The Catcher in the Rye

Rating:
Summary: Timeless and True
Review: When I read this in high school as required reading I loved it, and felt some kinship with Holden. Having reread it 14 years later I realize that I was Holden - or am. The thought patterns, the use of language, being easily annoyed with dumb people, feeling physically ill when confronted with the inhumanity of the world - it all rang so true for me. The absurdity of life. All the "phonies" out there.

How can an author capture this feeling that so many young men feel? It's amazing to me how this story speaks to me in a very personal way, and yet so many other people feel the same way. Isn't this the story of an outcast? What does it say about our society when a large percentage of my peers have so much in common with Holden Cauffield? Is this a timeless story, or one born of 20th century America?

I'm going to make a mental note to revisit the world of Holden when I have children of his age. My parents probably could have benefited from doing the same.

There's not much else for me to say that hasn't been said before about Catcher in the Rye. Writing this does make me question the 5 star ratings I've given other books. I'd like to give this a 5+.

Rating:
Summary: The Catcher in The Rye
Review: J.D. Salinger introduces a typical teenage boy in The Catcher in The Rye. Holden Caulfield, the main character, is much more than a teenager going through a tough time. He is a very special boy with special needs. He doesn't understand and doesn't want to understand the world around him as he calls everything he doesn't like a "phony". Holden doesn't express his normal thoughts or feelings. He doesn't trust his teachers and parents because he can't understand them, not because he doesn't like them or wants to separate from them. There is not much in Holden's world that he understands. The only people he trusts and respects are Allie, his brother D.B, and Phoebe, who is his younger sister. Everyone and everything else that he knows of are "phony". Holden uses the word phony a lot of times to describe his feeling about the people he doesn't like and things he rejects: his roommate Stradlater and Ernie for example. He also calls his school, Pencey Prep, a phony school because he doesn't like most of the students and the teachers. Holden said, "The more expensive a school is, the more crooks it has". Holden is being kicked out of Pencey Prep because he is failing four out of five classes. Although he's left with many memories, some are good but most are bad. Holden, being scared of going home from his parents, leaves school a few days early and travels to Downtown, New York. On his way, he runs into many people such as his sister Phoebe. Not only did Pencey Prep made him think it was a phony place to be, but Holden thinks the whole world is a phony place to be after seeing Downtown, New York. Holden's little sister, Phoebe, offers to help Holden because he wants to find out who he wants to be in the future of his life. Holden realizes what he really needs is to move out in the west and live in a cabin to escape from all the phony things in the world, and not be involved in anything with anyone. What he wants to discover is a relationship that will be suitable for him to live under. J.D. Salinger, the author of the book, wrote this book so well that when you are reading with your mind concentrated on the story, you imagine it as a reality. You think you are going through the phase that Holden is going through in the book. Salinger uses a unique style of writing because you imagine you are in the conversation yourself. I can't imagine this story having any weaknesses because of the way Salinger describes the scenes and the experiences of Holding. Thus, it has much strength as Salinger awaits you to find out impatiently what will happen next in the story. I would recommend this book to teenagers 14 years of age and older because The Catcher in The Rye is a interesting life story, for people who are confused about their lives, or don't know what to do with their lives and want to freshen up a bit.

