Through Holden’s relationship with his sister, which is experienced in real time later on in the novel, the reader is exposed to one of the only healthy interactions in the novel. Holden’s relationship to his younger brother, who died years prior to the start of the novel, tints the entire narrative. Despite not caring about school, the adults in his life, relationships with his peers, or his future, he does feel deeply for his sister and his deceased younger brother, Allie. This passion reappears in select portions of Holden’s life later on in the novel. He sought to defend her honour against Ward, someone he knew only cared about having sex with her.

In this case, for a young woman named Jane he met in Maine when he much younger. Through this scene I found myself introduced to the passion Holden feels only in very specific aspects of his life. Much bigger than Holden, Ward beats him handily. As I read, I relearned how to see through his eyes and come to an understanding of his personal, tortured vision of the transitory period between childhood and adulthood.Īfter being expelled, and before leaving the school, Holden engages in a fight with his roommate, Ward. I find one of the most wonderful aspects of the novel to be the way in which Salinger pulls the reader into Holden’s world. His emotions are strong, his opinions are prominent and any depiction of another character, or even himself, is tinted by those emotional opinions. He is the perfect embodiment of what is known as an unreliable narrator. The Catcher in the Rye is told from Holden’s perspective. Holden spends most of his waking hours pushing back, mentally arguing with, and resisting participation in, the adult world. The novel opens with Holden learning he’s been expelled from yet another school, this doesn’t disappoint him as much as it reminds him of his irritation at the whole requirement. Having read this novel before, I went into The Catcher in the Rye remembering how moving I found Holden’s emotional journey. The Adult World, Unreliable Narration and Growing Up

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger