Syntopic Analysis Of Catcher In The Rye

Ani Haroutunian

Mr. Morone

Syntopic Analysis

In almost every text, the protagonist is faced with a life-changing decision that has to be made, and most of the time it changes everything. Choice is significantly shown in many texts

In The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, choice is one of the most recurring themes that the protagonist, Holden Caulfield encounters. Throughout the novel, Holden struggles to make choices and often feels overwhelmed by those decisions and their consequences. Holden’s struggles with choice mainly revolve around his relationships with other characters; worrying if he is making the right decisions about leaving boarding school and growing up. Holden's choices in the city after leaving boarding impact him both

She was just released from prison after serving five years for driving under the influence which resulted in her best friend and the father of her soon-to-be-born daughter dying. After getting out of prison, she decided that she wanted to be involved in her daughters' life whose caretakers became, her late best friend Scotty’s parents, and his best friend Ledger. Throughout the book, Ledger chooses to help Kenna with this, without letting Scotty’s parents find out; knowing that if they did, they would never let him see Kenna’s daughter again. At first, he had to get accustomed to the idea that Kenna was the one who changed his life forever, but rather than hating her, he chose to accept her and try and help her. In the book it states, “In a matter of a few weeks, I went from hating you to liking you to wanting the world for you, so forgive me if those feelings sometimes overlap.” After choosing to essentially give Kenna everything she wanted from seeing pictures of her daughter to even slowly meeting her and giving Scotty’s parents the closure they needed, he inevitably chose to be the hero and put himself in the shoes of the mother who lost

The protagonist, Lily Bloom, is faced with many decisions that are essentially life-altering. In the book, Lily must decide between two men who move and have made significant impacts on her life in very different ways. In one of the relationships, Lily has had first-hand experience with domestic violence which caused her to reach out to one of her past relationships for help. However, this ripple effect of decisions was not easy for Lily to do due to her living in fear of her abuser and boyfriend Ryle finding out. Lily is forced to choose between her relationship with Ryle and her loyalty to him or her safety. On page 262 it states, “Every time you choose to stay, it makes the next time that much harder to leave.” Knowing that she had to decide to either face her fear and tell someone about Ryle and his behavior or stay quiet and act as if she's living a perfect life married to a very successful is unimaginable. However, Lily’s own experience with this kind of violence allowed her to confront her mother about not choosing to speak up when her father acted the same way towards her just as Ryle was towards Lily. Being able to make these decisions shaped Lily into the character she became and allowed her to