The Catcher in the Rye - Question 1

What does the writing reveal about the authors values and attitudes? From what perspective does he/she write?

Any great author, such as Salinger, is able to take their attitudes and values and make them into a character's values and attitudes. Essentially, they make themselves a character in their story to get their message across in a way that is enjoyable for the reader. Salinger wrote the story so that Holden was the narrator, and the story was written with a first person narrator. Point of view is really important in this story because it doesn't matter how we see the things in this story, it matters how Holden views them. That is one of the reasons I liked this story so much. Holden calls pretty much every other character in the story "phony," but really, Holden lies more than they do. He never tells the truth, but at the same time he doesn't really lie. It is a weird twist on a main character. Also, because we are limited to Holden's perspective, and we know how often he tells the truth, maybe the people that he talked so badly about really aren't that bad at all.

The Catcher in the Rye tells the story of a teenage boy who is struggling through life. This story is very easy to relate to for many people that read the story. Holden is a very troubled boy, who even had to wonder around New York for a few days, with no real place to go. Holden was a very innocent kid at heart, and I believe that was one of Salinger's values when he wrote the story. The other three novels that I read didn't really have a truly innocent character like this story did. Holden went from the sheltered life of a boarding school out into the real world. He had to witness how harsh the "real world" is for himself, uncensored. Holden's experience really changed him.

Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown, 2001. Print.