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. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all." The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is set in the 1950's in various places. Holden Caulfield, a 16 year old who is kicked out of many schools is telling this story from a mental hospital. He is a very lonely teenager who does not want to grow up and does not know how to handle interaction with other people. He finds the need to criticize the world around him and he makes it very clear that he needs companionship. It is taking place a week before Christmas vacation over a period of 4 days. Sent home he stays in hotels and such to sneak into is house when his parents are not home to visit his sister. He is apprehensive to return home to his parents but on a verge of nervous collapse, he changes his mind and then enters a hospital. As if growing up is hard enough, growing up lonely is even worse.

"I have a feeling that you're riding for some kind of terrible, terrible fall. . . ." Not only would Holden have a fall, but one that he is going to have a horrible time recovering from. Kicked out of his fourth school the week before Christmas vacation, he has nobody to turn to except his little sister who is not very accepting of his situation. The visitation of his sister, which was the climax, is when Holden realizes he needs that special interaction with someone. Wondering from place to place, Holden often sabotages his own attempts to end his loneliness. For example, when he tried to get a date with an old friend of his and once she agreed he made it unbearable by his rude and obnoxious behavior. Instead of accepting the fact that he has to grow up, he makes his own fantasy world where he criticizes the whole world around him. All he wants is to be important to somebody and to be free without responsibility. In the meantime, the internal conflict is keeping Holden from maturing or having any sort of companionship with others.

The troubled teen is just the object of his own abuse. No matter how hard he tries, he cannot have a good interaction with people. For example, on the subway ride home he meets a stranger who he beings to have a conversation with. The woman he meets is a mother of a student he knows. He makes up lies, lies that every mother would want to hear about their son. He ends the conversation by saying he is on his way to get a brain tumor removed. In addition, he visited a museum where he wants everything to be easily understandable and eternally fixed, like the statues of Eskimos and Indians in the museum. He is frightened because