Analysis of Catcher in the Rye Essays - Point Of View, Style

Holden Caulfield is the protagonist of The Catcher in the Rye, and the most important function of these early chapters is to establish the basics of his personality. From the beginning of the novel, Holden tells his story in a bitterly cynical voice. He refuses to discuss his early life, he says, because he is bored by ?all that David Copperfield kind of crap.? He gives us a hint that something catastrophic has happened in his life, acknowledging that he writes from a rest home to tell about ?this madman stuff? that happened to him around the previous Christmas, but he doesn?t yet go into specifics. The particularities of his story are in keeping with his cynicism and his boredom. He has failed out of school, and he leaves Spencer?s house abruptly because he does not enjoy being confronted by his actions. Beneath the surface of Holden?s tone and behavior runs a more idealistic, emotional current. He begins the story of his last day at Pencey Prep by telling how he stood at the top of Thomsen Hill, preparing to leave the school and trying to feel ?some kind of a good-by.? He visits Spencer in Chapter 2 even though he failed Spencer?s history class, and he seems to respond to Mrs. Spencer?s kindness. What bothers him the most, in these chapters and throughout the book, is the hypocrisy and ugliness around him, which diminish the innocence and beauty of the external world?the unpleasantness of Spencer?s sickroom, for instance, and his hairless legs sticking out of his pajamas. Salinger thus treats his narrator as more than a mere portrait of a cynical postwar rich kid at an impersonal and pressure-filled boarding school. Even in these early chapters, Holden connects with life on a very idealistic level; he seems to feel its flaws so deeply that he tries to shield himself with a veneer of cynicism. The Catcher in the Rye is in many ways a book about the betrayal of innocence by the modern world; despite his bitter tone, Holden is an innocent searching desperately for a way to connect with the world around him that will not cause him pain. In these early chapters, the reader already begins to sense that Holden is not an entirely reliable narrator and that the reality of his situation is somehow different from the way he describes it. In part this is simply because Holden is a first-person narrator describing his own experiences from his own point of view. Any individual?s point of view, in any novel or story, is necessarily limited. The reader never forgets for a moment who is telling this story, because the tone, grammar, and diction are consistently those of an adolescent?albeit a highly intelligent and expressive one?and every event receives Holden?s distinctive commentary. However, Holden?s narrative contains inconsistencies that make us question what he says. Fo r instance, Holden characterizes Spencer?s behavior throughout as vindictive and mean-spirited, but Spencer?s actions clearly seem to be motivated by concern for Holden?s well-being. Holden seems to be looking for reasons not to listen to Spencer.