The Use of Language in J.D. Salingers Catcher in the Rye

The use of language in J.D. Salingers Catcher in the Rye Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of J.D. Salingers Catcher in the Rye, is an upper-class boy who has gone from one private school to another, searching for -- something. He expresses his frustrations in language highly characteristic of adolescence; his extremely colloquial speech sounds just like that of teenagers today, even though Salingers novel was written in the 1950s. But a particularly striking factor of Holdens narration is his frequent use of the words phony and crazy, as well as his ongoing lapse into second person -- you. These characteristics attain greater significance given Holdens desperate need to actually reach out and communicate with someone, anyone,†¦show more content†¦Michael Bracewell notes that There were no such beings as teenagers -- in a cultural sense -- when Salinger created his adolescent hero of angst and ennui; there were boys and girls who had no more connection with the adult world than high schools had with a speakeasy (Bracewell, 7). Adults didnt give a great deal of thought to growing up; it was just something that naturally happened to one as the years increased. Consequently, Holden has no one who really seems to understand what hes going through. He once had people he could talk to -- his brother Ally, his sister Phoebe, Jane Gallagher. But now Ally is dead, Phoebe is back in New York, and Jane and he no longer have that close bond, as he shows when he says he defers going downstairs to talk to her. Although not being in the mood to go talk to Jane now is as close to an explanation as Holden can devise for his hesitation, his real problem is that Jane represents for him an ease of communication that he no longer feels with anyone. Another expression Holden uses frequently is phony; in fact, according to Edward P.J. Corbett, Holden makes reference to the word phony forty-four separate times during the course of the novel (Corbett, cited in rye1.txt). Everything he encounters seems phony to him. He never really defines what he means by that term, because he doesntShow MoreRelatedHow Salinger’s Holden Caulfield Relates to Teenagers Throughout Time1412 Words   |  6 PagesHow Salinger’s Holden Caulfield Relates to Teenagers Throughout Time In 1951, J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye was #1 on the New York Time’s bestseller list. 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