Catcher in the Rye (Coming of Age)
- Pages: 2
- Word count: 340
- Category: Catcher in the Rye Childhood Coming of Age
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Order NowI chose “The Catcher in the Rye” authored by Jerome Salinger because I feel it represents coming-of-age thoroughly although with a twist. Holden Caulfield, the main character, experiences the same feelings and maturing and transitioning perception of society that, mostly, any 16-year-old would. It focuses around Holden’s insight of adolescence and the way he apprehends people’s behaviour and judgements. Published and based in the 50s, the moralities have not changed much.
Holden finds himself wandering aimlessly around New York, encountering different experiences that he didn’t expect. He also finds himself in a situation with a call girl who is approximately the same age as him. He starts to view her as a person, rather than a sex object. He pays for the service yet he only wants to converse with her but she leaves in frustration.
She brings her pimp to physically abuse Holden. As the days go by he searches for nothing except embracing his surroundings after hearing a young boy sing lyrics “if a body catch a body coming through the rye “ and he misinterprets it to be as a signal Holden believes that to be a “catcher in the rye” means to save children from losing their innocence. He begins to perceive the world and comes back home to his younger sister back in his hometown. He meets a girl when watching the play “Romeo and Juliet” where he meets a girl Sally and after hanging out together for a moderate amount of time he impulsively asks her to elope with him to a place far away forever. She declines his offer and refuses to speak to him.
I enjoyed this book thoroughly and always kept me intrigued until the end. It had small twists in it that were rather easy to interpret but it was also very interesting. I don’t particularly relate to this book, although situations that I’ve endured have changed my perspective on life, in a positive aspect, and made me unprejudiced and versatile and not so resilient.