Rating:
Summary: "Phony" or not??
Review: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is well detailed and descriptive classic novel about a young mans life. I feel that this book should be mandatory for all 9th grade English classes to read. The story is basically a three day diary of a young man named Holden Caulfield. Holden has just been kicked out of or expelled from a preppy, Catholic, all boy, private school in Pennsylvania. He is sixteen and a junior in high school. The experiences of a sixteen year old young man in 1950 effectively and exactly relate to experiences of sixteen year old in the year 2000. Tough the slang may differ a bit the details and plot still exists in today¹s every day high school boy life. This book starts of with a junior in high school being expelled. Written in first person, we the readers listen to what Holden has to say about being expelled, his feelings and his preppy school called Pencey Prep. Holden first tells us about his older brother who is in Hollywood, his younger brother who passed away and of his sister in elementary school. Then he jumps in to describing what a phony his school was. The details and myriad descriptions put us the readers into the dorm environment or in to the Pencey Prep. hallways and student life. Holden tells about his friends which aren¹t really friends but instead just plain perverts that use girls, sporty jocks, and the usual nerdy pimply dorks. He soon decides he has three days left till he has to be home hat he will just leave the school right away and go explore the streets of New York. This is where the adventure and typical high school boy routine begin. On many occasions he is at a bar wanting alcoholic beverages and sometimes he gets them, and others he doesn¹t due to under age. Then he is stuck spending the night at a friends house because he has nowhere else to stay. Then he is left with wanting or having a prostitute for the night. He is also thinking about all the guys at his old school. He gets back flashes of what they used to talk about and in many cases the main topic was sex, which is very typical of high school boys even tough you may not know it. As you continue on reading you begin to think the thoughts he is thinking, feel the sorrow for his brother, and kind of miss the jerks he has left behind. Until he wants to visit his sister to tell her he is going away. In the end the story takes a big U-turn. It takes a U-turn because we the readers are positive that Holden is going to go far away until he tells his sister he isn¹t going anywhere. As you have just read, I have given you, the reader a well detailed and thorough summary of the book. This is exactly what J.D. Salinger has done in The Catcher of The Rye. This book does not have any weaknesses what-so-ever just many great strengths. I would recommend this book to sophomores and above. The recommendation is for this age level because once you are a sophomore then you have the actual high school environment and feeling inside of you. This book would be good to read as a class in freshman year only to show a different style of writing that uses redundant words such as ³phony² and to show a vastly descriptive classic novel.

This book is intentionally for people who like to have something seem real to them or enjoy to read about how the grass was green or how he left and on what day and so on. J.D. Salinger does a marvelous job on writing a novel on three days of a young man¹s life. Many authors would have left these great details and descriptions out but Salinger chose to keep them which is the whole purpose of this unique, classic, truthful, high school novel.

Rating:
Summary: good book for teenagers
Review: The Catcher In the Rye by J.D. Salinger is a book about a teenager in search of himself. Because he does not know who he is, Holden Caulfield, the main character, goes on a quest to try to turn his life around because the life that he has been leading is not the one he wants. Holden knows who he doesn't want to be so he uses that knowledge as a guide on his quest. He doesn't want to take responsibility for himself because he is not ready to deal with the world. In particular, his descision to leave Pency early and the conversation he has at the end of the book are examples of this quest and how it never ends. Holden's quest begins when he is "given the axe" from his boarding school. Right before he leaves he gets in a fistfight with his roommate because, "Stradlater was a dirty stupid sonofabitch of a moron." This fight was the spark that lit the fire for Holden because he realized that he wasn't happy and that he was surrounded by phonies which is the one thing that he cannot stand. Holden decided to leave soon after this for two reasons, so that he can get away and have a break from responsibility before his parents find out about his expulsion because he "...didn't want to hang around anymore" and because he is tired of being surrounded by "phonies" at school. He took a break because he "figured my parents probably wouldn't get old Thurmer's letter saying I'd been given the axe till maybe Tuesday or Wednesday. I didn't want to go home or anything till they got it and thoroughly digested it and all. I didn't want to be around when they first got it." The reason behind his escape is that he needs to figure out who he is before he can deal with reality. At the end of the book Holden talks about a psychoanalysist who asks him questions about his future. He is not able to answer these questions because he has trouble taking responsibility for himself because he just doesn't want to deal with things like school and life in general. He never did any schoolwork and he never cared much when he got in trouble for not doing it. Holden does not know any reason for what he thinks and he can't explain himself. He just wants to be left alone to figure things out for himself. This is not the end of his journey but he is definitely closer to understanding himself. I thought that this book explained a lot about what life is like for some teenagers who are sent off to boarding school. Some teenagers are sent off so that they can find themselves spiritually. Holden is an interesting character and the way that the author lets him come across is very true to life. The language, tones, and actions of Holden make him seem like a real person.

