Comparing The Catcher In The Rye, By J. D. Salinger

Everyone experiences intricate and difficult events throughout their lifetime. Regardless of the choices and paths an individual takes, blockades and challenges will stand in the way. However sometimes these challenges tend to leave us scarred, changing the way we live our lives. In The Catcher In The Rye , J.D Salinger reflects a post World War II era in which the rippling effects of the war result in more fearful behaviors Survivors of World War II feared change in their life, in The Catcher In The Rye this idea represents itself through the way Holden fears growing up. In the book when reflecting upon the museum he used to go to as a kid Holden says “The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody'd move. You could go there a

Although most bloodshed ended in 1945, the pressure still existed between major superpowers of the world with threats of a nuclear war being thrown around still for decades after the war. In the book when Holden talks about what he would do in the scenario of someone stealing his stuff he admits to being a coward saying "I don't know. I think maybe I'm partly yellow and partly the type that doesn't give much of a damn" (89). Although Holden says he would be furious if any of his belongings ended up stolen he knows he would not take the chance to do anything about it because of his cowardice behavior. Holden fears his enemies knowing that they are stronger than him and this acts as a barrier for him. Marty Jezer says in his book that after the war “Yet there was another reality to postwar life… the fear of a nuclear holocaust, the possibility of going to bed one night and never seeing daylight” (Jezer 236). Nuclear war consumed the people living after the war with fear, and this created an uncomfortable and terrorful feeling in Americans