Last Day of the Last Furlough

The word phony is used thirty-five times by the main character, Holden Caulfield, in The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger. David D. Galloway said, “Wherever Holden turns, his craving for truth seems to be frustrated by the phoniness of the world.” Throughout the book, Holden sees phoniness around him by seeing the imperfect in the world, and he wishes to not have the “phoniness” in the world. Salinger wishes for the reader to perceive phoniness as the flaws in the world shown by the usage of…

He contends that these stories captured the abundant “post-war optimism” and “cavalier belief in technology” of the day along with its “undercurrent of despair” regarding “declining moral standards” and a turbulent geopolitical climate (Smith). Seven of the nine stories feature children, who are portrayed as morally superior to their parents and the adult world. In particular…

Through the iconic voice of Holden Caulfield, an estranged adolescent, one hears a cry for help emerge from the clouds of depression so effortlessly that nearly everyone, regardless of background, relates. As evident within J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, and particularly during chapter 20, Salinger utilizes casual diction, relatable syntax, and a symbolic setting to convey Holden’s great dejection and introspection about death itself. With such a strong rhetorical technique as this,…

Writing-in-Role: Holden Caulfield (the Catcher in the Rye) Selma Thurmer was Pencey’s headmaster’s daughter and seemed to possess interesting personality attributes, so I’ve decided to write about the scene where Holden talks to her on a bus in the beginning chapter of the Catcher in the Rye. Inserting scene in page three, chapter one, first paragraph: I sat next to her once in the bus from Agerstown and we sort of struck up a conversation... Personally, I wasn’t really in the mood to…

kids before they fall off of the cliff to adulthood. He says that if they aren’t paying attention they could accident fall off of the cliff so it’s his job to protect them and to catch them before they fall. Holden then says that he could do it all day and he could be the catcher in the rye(Salinger 173). This is just one example of Holden wanting to protect the innocence of those around him. He wants to be the protector of innocence because he doesn’t think the adult world is safe. The…

“I’m interested in how innocence fares when it collides with hard reality,” (Geoffrey Fletcher). This concept of innocence versus the reality of society is a timelessly relevant conflict present both in literature and in life. It is one of many themes in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. The character that explores this theme is the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, who fights to protect those he believes to be innocent. As an adolescent himself, he periodically tries conformity, but…

In The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger explains faith, relationships, and immaturity. Holden Caulfield is a sixteen year old in 1946 that attends a private school. Holden expresses very little faith in The Catcher in The Rye. Holden tells us not long after the story begins that he is writing the story not long after the events happen and that he is in some sort of asylum (Brooks). Holden’s overall attitudes about his life is actually very negative and he acts as if he has no faith in him ever…

When individuals develop their sense of self, they must also develop a sense of compassion and morality in order to strive for the betterment of society. In a world with corruption and chaos, to maintain humanity and kindness, individuals might prevent the loss of their childhood innocence. Born with compassion, people tend to act more kind in the years of their youth; however, as individuals age, expectations, judgements, and corruption haunts and creates obstacles in their lives. In Charles…

The study of literary merit appeared to be a study of questions. Finding answers to these questions as a senior in high school seemed challenging and maybe just a bit too ambitious. I was pulled down a rabbit hole. The swirling mass of ideas, questions, and conclusions continually contorting and transforming themselves into the most dizzying of arrays. After I found my footing at the bottom of the hole I looked around and saw that what had pulled me down was what I saw at the bottom, questions.…

The theme of alienation is depicted through the main character Holden Caulfield, in the novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Jerome David Salinger was born on January 1, 1919 (Wenke). Salinger pursued his dream of becoming a writer by graduating from Columbia University (“Catcher”). The Catcher in the Rye is the representation of Salinger’s childhood and adolescence, which he claimed “...in a 1953 interview with Shirley Blahly… ‘his boyhood was very much the same as [Holden…