English Exposition - Catcher in the Rye
by: danruto

English Exposition:- Catcher in the Rye

In 1951, a one book author by the name of J.D Salinger published a book by the name of Catcher in the Rye. The message the composer conveys in the Catcher in the Rye, mirrors American Society in the 1950s, with a realism which can captivate you. It is shown by the views of the character Holden Caufield and his attitude which involves a lot of cynicism. This will be demonstrated in the paragraphs to come.
Holden Caufield symbolizes American Society in the 1950s by calling everyone “phonies” and he is anti-materialistic. Everyone that he meets is a phony and in the book it seems that probably only 3 people aren’t. They are his dead brother, Allie, his little sister Phoebe and Jane Gallagher. Holden is a liar and throughout the book he does this many times.
E.G “I started shooting the bull at her.”[Replace with real sentence].
Holden is very immature in that he always talks about girls and sex but when he gets the chance to have it, he declines. He mentions the opposite sex many times in the book and makes various observations about them. Example, when he is in the bar and he sees 3 women in their 30s and starts hitting on them, he keeps saying that one was good and the others were bad. Before he spoke to them he said that they were all bad. When he got to know them he showed his love for dancing and he danced with the blonde lady and surprisingly to him she was a good dancer too. By this you can see how much observations he makes and can see his immaturity because he just thinks about sex all the time. Another example is when he invites the prostitute Sunny to his room but ends up talking with her since he couldn’t go through with having sex with her even though that was his initial idea.
Holden is cynical. In the book he mentions either you’re a phony or he just doesn’t like you. He views everything in a bad way, pessimistically and only concentrates on peoples negative aspects rather than their positive aspects. Because of this it is a fight between Holden and Himself since he thinks that all adults are corrupt and are phonies so he will be one too. Holden also has a fight with society. Everything is immoral and the children should be innocent and shouldn’t see the adult situations.
The relationships Holden has in the book influences him greatly. The one that has influenced him the most is his little brother Allie. He views Allie as an innocent little boy and uses him as a role model for children and thinks that they should all be like that. He would do anything to keep the children innocent, for instance, he cleans all the profanity off his little sister Phoebes school. His relationships with his peers at school include Ward Stradlater who Holden thinks is a phony because he always keeps his image as a “jock” too impress the girls.

Its not that good but I passed so i guess it was alright