by Juan Leer

Created on: February 03, 2008

Whenever you look at a list of some of the classic books in Literature, there's probably a very good chance that you will see "Catcher in the Rye" on the list. Certainly it is one of the best books of all-time, and definitely one of my favorite books ever written.

The protagonist in the book is Holden Caufield, and the story is told from his point of view. Caufield has, in many ways, become a teenage icon, with his rebellious and devious ways. In the book we see Holden's experiences (mostly in New York City) after he gets expelled from Pencey Prep. His seemingly carefree attitude about what people think of him, and his spontaneity and even disregard for authority makes it easy for many people to identify with him.

Holden seems to be disillusioned with the world, and with the things that he sees as pretentiousness and fakeness in so many people around him. This disillusionment with "phonies" is evident in this rant by Holden:

"The part that got me was, there was a lady sitting next to me that cried all through the goddam picture. The phonier it got, the more she cried. You'd have thought she did it because she was kindhearted as hell, but I was sitting right next to her, and she wasn't. She had this little kid with her that was bored as hell and had to go to the bathroom, but she wouldn't take him. She kept telling him to sit still and behave himself. She was about as kindhearted as a goddam wolf. You take somebody that cries their goddam eyes out over phony stuff in the movies, and nine times out of ten they're mean bastards at heart. I'm not kidding."

Holden often had a very humorous look at the world around him. He humorously talks about people who "think they're being a pansy if they don't break around forty of your fingers when they shake hands with you." Or he talks about how if you want to survive in this world, you have to tell someone that you're glad to have met them, even if you're not. He talks about the difficulty of living with someone if you have better suitcases than they do.

Despite being a bit of a social outcast in some respects, he seems to have a good grasp on people and what they might be thinking. Perhaps because he is unlike so many people (the "phonies") he is able to view their actions more objectively. He has an interesting thought:

"I thought the two ugly ones, Marty and Laverne, were sisters, but they got very insulted when I asked them. You could tell neither one of them wanted to look like the other one, and you couldn't blame them, but it was very amusing anyway."

Holden also has a social conscience, which comes out when he sees and gets upset over the f word, which seems to be scrawled everywhere, including in his sister Phoebe's school. He even tries to erase some.

"The Catcher in the Rye" is one of the classic novels in American Literature, and I highly recommend it to anyone, as it is one of my favorites ever. It's very interesting to view the world through Holden Caufield's eyes, as he often has a jaded, humorous, and socially conscious way of seeing things. A must read.

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