Andrei Nastase Grade 9 English Ms. van Der Meer The Struggles of Holden - The Catcher in The Rye by J.D. Salinger The Catcher in The Rye is a great book in the American Literature written for teenagers. The author, J.D. Salinger displays the boring life of Holden who is surrounded by people he does not like and calls them phonies. It is written from Holden’s point of view and it is about a week full of conflicts which change his whole life from that point on. Although he thinks his life is full of phonies, he tries to make his way around them and continue living with his parents and sister in New York after his brother died. In The Catcher in The Rye, J.D. Salinger conveys the idea of being immature and the interests of this teenage boy that fears for his future and is curious about being an adult. Holden is not acting like an adult throughout the book, every time something unusual happens he thinks about killing the person behind the event. He is full of hatred and anger throughout the story. Holden’s old friend Jane Gallagher is dating his roommate, Stradlater who is considered to be a phony by Holden. He thinks about killing him because he cares a lot about Jane.(“I tried to sock him, with all my might, right smack in the toothbrush, so it would …show more content…
He is interested in the ducks in the Central Park Lagoon, which J.D. Salinger uses as a symbol because Holden sees them leaving in Fall when it is getting colder and then they come back in Spring, which makes him think of the idea of “Rebirth”. He talks about them with the taxi driver. (“where they go, the ducks, when it gets all frozen over? Do you happen to know by any chance?) Later, he takes a walk in the park.(what the hell were the ducks doing?) He arrives at the lagoon, and there he realises they left and this is when he has his mental breakdown and thinks about killing