Jester831

This is my Critical Review essay of The Catcher in the Rye with the prompt, "what is the authors purpose or intent in writing this piece of literature". I got a solid score on it of 98/100, however it fell just short of perfect. I'm looking for a peer edit/review in hopes of addressing my shortcomings as a writer and becoming better.

The Catcher in the Rye

Growing up, we are all inborn with a pristine innocence. Though, as the years go on, we are emulsified into a complex world where things are no longer black and white, but rather multi-dimensional. In accordance, we adapt and change our morals to compensate for this complexity. As an adolescent verging adulthood, we are forced to re-evaluate all of our principles and adapt to the new world of adulthood. Holden Caulfield represents a path we all pave – a path of new beginnings, a path of chaos, a path of maturity, and foremost, a path of definition.

For most people, the transition into adulthood is a gradual unconscious change. Bit by bit, they adapt to the adult mindset and eventually become one. For Holden however, this process was accelerated due to the demise of his little brother from leukemia. Instead, he was forced into adulthood prematurely. His personality and morals were built from a superimposed reality that is shared among children rather than the more complex mindset formed as a young adult. As a result, Holden envisions an idyllic world of childhood innocence, blind to the complexity of the adult world. Quite literally, his name could be symbolic of this: "caul", the amniotic membrane covering the head of a baby during birth, represents the blindness of childhood and the simplistic view infants see.

As the two worlds collide, all the self-contradicting notions he has ingrained so deeply within him become the harbinger of a complete mental breakdown. Like many virtuous and pious people, Holden strongly feels that sex should happen between people who deeply care for and respect each other. When his roommate Stradlater goes out with Jane, rather than being jealous, he is infuriated to think that a he knows well might have had sex casually with someone she doesn't know well. He goes so far as to start a fight with Stradlater, however that was somewhat of an uphill battle. Despite his strong feelings towards sex, Holden spends much of the novel trying to lose his virginity. He is greatly disturbed that even on his date with Sally Hayes, whom he referred to as “stupid” even while arranging the date and neither cares nor respects, something about her aroused her greatly. The part that disturbs him the most quite possibly is the notion that sex is very often a casual event.

After encountering so many perverse behaviors that Holden associates with adulthood, he takes on the fantasy role of protecting innocence rather than dealing with complexities surrounding him. In his discussion with Phoebe, his younger sister, she asks him what he wants to do with his life. He responds to this with the vivid image of the catcher in the rye: "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." The 'cliff' is not a cliff, but a metaphor for the superficial and hypocritical world he envisions. Rather than dealing with the world around him, he prefers to retreat to his imaginary world which even he considers “crazy”, yet he is incapable of seeing the world in any other way. He has isolated himself in an attempt to be his own savior, but as he continues to become increasingly more aware of his own disconnection with reality, his mind is left in a circular turmoil.

Encroaching upon a point of critical instability, Holden goes to Mr.Antolini, his old teacher, in hopes of attaining some much needed self-reconciliation. As Holden begins to talk about his expulsion from Pencey Prep School, he reveals that he dislikes the rules and regulations at the school, one of the main reasons of his apathetic view. He mentions that in debate class, students are penalized for digressing from their subject. Holden argues that often digressions are more interesting and that the treatment is unfair. Rather than sympathizing, Mr. Antolini challenges this, pointing out that digressions are distracting and it is more appropriate to stay on topic. Holden sees the weakness in his argument and becomes uncomfortable. After a break, Mr. Antolini returns to further challenge Holden’s views. Similar to the cliff he envisions, Mr. Antolini states, “I have a feeling that you’re riding for some kind of terrible, terrible fall.” Rather than the one Holden envisions, it is an apathetic free fall, “the whole arrangement’s designed for men who, at some time or other in their lives, were looking for something their own environment couldn’t supply them with… So they gave up looking.” By revealing the weaknesses in Holden’s romantic outlook and what he interprets as a homosexual come-on, the already unstable natural order of Holden’s mind is overwhelmed and precipitates into a full-blown breakdown.

With all the world spinning around him, the next day Holden is left in a confused and disconnected state and starts talking to his dead brother – “Every time I came to the end of a block and stepped off the goddamn curb, I had this feeling that I’d never get to the other side… I’d say to him, ‘Allie, don’t let me disappear. Please, Allie.’ And then when I would reach the other side of the street without disappearing, I’d thank him.” As he walks, Holden contemplates his life, “finally, what I decided I’d do, I decided I’d go away. I decided I’d never go home again and I’d never go away to another school again.” He decides that the only path, rather than accepting Mr.Antolini’s advice, is to isolate himself and become his own savior. He goes so far is to decide to throw away all humanly connects and “bum a ride, and then I’d bum another one, and another one, and another one and in a few days I’d be somewhere out West where it was pretty and nobody’d know me.” A place without connections a place where he could live virtually as a hermit, “I’d pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes. That way I wouldn’t have any goddam stupid useless conversations with anybody…I’d build me a little cabin somewhere with all the dough I made and live there for the rest of my life.” By abandoning everything that doesn’t fit his idyllic world, he can create a place for himself where everything makes sense.

As he goes to say his final goodbyes to Phoebe, his kid sister, he finds that she has packed all of her necessities and wants to go with him. This just kills him and he realizes how important she is to him. After he declares that by no means can she come, she storms off and won’t talk to him, but follows him from the other side of the street as he walks. But when he approached the zoo, he called out to Phoebe and they entered. As they approach the carrousel, a reminiscent of childhood, he offers buys Phoebe a ticket. As she rode, he comments: “All kids kept trying to grab for the gold ring, and so was old Phoebe… but I didn’t say anything… if they want to grab the gold ring, you have to let them do it… If they fall off, they fall off.” Now he has finally come to terms that every child is going to eventually fall – he cannot prevent them from falling nor save them, just as he cannot do for himself. While it is unclear what he does after, it is clear that Holden is finally becoming an adult and has reconnected himself with reality.

While every day we feel a gut disturbance in the manor of human conduct, part of being an adult is realizing people and motives are far more complex than the surface implies. For Holden, as many others, they will get stuck on this gut feeling rather than the rational approach. Part of being mature is understanding this rather than basing your paradigms on an emotionally biased prejudice.