One Last Breath

Theme is the subject, or topic, of a piece of writing, consisting of the main idea of the story. Authors will usually make the theme of text clear and consistent throughout the story. In the book “The Catcher in the Rye” by J. D. Salinger, there are a couple of different themes throughout the book. The two main themes in this novel are the feeling of exclusion and dealing with the reality of having to grow up, both in relation to depression. The feeling of exclusion is that Holden is feeling…

verisimilitude. Holden is also very sarcastic and cynical, saying “[his] parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if [he] told anything pretty personal about them” (Salinger, 1). Though his sarcasm and cynicism set him off as a bit hostile, Holden is one that pays great attention to detail, especially when it…

Number One The main idea of the story is basically Holden Caulfield's motivation throughout the story. Holden goes to New York City and spends most of his time looking for something, but he never tells the reader exactly what he is looking for, I don’t even think he knows exactly what it is he is looking for. He seems to be looking for friendship or just genuine communication, but he is looking for it in the wrong place. Nobody else is concerned with friendship or honesty, besides his little…

Growing up, Holden lived a pretty normal life, until his brother’s tragic death. His brother, Allie, even though he was younger than Holden, was Holden’s inspiration in life. When Holden discovered that Allie was dead, he slept in the garage, and at one point during that night, Holden managed to break all of the windows in his garage out of complete and utter sorrow. The reader first gets introduced to Allie on pages 38 and 39, where instead of doing Stradlater’s homework, Holden remembers Allie…

as I landed. I didn't want a bunch of stupid rubbernecks looking at me when I was all gory” (104). Holden just called himself a rubberneck. As said earlier, Holden can be quite childish at times, he acts on impulse and will think of things that no one else ever pays attention too, but this isn’t entirely his fault. Holden has experience loneliness and death at a very important time of his life, and didn’t have anyone to talk about it. So he sees the world…

Salinger's life was like Holden Caulfield's in the book the Catcher in the Rye because there are a few things that actually went with what Salinger did. Salinger actually became depressed just like Caulfield was during the whole story. Salinger did have one really bad time in his life when he came home from being in World War 2, he ended up actually having a mental breakdown. Soon after…

In Catcher in the Rye, Holden decides to leave New York to head out West after he experiences a frightening feeling of “just go[ing] down, down, down, and nobody’d ever see [him] again” (217). Yet, Holden decides to visit Phoebe one last time before leaving, so he pays a visit to her school. Holden’s experience of “go[ing] down, down, down” mirrors the image of someone falling off a cliff like in Holden’s imagination as a “catcher in the rye” (191). In a way, Holden himself is a child in the rye…

“He’s dead now. He got Leukemia and died when we where up in Maine, on July 18, 1946. You would have liked him” (Salinger 43). In the novel, The Catcher In the Rye, by J.D. Salinger: Holden’s younger brother dies of Leukemia. Holden never full recovers from the family loss and is affected by this through the rest of his childhood and as he continues to grow up. In the novel, the death of Allie, Holden’s brother, causes Holden expresses multiple symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.…

“Certain things, they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone.” - J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye. The Catcher in The Rye is a novel about a 17 year old boy living in a “phony” world who ventures throughout the streets of New York to possibly find purity. J.D. Salinger’s reason for writing such a controversial novel was to appeal to the teenage mind. Holden is sexually confused and struggles expressing his…

‘The catcher in the rye’, written by ‘J. D. Salinger’ narrates the psychological and physical troubles of Holden Caulfield, a mentally unstable, teenage boy seeking approval in an ever-changing world. Throughout the novel, the author uses a variety of stylistic and language techniques are used to intrigue the audience into reading the text, which include the use of imagery, symbolism and metaphors. It is the different themes and techniques like this that are used throughout the text to pull the…