The Catcher in the Rye: An American Novel by J. D. Salinger

Sometimes you feel, "I’m quite illiterate, but I read a lot." Through one of the best quotes of the much-hyped The Catcher in the Rye, you can realize that knowledge comes with reading, but cognition enlightens you through your experience. This book is about showing your inner conflict, depression, crisis, anger, rebellious attitude, and many other shades of adolescents that you all have gone through or will go through in different stages of life.

Even though you have encountered such dilemmas, depression, and other dark shades of life at any point in your life, experiencing them in your adolescence makes you more vulnerable and clueless about the situation and challenges you have faced. So, to know the various layers of the teenage mind and attitude, you must go through one of the ageless classic, The Catcher in the Rye. So, let's get to the highlights of this book through its summary, review, and so on.

The Catcher in the Rye: Book Info

Title: The Catcher in the Rye

Author: J. D. Salinger

Published In: 16th July 1951 by Little, Brown, and Company

Genre: Realistic Fiction, Young Adult, Classic, School

Language: English

Length: 277 pages

Achievements:

• Widely translated book
• Over 65 million copies are sold
• In 2005 the book was listed in the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923
• Modern Library named this book
• Readers consider it the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.
• In 2003 it was placed at number 15 in the "The Big Read" by BBC Survey.

The Catcher in the Rye: Author

Jerome David Salinger is a well-known American author who achieved success through his path-breaking creation The Catcher in the Rye. Along with successful Novels, he wrote several short stories before serving in World War ll. Some of his works had been the center of controversy and legal battles.

From his school days, he developed an interest in writing and acting. He started writing for the school newspaper and acted in drama. He became the literary editor of the class yearbook and joined many clubs. According to Salinger's Valley Forge 201 file, he was a mediocre student with an average IQ between 111 and 115.

He also tried his hands on several small businesses like meat importing because of his influence. After dropping several academic courses and colleges, he finally joined Columbia University School of General Studies and started his short story writing career in the "Story Magazine." He was in love with Oona O'Neill, who later married Charlie Chaplin.

He worked in the Caribbean as an activity director in World War ll. During this period, he submitted several stories to "The New Yorker,'' but most of them got rejected, and he was divested. Later he eventually met Ernest Hemingway, one of the famous writers of his generation, and got influenced and inspired by him. He also became a daughter's father after he got separated from his wife.

Many other roller coaster situations are constantly happening in his life, and all these experiences are reflected in his writing. The Catcher in the Rye is also not an exception. Therefore, the journey of a teenage boy is presented most realistically and authentically when you come across the quote "Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules."

The Catcher in the Rye: Summary

This is a story of a teenage boy called Holden Caulfield who recalls his past days on Christmas Eve. He remembered getting expelled from his boarding school because he failed all subjects except English. He also got eliminated from the fencing team after accidentally losing a piece of fencing equipment that caused the team to lose a match.

Not only that, but he went through his dormitory days when he got disturbed and irritated by his friends, and he thought that one of his best friends dated his crush, the girl he never had sex with and felt to protect from his friend. Gradually, he remembered that he went out with his friend to divert his mind from his girlfriend's dating his friends. Holden got involved in a fight with his friend after returning from his date, even though Holden wrote an intense composition for him about Holden's late brother, who died of leukemia.

After that, Holden decided to leave his school and went to New York. Here also had to go through several experiences meeting a stranger taxi driver, migrating ducks in the Central Park lagoon, checking into a hotel, spending the night in a nightclub, meeting a random prostitute, getting beaten up by her pimp, and the list of incidents could on and on until he called her girlfriend, Sally Hayes for a date in the following day. The date ended badly, and they parted because of Holden's impulsive and unreasonable behavior and thoughts of running away.

After that, he calls one of his friends for drinking and asks him about his sexuality because Holden thinks that he is gay. He also left Holden angrily and serviced him to consult a psychiatrist. Then he started missing his sister and confessed everything he had gone through. When she asked about his real concern in life, Holden said that he found himself in a job, saving children running in the field of rye. Holden's surprising journey continued until he met his parents at the end.

The Catcher in the Rye: E-Book PDF

If you find it heavy to carry this book's physical copy, you can get The Catcher in the Rye PDF for your teenage children. In the digital generation, teenagers are more comfortable reading any E-book than its physical copy. The best part of The Catcher in the Rye PDF is that teenagers can access it anytime, anywhere.

Also, don't forget to download and install SwifDoo PDF on your PC. No matter you need to read The Catcher in the Rye PDF or EPUB, SwifDoo PDF serves as a competent eBook reader. Moreover, you can also insert bookmarks to the eEbook or add notes to any paragraph.

The Catcher in the Rye: Review

In this book, the author wanted to draw the readers' attention to the various emotions and imaginations of the teenage mind that reflects through their unpredictable behavior and actions. Instead of making them fit into the stereotypical notion of society, parents must understand their mental status through their activities.

This book highlights different vulnerable aspects of the teenage mind, including innocence, sex, loss of loved ones, depression, identity crisis, attachment, etc. When none of Holden's friends reach the cause of Holden's reckless and rebellious behavior, his little sister makes him release his pain and anxiety by making him realize his dream, purpose, and concern for life.

It also tells all the teenagers that running away from their situations won't help until they face them and try to figure out the main cause behind their issues. Another important message from this book is that you are not the only one facing life challenges; every life has its journey of suffering, pain, and struggle. So, this book is immensely relatable to all ages, generations, and gender.

Is it hard to read The Catcher in the Rye?

Some people find that book hard to read because of its first-person speech and narrative voice. And there is also no specific direction of the story where the main character is heading. The story is cluttered with several plots and random independence that divert the reader's attention in different directions instead of concentrating on any particular direction.

As the protagonist also doesn't have clarity about his actions and reaction to specific situations, readers get confused by his behavior unless they dig into his mind. So, reading The Catcher in the Rye needs lots of attention and engagement to comprehend the underlying messages of this book.

Conclusion

If you feel lost in your life and find radical changes in your teenage kids' behavior, reading The Catcher in the Rye PDF could be a thought-evoking and life-changing experience. Instead of going by others' opinions on this book, you must bring out the best interpretation of this classic creation while making it relatable to your real-life situations.