Disillusionment Adulthood In Catcher In The Rye by Steffannie

Disillusionment Adulthood In Catcher In The Rye by Steffannie - February 2015 Scholarship Essay

Every student should read Catcher In The Rye, J.D. Salinger’s most widely recognized and critically acclaimed work. This novel, without operating through an overarching plot, captures the disillusionment and sense of purposelessness that many people, especially high school students, struggle with as they search for direction in their lives.

Holden Caufield, the narrator, is a cynical high school student who wanders the streets of New York through the course of the story. A highly unreliable narrator, Holden’s biting commentary declares nearly everyone a “phony.” He finds fault with the apparent fake personas of all those around him, yet Holden himself shuts others out, hypocritical in his claim that people are not genuine. Holden’s unreliable perspective prevents the reader from taking his words as truth, instead allowing independent evaluation and assessment of his experiences and findings. Through Holden’s commentary, the reader learns more about Holden than the subjects of his comments, as his personality shows most clearly in the way he views the world.

Holden additionally struggles with the transition between childhood and adulthood, an obstacle many high school students can relate to during such a transitional period of life. Holden is reluctant to abandon innocence although he claims to possess the maturity and independence of an adult. He attempts to rub out profanities on a school wall; however, towards the novel’s conclusion, he recognizes the futility of his actions, saying that you can never rub out all the vulgar signs in the world. As he watches his sister on a merry-go-round in the climax of the novel, Holden recognizes that he cannot protect her from falling. Instead, he must allow her to fall if she must, just as he cannot preserve her innocence.

The book reaches no conclusions and provides no answers about the nature of childhood and the seemingly aimless wanderings of the narrator. Instead, Catcher in the Rye provides a lens to explore this sense of futility. Catcher In The Rye does not try to offer answers, only to use a narrator unwillingly leaving childhood behind to portray the questions of purpose and adulthood with raw honesty.