Rhetorical Analysis Of The Catcher In The Rye
Title In this novel, Holden Caulfield gets kicked out of his school and stays in New York for a couple of days before returning home. During his travels Holden does not maintain any relationships and he associates most adults with being phony. He is constantly trying to protect himself and his sister Phoebe from being exposed to the harsh adult world. In The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger uses rhetorical devices to explain Holden’s struggles and establish the theme of preserving his own innocence and the innocence of those around him. Salinger uses tone to show Holden’s struggle to maintain relationships. Holden is reminded of Jane Gallagher when Stradlater goes on a date with her. Upon Stradlater’s arrival from the date, Holden yells
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“You don’t even know if her first name is Jane or Jean, ya goddam moron” (Salinger 57). He knows Stradlater does not genuinely care for Jane. The tone in Holden’s voice shows his anger towards Stradlater and the anger towards himself. On the surface he is angry at Stradlater for making a pass at Jane, but deep down he knows he will not go after her. Holden subconsciously wants to preserve his emotional innocence, by not maintaining relationship. While in New York, Holden had the chance to sleep with Sunny, a prostitute. He thought he would, but when she arrived he felt “ more depressed than sexy, if you want to know the truth. She was depressing. Her green dress hanging in the closet and all” (Salinger 125). Sunny could have provided Holden what he wanted physically, but Holden realized she is not who he wants. His attitude towards Sunny and having this type of a relationship is very negative. Holden backs out of having sex with Sunny because he is protecting himself from opening the doors of a world he is not ready for. The appliance of allusions and symbols by Salinger reinforces the theme of preserving innocence.
Holden mishears the words of Robert Burns’ poem. Holden hears “if a body catch a body comin’ through the rye” (Salinger 224). Instead of “ If a body meet a body coming through the rye” (Salinger 224). His misinterpretation leads him to want to become a catcher in the rye. He describes to Phoebe what he would like to do by saying “I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff- I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going. I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day, I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all” (Salinger 225). He wants to save people from falling off of this cliff and losing the innocence they posses. Timothy Aubry further extends Holden’s need to preserve innocence in his article The Catcher in the Rye: The Voice of Alienation by stating “Holden’s urge to shield children from danger and allow them to play endlessly exemplifies his desire to suspend time, to inhabit a space of youth preserved indefinitely” (Aubry). Salinger’s illusion is a major indication of Holden’s struggle with preserving innocence. A symbol of Holden losing his innocence, was the record that he gave Phoebe. The title implies, the record was made for children to listen to. Holden giving the record to Phoebe represents him wanting to preserve her child-like innocence. He dropped the record in the park which symbolizes holden’s life and innocence shattering. Holden describes Phoebe’s reaction when he gave her the pieces as “She took them right out of my hand and then she put them in the drawer of the night table” (Salinger). Phoebe accepted the shattered record. She accepted him for who he was. She ends up influencing Holden and he learns to accept the idea of not being completely innocent. Holen had an epiphany while Phoebe was riding a carousel. He noticed “ All the kids kept trying to grab for the gold ring, and
so was old Phoebe, and I was sort of afraid she’d fall off the goddam horse, but I didn’t say or do anything. The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have the right to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it’s bad if you say anything to them” (Salinger 274). Holden has overcome his struggle with wanting to preserve everyone’s innocence. He went from wanting to catch them to letting them fall. Since Phoebe accepted his loss of innocence, he can now accept that loss in others. Salinger utilizes hyperboles to develop Holden’s struggle with accepting the adult world. Mr. Haas, the headmaster at Elkton Hills, would divide his time unevenly between the parents. He spent more time with more physically appealing parents. Holden calls him “the phoniest bastard I ever met in my life. Ten times worse than old Thurmer” (Salinger 19). Holden is exaggerating how awful Mr. Haas is. He tends to exaggerate most of his experiences with the adult world. Holden is subconsciously making the world harsher than it is. He is rejecting the adult world and therefore protecting his own innocence. Holden wants to avoid visiting his brother’s Grave, or accepting the fact that Allie is gone. He describes his reasoning behind not going to Allie’s grave as “ In the first place, I don’t enjoy seeing him in that crazy cemetery... when it started to rain it was awful...It rained on his tombstone, and it rained on the grass on his stomach. It rained all over the place… All the visitors could get in their cars and turn on their radios and all and then go someplace nice for dinner--everyone except Allie” (Salinger 201-202). Holden talked about Allie’s grave like Allie was still alive, and he was stuck there. Holden has not come to terms with Allie’s death. Visiting his brother’s grave would give Holden closure but he chose to blow the whole thing out of proportion. Allie dying shattered Holden’s innocence by itself, now Holden is clinging to any innocence left, buy over exaggerating the adult world.
