While some consider J. D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye a literary masterpiece and a coming of age novel relatable to multiple generations, Catcher in the Rye is far from the perfect. Although among the list of “favorite books”, Catcher in the Rye is nothing more than a series of random encounters made by a spoiled rich teenage boy who has decided that he is done conforming to society and wants to do his own thing. Also, this book has been banned from many schools due to the content of the story. The plot of the novel starts by introducing the main character, Holden Caulfield, in a sanatorium recounting on a time in his life. The importance of this time period is not explained and it is just a memory. Throughout the plot, many characters are introduced in different scenes. While some stories are able to utilize a large amount of characters, this novel only introduces most characters only once and there is little to no interaction between the various characters. Most of the interaction only occurs with Holden. Some of the events seem random and unimportant to the overall value of the story. The plot also contains some acts that caused it to become banned from schools. In this novel, Holden engages in activities such as drinking alcohol, smoking, and associating with prostitutes. Keep in mind that Holden is only a teenager and not of age to do these things. This along with the use of profanity are what have caused this book to become banned by schools. Some other schools saw it had moral issues and one school in Ohio even deemed it “anti white”. More schools are starting to accept it but it is still banned in some places. In my opinion, the students are not missing out. Following its publication in 1951, Catcher in the Rye rocketed to number 1 on The New York Times bestseller list. Following that, the book seemed to be a polarizing topic in the literary world. On the one hand, there were said that it was their favorite book and the best book to ever capture a coming of age story. On the other, people found the plot to be tasteless and the writing to be average and not deserving of the praise that it had garnered. I did not like this book at all. I did not really find the main character to be very relatable considering it seems that he is a very spoiled teenager from boarding school who decides that he no longer wants to live in this comfortable lifestyle as everyone is phony. He could have actually just coasted through the rest of school and still would of ended up wealthy but instead, he decides that he has had enough of authority and he wants to do something else with his life. The thing that he really wants is to never grow old and to never have responsibilities. This attitude of Holden made me dislike him as a character and grow disinterested with the outcome before the end of the book. I also found the middle of the story very boring. There were several chapters in the middle where Holden is doing random activities that do not progress the plot in any meaningful way. There are new characters introduced that serve no purpose and the outcomes of the earlier characters are never explained. The ending of the book was also kind of confusing because the author still does not explain how Holden Caulfield ends up in the sanatorium. It seems almost as if the story was just of a random memory that was not important in the progression of Holden’s life.
I did not like this book at all. I did not really find the main character to be very relatable considering it seems that he is a very spoiled teenager from boarding school who decides that he no longer wants to live in this comfortable lifestyle as everyone is phony. He could have actually just coasted through the rest of school and still would of ended up wealthy but instead, he decides that he has had enough of authority and he wants to do something else with his life. The thing that he really wants is to never grow old and to never have responsibilities. This attitude of Holden made me dislike him as a character and grow disinterested with the outcome before the end of the book. I also found the middle of the story very boring. There were several chapters in the middle where Holden is doing random activities that do not progress the plot in any meaningful way. There are new characters introduced that serve no purpose and the outcomes of the earlier characters are never explained. The ending of the book was also kind of confusing because the author still does not explain how Holden Caulfield ends up in the sanatorium. It seems almost as if the story was just of a random memory that was not important in the progression of Holden’s life.