The Catcher In The Rye

The Catcher in The Rye is a book based around the main character Holden Caulfield. The book begins with Caulfield standing on a hill watching his schools football game. This was his fourth school he has attended after failing out of his first three schools he had attended. Caulfield is now about to be expelled from his current school, Pencey High, after failing four out of the five classes he takes there.

In my opinion i feel Holden Caulfield has many social issues that he does not tend to properly and ends up affecting his life in a negative way. Holden seems to have many problems with his roomate Stradlater and his neighbor to his dorm, Ackley. The smallest things about these two people seem to annoy him very much. I feel most of his problem with Stradlater is because of his recent date with Jane, who Caulfield had recently dated before. Throughout the book there were many examples that made me believe that Caulfield basically liked being alone and very kept to himself. He seems like he would be fine if he was the only person that existed. Because of his recent incident with Stradlater hes decides to leave Pencey three days early and head to Manhattan.

I also feel that Caulfield has a problem making up his mind on what he wants to do. He will put his mind to something then when he is about to do it he backs out and tries to find another option. For example, when he agrees to pay five dollars to the elevator operator at the Edmont hotel for the prostitute. He payed the money then when the prostitue came up to his room he made up an excuse that he has had a spinal operation to get out of the situation hes in. Caulfield also seems to have many problems with the women he encounters in New York. He goes on a date with Sally Hayes amd tries to persuade her to run away with him to Massachusetts or Vermont. When she refuses he becomes annoyed with her and she then leaves shortly after and refuses to listen to his appologies.

I do not exactly know what happens to Caulfield at the end of the book but i know he does not fulfill his dreams of becoming a "catcher in the rye." He says he plans to attend a new school in the fall and is very optimistic about his future.


Focus: I had kind of a hard time writing this blog entry because there was no specific prompt to respond to but i did the best i could. If there is anything to focus on out of my blog I think it would be the way I portray the character of Holden Caulfield and his social problems.