The Catcher in the Rye: A Literary Review

In The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger explores complex ideas about identity and isolation, using the adventures of one Holden Caulfield to provide social critique and serve as a vehicle for Salinger’s arguments. Holden, the story’s protagonist, braves the wild city of New York after his expulsion from a private school in Pennsylvania. Holden encounters several situations during his time spent in New York that provide readers with laughs and provoke introspection and social critique. Holden’s greatest concern are the ideas of maturity and “phoniness”. Holden finds that many of the qualities and characteristics seen in children are missing from adults. He asserts that many of the people who appear to be mature or of higher social status employ a pretense or act with a certain degree of facetiousness. One of the most pertinent motifs is the concept of loneliness as the emotional manifestation of Holden’s sense of individuality. Most of his actions are governed by his desire to feel unique, to feel different and independent amongst a sea of “phonies”, maintaining his own genuineness.  This desire to be alone and embracing this loneliness serves as a large source of Holden’s own internal agony, but also gives him a vague sense of security. Holden’s feelings of angst and general contempt for adult “phoniness” cause some readers to categorize The Catcher in the Rye as a young adult novel, but the motifs and complex ideas portrayed throughout should not be confined to an understated category. The novel is brilliant in that Holden does not undergo the usual change in personality or beliefs as with such young adult novels. Rather than learning a lesson and becoming a somewhat different person, Holden remains generally the same and this does not detract from the ideas being presented, hence the genius of the novel. This work is heralded by some as one of the greatest novels of the 20th century alongside Huckleberry Finn and The Great Gatsby – and with good reason. With the help of an engaging protagonist and an entertaining plot, Salinger is able to provide insight on the complexity of loneliness as a manifestation of insecurity in one’s identity, as well as society’s pretenses and how they impact how we interact with and exist in the world.