Catcher in the Rye :: essays research papers

The substantiatestop in the Rye---What was He Thinking?Nash K. Burger wrote a review of the book, The Catcher in the Rye, which waspublished in the New York Times on July 16, 1951. In his review, Burger idolizes thebook, calling it an unusually brilliant first novel. Burger feels that this book has terrific language and portrays the natural teenager. He thinks that Holden has acheerful disregard and that thither is nothing wrong with him. He also feels that Holdensmistakes are not caused by him, but by the adult world. This book is totally turnaround ofhow he categorizes it. In fact, Holden has is far from typical. The language he uses ispreposterous and he always jumps to assumptions.Burgers first thought that Holden is a typical teenager is way off. Typicalteenagers do not flunk out of discipline after school. An example of this is, They kicked meout. I wasnt supposed to come back after Christmas vacation on account of I wasflunking all quartette subjects and not applying my self and all. Typical teenagers also do notgo and tour of duty in a hotel and hire a hooker, When I opened the door, this cyprian wasstanding there. and therefore ask her, Dont you feel resembling talking for a while? The last thinghe does that is totally untypical of a teenager is to propose to a girl and then start callingher names. If this is someones idea of typical, they need to re-evaluate typical teenagelife. Next Burger says that the book is told in terrific language. This book isabsolutely, without a doubt, filled with very vulgar language. There is absolutely nothingwonderful just about Holdens language. Every other thought that comes out of his genius isfilled with curse words. A good example of this would be when he went to Phoebesschool and he found fuck you written on the wall. This is Holdens reaction to theprofanity, It drove me damn near crazy. I thought how Phoebe and all the other little cods would see it, and how theyd wonder what the hell it meant, and t hen finally somedirty kid would tell them -- all cockeyed, about it and maybe even worry about it for acouple of days. I kept wanting to kill whoeverd written it. I figured it was some pervertybum thatd sneaked in the school late at night to take a discover or something and then wroteit on the wall. I kept picturing myself staining him at it, and how Id smash his head on