Catcher In The Rye Professor

In the novel Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger revolves around a teenage boy named Holden, who goes on a trip home after he gets expelled from school only to realize what is truly important to him. In the book How to Read Literature like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster explains in detail how every work of literature is similar and that they all mean something. In The Catcher in the Rye Holden goes on a quest to realize that his family is important to him, and it shows the events that happen in your life can affect the choices you make, and it can open your eyes. In How to Read Literature like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster uses the chapter “Every trip is a quest (Except when its not) to explain the real reasons for it. He explains a …show more content…
He is kicked out of school, and thinks he should go home because he needs a change of scenery and thinks it will help him. He embarks to his home in New york where he goes through obstacles that makes him see how tough life is. At the start of the novel there is a sense that Holden does not care about how his actions affect him he flunks out of school numerous times, he says it’s because of the teachers and his surroundings. Holden starts to see in his “quest” the effects of the world when he meets the prostitute. He thinks he wants to engage in sexual activities, because he wants to have the feel of being an adult, but he breaks under the pressure of it happening so he tells her to leave. Here is where his real “quest” which is him realizing that he is mentally messed up and he needs help or he will have a mental breakdown. The author uses diction and his inner thoughts to show his level of immaturity to show how his quest affects him . His word choice of words like “Phony” or constantly repeating himself shows that he can not process information well because of his past and shows where he mentally starts to break down. The death of his brother seems to affect him, and be one of the causes of how he acts because throughout the novel we know he loves his family and constantly refers to them especially his sister so the death of …show more content…
Foster brings it all together by stating that the quester never knows what the real reason for his quest is, its all a quest for self- knowledge. Holden who lost one of his families members was affected by this even though he might no have showed it because it is implied that the only people he truly loves is his family so when he leaves home he really wants to get everything fixed. He has had a mental breakdown as he is talking to a psychiatrist because he realizes that he is not normal, and he needs it in order to be able to live life normally. The idea of gaining more self knowledge can be seen as in Forster's novel he describes it as “ in Pynchon’s novel the heroine’s resources, really her crutches- and they all happen to be male- are stripped away one by one, shown to be false or unreliable, until she reaches the point whether she breaks down, reduced to a litlle fetal ball, or stand straight and rely on herself. Here Foster is explaining in ones search for self knowledge those who are once worthy will prove to be unreliable. In the novel Holden though he could trust his teacher but after he starts to touch him he knows that he must leave and he cannot really trust any one because of everything that has gone on his actions and how he has acted. He