How Does The Catcher In The Rye Existentialism

The Rebel Without a Cause: Existentialism and The Catcher in the Rye For some, going with the herd mentality is the easy way in life, but for others, it’s the hard way. Existentialism first sprouted up in America in the mid 1960’s. It brought ideas of the individual being responsible for their own actions, and subjective experiences contributed to the quality of life. Life was always in a constant flux, existence precedes essence, and there was no final purpose that was worth putting effort toward. The world had just seen the end of World War II, and America was a newfound superpower. The feelings of angst, existential crises, and the constant need to go against society’s influence was evident in society. J. D. Salinger was able to integrate these feelings in his novel, The Catcher in the Rye, which tells the story of Holden …show more content…
As soon as he begins by saying, “If you really want to hear about it…” (Salinger, 1), the reader can guess that Holden’s storytelling strategy is going to be a little different. Just by skimming the pages, anyone can see the walls of text that symbolize how his brain works when he’s reflecting back on the events of his life. In an article about the character’s narration in The Catcher in the Rye, the author explained that there was a publication issue because the narrator was thought to be “crazy”. The article followed that by saying storytellers are supposed to be, “...reliable and endowed with sound moral judgement” (Schafer, 605). This is saying that every narrator is required to be in their right mind in order to tell a good story. Holden’s way of telling the story makes it all that much more interesting and captivating. The mystery in the way Holden nonchalantly tells his story makes it more personable rather than if the story was told in an organized fashion; furthermore, it would be more boring if it wasn’t told that