while he is attending a football game. He then explains the reasoning behind him being kicked out of Pencey being his failure of certain academic courses. After the

Holden, then, returned to his dorms and was later visited by Robert Ackley who just seems to stick around to annoy Holden. Ackley lives in the dorm next to Holden and is very obnoxious in Holden’s opinion. When Holden cannot handle Ackley anymore, he retreats down where Ward Stradlater is preparing for a date. Stradlater is Holden’s roommate, who is boastful of himself and annoying to some extent. Stradlater informs Holden that the girl he is going out with is Jane Gallagher, Holden’s childhood friend. Holden tells Stradlater some details of when he and Jane were friends years earlier, but Stradlater is not interested. He wants something else from Holden, a composition for English class. Later, when Stradlater returned, the composition was not about what he wanted it to be, so he and Holden got into an argument, which lead to a fist fight. Holden had enough of Pencey so he decided, even though it was freezing cold and snowing outside, he was going to walk to the train station and ride to New York until his parents found out about his expulsion and he could go home. The scene that has stood out the most so far is when Holden makes his decision of living on his own until his parents find out the news of