By the end of the novel, Holden Caulfield has accepted the fact that everyone will become an adult and lose the childlike innocence he tried so hard to preserve.Salinger helped establish the theme of preserving innocence with the use of rhetorical devices. However, Holden does not gain the ability to maintain relationships nor embrace the adult world. The only struggle Holden has overcome is the protection of innocence. In the last chapter Holden references him seeing a psychoanalyst, so perhaps with time, the other struggles he faced will be overcome as well.
“You don’t even know if her first name is Jane or Jean, ya goddam moron” (Salinger 57). He knows Stradlater does not genuinely care for Jane. The tone in Holden’s voice shows his anger towards Stradlater and the anger towards himself. On the surface he is angry at Stradlater for making a pass at Jane, but deep down he knows he will not go after her. Holden subconsciously wants to preserve his emotional innocence, by not maintaining relationship. While in New York, Holden had the chance to sleep with Sunny, a prostitute. He thought he would, but when she arrived he felt “ more depressed than sexy, if you want to know the truth. She was depressing. Her green dress hanging in the closet and all” (Salinger 125). Sunny could have provided Holden what he wanted physically, but Holden realized she is not who he wants. His attitude towards Sunny and having this type of a relationship is very negative. Holden backs out of having sex with Sunny because he is protecting himself from opening the doors of a world he is not ready for. The appliance of allusions and symbols by Salinger reinforces the theme of preserving innocence.
Holden mishears the words of Robert Burns’ poem. Holden hears “if a body catch a body comin’ through the rye” (Salinger 224). Instead of “ If a body meet a body coming through the rye” (Salinger 224). His misinterpretation leads him to want to become a catcher in the rye. He describes to Phoebe what he would like to do by saying “I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff- I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going. I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day, I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all” (Salinger 225). He wants to save people from falling off of this cliff and losing the innocence they posses. Timothy Aubry further extends Holden’s need to preserve innocence in his article The Catcher in the Rye: The Voice of Alienation by stating “Holden’s urge to shield children from danger and allow them to play endlessly exemplifies his desire to suspend time, to inhabit a space of youth preserved indefinitely” (Aubry). Salinger’s illusion is a major indication of Holden’s struggle with preserving innocence. A symbol of Holden losing his innocence, was the record that he gave Phoebe. The title implies, the record was made for children to listen to. Holden giving the record to Phoebe represents him wanting to preserve her child-like innocence. He dropped the record in the park which symbolizes holden’s life and innocence shattering. Holden describes Phoebe’s reaction when he gave her the pieces as “She took them right out of my hand and then she put them in the drawer of the night table” (Salinger). Phoebe accepted the shattered record. She accepted him for who he was. She ends up influencing Holden and he learns to accept the idea of not being completely innocent. Holen had an epiphany while Phoebe was riding a carousel. He noticed “ All the kids kept trying to grab for the gold ring, and
so was old Phoebe, and I was sort of afraid she’d fall off the goddam horse, but I didn’t say or do anything. The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have the right to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it’s bad if you say anything to them” (Salinger 274). Holden has overcome his struggle with wanting to preserve everyone’s innocence. He went from wanting to catch them to letting them fall. Since Phoebe accepted his loss of innocence, he can now accept that loss in others. Salinger utilizes hyperboles to develop Holden’s struggle with accepting the adult world. Mr. Haas, the headmaster at Elkton Hills, would divide his time unevenly between the parents. He spent more time with more physically appealing parents. Holden calls him “the phoniest bastard I ever met in my life. Ten times worse than old Thurmer” (Salinger 19). Holden is exaggerating how awful Mr. Haas is. He tends to exaggerate most of his experiences with the adult world. Holden is subconsciously making the world harsher than it is. He is rejecting the adult world and therefore protecting his own innocence. Holden wants to avoid visiting his brother’s Grave, or accepting the fact that Allie is gone. He describes his reasoning behind not going to Allie’s grave as “ In the first place, I don’t enjoy seeing him in that crazy cemetery... when it started to rain it was awful...It rained on his tombstone, and it rained on the grass on his stomach. It rained all over the place… All the visitors could get in their cars and turn on their radios and all and then go someplace nice for dinner--everyone except Allie” (Salinger 201-202). Holden talked about Allie’s grave like Allie was still alive, and he was stuck there. Holden has not come to terms with Allie’s death. Visiting his brother’s grave would give Holden closure but he chose to blow the whole thing out of proportion. Allie dying shattered Holden’s innocence by itself, now Holden is clinging to any innocence left, buy over exaggerating the adult world.
By the end of the novel, Holden Caulfield has accepted the fact that everyone will become an adult and lose the childlike innocence he tried so hard to preserve.Salinger helped establish the theme of preserving innocence with the use of rhetorical devices. However, Holden does not gain the ability to maintain relationships nor embrace the adult world. The only struggle Holden has overcome is the protection of innocence. In the last chapter Holden references him seeing a psychoanalyst, so perhaps with time, the other struggles he faced will be overcome as well.