Rating:
Summary: Catcher in The Rye
Review: The Catcher in the Rye is about an adolescent growing up into an adult, about 17 years old, trying to escape a world of "phony" people and rescuing young innocent lives. The book is a story of Holden Caulfield telling his life of a three-day adventure he had. He had recently been kicked out of his third prep school, Pencey because he was flunking every single class except English. Scared to face his parents, Holden decides to leave early from Pencey Prep and travel downtown, New York. On the way, he runs into many different people such as taxi drivers, three girls from Seattle, a prostitute, two nuns, his little sister Phoebe, and a former teacher. Holden gets sick of the friends around him at Pencey prep thinking that they are "phony"; leaving for New York only showed Holden that the entire world is "phony" also. Holden wishes to escape from this world of "phoniness" and decides he wants to be away from people, a place where nobody will know him, so he does not have to be involved. J.D Salinger has created a masterpiece. He uses a style of writing where you think you were in a conversation with the main character in the book. It's as if you were talking to Holden as he was telling you his adventure as he searches for himself. In the novel, J.D Salinger points out that Holden's little sister Phoebe would care to help him. I find the relationship Holden has with his sister is the heart of the book. Holden expresses himself to Phoebe the night he visits her, and explains to her the one thing he wants to be. "I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around-nobody big, I mean-except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff-I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy but that's the only thing I'd really like to be."(pg.224-225) Holden expresses what he wants to do for the first time to Phoebe and I find this special and touching. The last scene of this novel was also very touching. Holden was at the carousel with his sister Phoebe and was watching her ride. As he is watching her, he thought to himself, " I felt so happy all of a sudden, the way old Phoebe kept going around and around. I was [almost] bawling, I felt so happy, if you want to know the truth. I don't know why. It was just how she looked so nice, the way she kept going around and around, in her blue coat and all. God, I wish you could've been there". (pg.275) The relationship he has with Phoebe is the perfect relationship he has been looking for. This kind of bond is the type of bond that makes Holden seem like a real character. I found this quite interesting because, he just wants to keep young children, like his sister from becoming "phony", and to watch her act like a kid, makes him feel happy. This made the novel more enjoyable to me. This novel didn't have many weaknesses in my point of view. It had so many strengths that made this book seem as if his story was reality. This novel was written, as if it was a true story, it has no plot. The things J.D Salinger points out just happens, like life, you never know what is going to happen, you just have to accept and appreciate it as God hands it down to you. Holden accepts the life he has to live in for he is a struggling adolescent entering adulthood. While you are "listening" to the story Holden is telling you, it is easy to relate to one of his many situations. It might come across your mind that you may have said "That has happened to me before" or "I know what he's talking about". That is the best part about this novel. Many people can relate to Holden's story. Once you get through the symbolism of the novel, you will realize the things J.D Salinger tried to point out. This book is a long life lesson. People these days try to please others rather than speak their mind, which expresses the "phoniness" in people. I recommend this novel to everyone because it will give people a different, fresh, and new point of view on life. Anyone who is confused about life, or wants to examine the mind of a young adolescent should read this book. Also, if you are the type of person who likes to be kept thinking about the novel after reading it; "The Catcher in the Rye" is the book for you. You will be touched by the experiences Holden Caulfield goes through, and can feel the pain and confusion he is feeling. When reading this book, do not force yourself to read it, just enjoy and relax. You will find this book a classic!

