The Catcher In The Rye What Makes A Classic

What makes a novel a classic? Well, there’s a variety of things - typically it’s because the novel is timeless and loved by readers. For J.D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye however that’s not exactly the case. With the way the story is beautifully narrated from an adolescent brain, the attention of the readers is immediately caught. Still, not everyone has positive feelings towards it. The Catcher In The Rye has sparked some controversy as a large number of high school parents believe the book promotes rebellion and skewed values to their teenagers. With mature topics of sex, addiction, suicide, and, profanity, parents are very averse to the teaching and analysis of this novel. This shielding of teenagers is highly problematic as

In 1951 the topic of mental health was pretty much nonexistent, and if the topic came up you were either crazy or normal, with no in-between. J.D. Salinger's advanced knowledge of mental illness temporarily gets rid of the taboo surrounding it and perfectly showcases an adolescent battle with mental illness in a compelling and transparent way. Using the protagonist Holden Caufield, Salinger illustrates Holden’s battle with depression as the result of the loss of his little brother Allie. As Holden struggles to gain closure from the loss of his brother he falls into a deep depression where he questions his relationships, future, and even his own life. In the novel, Salinger writes about Holden's fantasies of running away with Sally, his current female fixation. Holden tells her about his distaste for his current path in life and how he just wants to run away, to which she responds basically saying that Holden is being delusional and they cannot run away together. She tries to point out there are many other paths for them besides disappearing into a cabin in Vermont but Holden sees no other option in life than running away. Holden argues, “ ‘No, there wouldn't be. There wouldn't be oodles of places to go to at all. It'd be entirely different,’ I

With its complication, it rewires the brain and uses the five stages of grief to heal. As Holden deals with the loss of his little brother Allie, he goes through different waves of emotions as a result of his grieving. Throughout the novel, J.D. Salinger underlyingly portrays these five stages, anger, denial, bargaining, depression, and acceptance through Holden's actions and emotions. Early on in the novel, Holden describes his little brother Allie in vivid detail as he writes Stradlater's essay about Allie’s baseball glove. Holden proceeds to tell the story of the night Allie passed away, “ I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it…. It was a very stupid thing to do I'll admit but I hardly didn't even know I was doing it and you didn't know Allie” (Salinger 25). With this flashback of the night when Allie died, Salinger illustrates two stages of grief. He shows the anger stage of grief by showing how Holden's anger caused him to outburst and smash the windows after hearing of Allies' death. Salinger demonstrates denial when Holden fails to admit his reasoning behind the outburst and claims he did it for the hell of it. His downplaying of the event represents his denial of his feverish reaction and intense feelings toward his brother's