The Catcher in the Rye :: essays research papers

People go through with(predicate) depressing periods in their lives as teenagers, and some experience it more severely or for longer periods of age than others. In The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger expresses this time of dejection through the protagonist Holdens thoughts and personal whimseys. Holdens tone reinforces a division of suicide and depression. He is sarcastic, biter, and occasionally upbeat.Holdens sunplowedicism and sarcasm understructure from his belief that many plenty are fake. He believes that many people are insincere in their attitudes, and in what they express publicly, like when Ernie the lightly player shows off, Anyway, when he was finished, and everybody was clapping their heads off, old Ernie turned around on his stool and gave this very phony, humble bow (84). Holden knew that Ernie thought highly of himself so he thought it very fake for him to give a plain humble bow. Holden seems to act one way and feel another, because he always involves himse lf with people that make him feel depressed, and then feels bad to the highest degree it. He cynically evaluates mannerisms of people including their pronounce choice. He comments on a word Sally selected, and says Grand. If theres one word I hate, Its grand. Its so phony (106). Certain actors line cause Holden to resist people, based on the deceit that he thinks the word carries along. Feeling as if he is drowning in a sea of falsehood, Holden constantly find himself feeling depressed because nothing is what it is trying to be.When Holden feels as if some sort of pureness is threatened he assumes a bitter, angry tone. When Stradlater, someone he knows as very sexually intimate, went on a date with Jane, Holdens childishness friend, Holden became so angry that he reacted physically I got off from the whap and then I tried to sock him, with all my might, right feel in the toothbrush, so it would split his goddamn throat open (43). This shows that Holden feels it his responsi bility to preserve all innocence, to prevent people or things from becoming phony. His ruin to do so results in uncontrollable bouts of rage. When he reads swear words in the bathroom of his sisters school, he says I kept wanting to kill whoeverd written it (201). He was thinking about all the children who would see the words, and felt powerless to stop its effects, so he became extremely angry.