How To Write A Literary Analysis On The Catcher In The Rye

Kris Cisek Sam Eberhardt

Mr. Meyers

Lit. and Comp. II

27 October 2015

Catcher in the Rye Literary Analysis

A conversation between people can tell a great deal about a person’s character. In the case of Holden Caulfield, the erstwhile protagonist in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger shows his reader that interactions with people are often affected by the other person’s actions. This novel is structured around Holden’s encounters and interactions with other people. The novel is about a seventeen year old boy named Holden Caulfield who is writing to his therapist about his experience getting kicked out of Pencey Prep, the third school he’s gotten thrown out of. His younger brother Allie has died at the age of eleven and seems to have had a big impact on Holden’s life, as Holden repeatedly refers to his brother throughout the book. Holden has many encounters with others throughout the book, but the two that stand out as being the most affected by the other person’s actions are, the interaction with the two nuns, and his encounter with the Maurice and Sunny.

In chapter 13, Maurice asks Holden, “ Innarested in a little tail t’night?”(Salinger 91), meaning, do you want to have a prostitute? Holden replies,“Okay”(91). Holden’s use of the word, ‘Okay,’ illustrates that he isn’t pumped up about the idea of a prostitute come to his room. Just before Sunny arrives at his room, he is predestined about having Sunny come when he stated to himself, “I was already sorry I'd let the thing start rolling, but it was too late now”(91). This furthers the idea that Holden conformed to having Sunny come to his room by the result of Maurice acting like it's normal to have one. Salinger is spectacular in the way he shows Holden conforming to the idea of a prostitute come to his