I read the book because it is a classic, and I wanted to know what all the fuss was about. I don't understand it. I just thought it was a story of the boy that ended really weird. Can someone help me out?
2007-08-09 11:42:15 · 12 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ Books & Authors
It's hard to follow this book because it's told from the 1st person and the guy telling it (Holden) is disjointed and tends to exaggerate. If you really want to know what's going on you have to go back and sort out what "really happens" and then you can appreciate Holden's take on it.
Here is the basic timeline: (The story is told in the summer after the events. The events take place over 3 days close to Christmas break)
- At the start of the book Holden is being told he has flunked out of his preppy boarding school.
- Holden is a bored rich kid.
- Right when he is getting kicked out (told to stay until Christmas break) he starts to make a friend.
- Holden gets into a fight with his cocky roomate and his roomate wins.
-Holden decides to ditch the last 2 days of school and go into the city. (by this time you can already tell he is really depressed). You have also gotten information that Holden's little brother Allie died of Luekemia in the last couple of years.
- Holden goes into the city, meets various people (asks all the women if they want to have a drink with him; it was the 1940's!) checks into a hotel, goes to a bar to get drunk and gets into a tiff with someone he knows and all the while is getting more and more depressed and feeling lonlier and lonier.
-When he gets back to the hotel the clerk can see how depressed he is and orders him a hooker (it's the 1940's!).
Holden is too depressed to do it.
-The next day he takes his ex-girlfriend ice skating. They get into a fight and she takes off, he gets even more depressed.
- He runs into his little sister at Central Park and makes sure he gets home ok.
- He sneaks out when his parents come back and goes to see an old teacher. he nearly gets molested.
-The final day he goes to meet his sister at a museum because he's decided to run away for good and wants to say goodbye. She meets him and wants to come with him.
-He is sooooo sad and depressed at this point! It's almost too much to bear for the reader.
-He lets his sister ride the carousel and the site of his little sister who he loves so much on it.....well at this point the book says he felt so much better, but it also says he is overcome with weeping.
-Most people say he tried to commit suicide because he's telling the story from a hospital, but I never get that. It always seems to me that he had more of a break down of some sort and had to be hospitalized.
2007-08-09 14:59:19 · answer #1 · answered by Lil mamma 451 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Catcher in the Rye is a CLASSIC. The book gives you a very close up and in depth view of a troubled teenager. Its a very well written story.
2007-08-09 11:48:01 · answer #2 · answered by ? 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
i read the catcher in the rye and its a great book, u should watch the movie called "Chapter 27" its about the guy that thinks he is holden and he kills john lennon and how he loves that book, really good movie, but i think holden just saw negative things, and i think he might have had a split personality or a bit of a skitsofranic
2016-04-01 08:23:36 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Try re-reading it.
The thing I loved most about it was the voice; Holden just cracks me up.
It's interesting to psychoanalyze him. He's always criticizing others for being phony, but he's guilty of a lot of the same stuff himself. It's obvious he's still dealing with his brother's death.
Also, the second time through, you notice more foreshadowing of his downward spiral ending in a mental hospital.
2007-08-09 13:26:35 · answer #4 · answered by Silly Sally 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Considering the story takes place in the 1940's , I believe it was one of the first novels to touch on adolescent emotional issues and angst.
This was the book that set me on the path of being the avid reader I am today.
2007-08-09 11:52:09 · answer #5 · answered by sleepingliv 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I liked that book a lot because the author does a good job of showing how phony a lot of people are and what life is like for someone who feels that they are an "outsider." Can you tell us what books you like?
2007-08-09 11:46:37 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
It is a classic because when it was created it was considered vile (with the swears and prostitution ect.). It really isn't a terrific book I didn't think.
2007-08-09 11:52:20 · answer #7 · answered by darkflower366 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I read the book to and seriously I thought it was weird like you, the boy is so pessimistic it had me luaghing.
2007-08-09 11:47:31 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
The guy that killed John Lennon read this book and thought he was Holden.
2007-08-09 11:45:26 · answer #9 · answered by Brittney 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
read it again wen ur kinda older.. youll probably understand it then..i did
2007-08-09 11:45:31 · answer #10 · answered by Dear John, 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