J. D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye is written from the point of view of Holden Caulfield, a 16 year old boy living in 1940s New York. He has been through a few different boarding schools and is deal with a multiplicity of stressful events at this point of his life. The whole book is written in first person, giving us a complete insight into the mind of Holden. One major theme we can see throughout the book is how general Holden’s opinion can be of a group of people can be after even only one experience. Whether the generalization is cynical, neutral or innocent ignorance, Holden continually thinks this way after interactions he has in the book. Cynical thinking is what tends to most dominate the mind of Holden Caulfield, especially …show more content…
When he was younger, his relationship with his younger siblings was very close. When he is reminiscing over his times with them he says, “You would have liked him/her”(38 and 67). He did almost everything with Allie and Phoebe. The aggravating result of this close of a relationship showed when Allie died of leukemia. It scarred and broke down Holden and closed him off to Phoebe for a time. But the pleasant memories he had of both Allie and Phoebe left a permanent positive view of kids on his mind. Later on in the books after leaving Pencey Prep, he goes to Central Park looking for Phoebe. A girl about her age is there skating, and Holden asks her if she knows Phoebe, her way of responding brings Holden to think, “I love it when a kid’s nice and polite...They really are.”(119). The words he uses are similar to how he opinionizes about Stradlater, using general terms such as “they” or “a kid”, instead of being specific about the person he is thinking about. his innocent views of all children make him seem to have a glossed over perception of reality. But while he is glossed over when it comes to kids, he continues to be particularly critical of other groups of