The Catcher In The Rye

Running head: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

The Catcher in the Rye

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The Catcher in the Rye

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is a must read text for everyone because of the

way the book comprehensively and skilfully portrays the generalized anxieties of being a

teenager. The author, J.D. Salinger, is a top-notch professional as well as a highly experienced

and skilled writer who employs vivid description as way of discussing the generalized anxieties

in teenagers. For instance, the book represents the age of anxiety, and seventy six years later

after its publication, the novel still stands out and remains the definitive expression of trauma in

adolescents.

People need to read the book because J.D. Salinger excellently explains to the reader the

model of teenage anxiety writ large. The structure of the book is entirely based on repression and

trauma that occurs in teenagers. The central character in the book is Holden Caulfield, who is an

ancient teenager of sixteen years as well as the hero narrator of the story. Holden is too simple

and complex for the reader to judge him or his story; an aspect that adds significant meaning to

understanding the cause of anxiety in teenagers (Kirshner, 2016). There are several voices in the

book including children, adult and underground voices, but the voice of Holden is the most

eloquent. Surpassing his vernacular, though remaining unbelievably loyal to it, the central

character excellently portrays a cry of mixed pleasure and pain. Holden keeps most the pain for

and to himself, but gives pleasure away with all his heart.

The book has an exceptional discussion of how trauma and anxiety begins in teenagers.

As way of illustration, the novel starts with Holden reeling from two traumas; one from Allie, his

younger brother who had died of leukaemia, but Holden was prevented from attending Allie’s

burial because his parents took him to prep school. The other cause of trauma occurs when

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Holden is expelled from school, and in a group of three others, they witness a classmate commit

suicide by jumping from a window(Kirshner, 2016). Holden does not talk to anybody about the

trauma, but near the letter of the DSM, his life explodes with anxiety.

Reading the book brings a clear picture to the reader as to why and how teenagers

experience extreme anxieties in their lives. The book shows there are some incidents that make

teenagers nervous and anxious to the point of being filled with worry and fear. In the novel, the

inciting incident is in itself anxious flub. Holden is a manager of a fencing team, andhe takes the

team out to a tournament by subway, but he is extremely worried about missing their stop;

something that makes him check the road map over and over again, up, down, up,

down(Kirshner, 2016). The team misses their stop and forgets their gear on the subway, his team

criticizes him and he decides to run away. In the novel, the central character says that he is

nervous more than 16 times, and his hair has turned grey because of stress. Holden says that

there are situations in life that makes him worry, and when he worries, it is extreme to the point

that he has to go to the bathroom.

In conclusion, everyone needs to read this breath-taking text that perfectly portrays the

generalizations of anxieties in teenagers. The book offers readers a much more refined and

distilled version of the mental anguish that teenagers experience in life. For good measure, the

book categorically explains why teenagers, at some point in life, go through feelings of nerves,

diarrhoea, repetitive thoughts, repression, constipation, disassociation, panic attacks and extreme

trauma.

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Reference

Kirshner, L. (2016). The Age of Anxiety: on the Catcher in the Rye. Hazlitt.net.

http://hazlitt.net/feature/age-anxiety-catcher-rye. Retrieved on 21

July, 2017.

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