Catcher In The Rye Literary Analysis

The Catcher in the Rye is a story written by J.D. Salinger in 1940 - 1950. The story was published by Little, Brown and Company in 1951. It is considered a coming-of-age novel, due to the fact that the main character Holden Caulfield is constantly maturing throughout the novel. The story has a total of 288 pages. The story has many literary elements that are easily identifiable. The main characters include: Holden Caulfield, Phoebe Caulfield who is Holden’s younger sister, Mr.Antolini who is a well respected teacher of Holden, and Ward Stradlater who cares only for himself and despises others. The conflict of the story is mainly external due to Holden being against the outside world. The setting of the story begins in a school in Pennsylvania, where he later relocates his adventures to New York, while narrating the story all in first person.

In the exposition, Holden describes what is going on with him in school and how he dislikes everyone in his boarding school. He calls them all “phonies” and it leads to him being expelled by his third boarding school. A rising action in this story may include his attempt of connecting with others, when Holden took a girl named Sally on a date and he expresses all the things he wants to do in life which gives Sally a uncomfortable feeling inside and ends with Holden telling Phoebe everything. His loneliness is expressed when he decides to hitchhike out West and leaves a note for Phoebe to meet him at a museum where he begins his trip throughout the climax. The resolution later comes where he ends up in a medical institution and realizes that he truly misses everyone, quickly abandoning “adulthood” and retreating into