Rating:
Summary: a critical review
Review: The Catcher in the Rye is about an adolescent growing up into an adult, about 17 years old, trying to escape a world of "phony" people and rescuing young innocent lives, like his sister, from entering it. The book is a story of Holden Caulfield telling his life of a three-day adventure he had. He had recently been kicked out of his third prep school, Pencey because he was flunking every single class except English. Scared to face his parents, Holden decides to leave early from Pencey Prep and travel downtown, New York. On the way, he runs into many different people such as taxi drivers, three girls from Seattle, a prostitute, two nuns, his little sister Phoebe, and a former teacher. Holden gets sick of the friends around him at Pencey prep thinking that they are "phony"; leaving for New York only showed Holden that the entire world is "phony" also. As he tells his story, he gets into trouble and tries to find out who he is or who he wants to be. His little sister Phoebe tries to guide him to find out who he is or who he wants to be. Holden tells his sister "I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids and nobody is around--nobody big, I mean--except me. And I am standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff--I mean if they are running and they don't look where they are going. I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be." Holden wants to prevent young innocence from entering the world of "phoniness". Holden is unhappy, lonely and bitter. To get away from this world of "phoniness", he figures he should go live far out west in a cabin all alone. Thinking he would be away from people, a place where nobody will know him, so he doesn't have to be involved. On his adventure for the meaning of life, he searches for a perfect relationship. He realizes that perfect relationship is the relationship he has between him and his sister.

The most memorable part of this book is the time he spends with his sister, Phoebe. When he visits her that one night just to talk to her and see her because he lover her company. Another memorable moment would be when he was talking to the nuns at breakfast and donated ten dollars. He finds a state of happiness while he was with the nuns and his sister, Phoebe. He even stated that "I felt so happy all of a sudden, the way old Phoebe kept going around and around. I was [almost] bawling, I felt so happy, if you want to know the truth. I don't know why." To know that he felt this way made me feel good. This book was well written. J.D Salinger uses a style of writing where you think you were in a conversation with the main character in the book. There is no plot and the things he talks about just happen, like life. You never know what is going to happen, you just have to accept and appreciate it as God hands it down to you. He uses slang and sarcasm a lot so it seemed as if you were talking with a 17-year old adolescent. While you are "listening" to the story Holden is telling you, it is easy to relate to one of his many situations. It might come across your mind that you may have said "That has happened to me before" or "I know what he's talking about". That is the best part about this novel. Many people can relate to Holden's story. Once you get through the symbolism of the book, you will realize the things J.D Salinger tried to point out. This book is a long life lesson. People these days try to please others rather than speak their mind, which expresses the "phoniness" in people. I recommend this book to everyone because it will give people a different, fresh, and new point of view on life. If you are the type of person who likes to be kept thinking after reading a book; "The Catcher in the Rye" is the book for you.

Rating:
Summary: a must read
Review: This is a wonderful book... everyone should have read this book at some point in their lives. If you were not forced to read it in high school, you were deprived. This book is essential to every teenager's brain the way that every teacher should see "Dead Poet's Society". The book chronicles the failures of Holden Caulfield, a prep school drop out, who vicariously avoids facing his music by laying low in Manhattan for a few days. Everyone can relate to his akwardness and his cynicism which is what makes the book so terrific. This is a definite must read.

Rating:
Summary: Profane
Review: This book is very profane. The story is good, but if you are offended by profanity, or other crude and ludious topics, then this book is not for you. If you can read around the profanity, and not be bothered by it, then the book is good.

Rating:
Summary: This was a very good book!!
Review: The Catcher In The Rye was a very good book. Holden Caulfield, the main character, described in detail about a couple days of his life. However, he may have openly expressed himself a little too much but the book was well written otherwise. I would recommend this book to any teenager who has not read it yet. I could relate to what Holden was saying and I'm sure everyone else can as we have days like his.

Rating:
Summary: It's disgruntled. I like it.
Review: This book is one of my three or four favorite books ever. Holden Caulfield is one of the few literary figures that I really relate to. Sometimes he just rambles on about strange thoughts he has and the rest of the time he's complaining about things. It's great. If there is anybody who hasn't read it, you should. And, for anybody that had to read it in a class, read it again. Books are always better when you aren't forced to read them.