The Cathcher In The Rye Book Review

The Catcher In The Rye
By: J. D. Salinger

This narrative is about a 16 year old boy named Holden Caulfield. He is attending Pencey Prep School in Agerstown, Pennsylvania. He had failed out of four previous schools and was sent to Pencey where it is clear that he is undergoing mental treatment. It’s obvious something is wrong with him because he is failing four out of five classes and he is so judgmental about everything and everybody. There seems to be a cause to his behavior: the death of his brother, Allie, and the suicide of one of his schoolmates.
The story takes place in the few days between the end of fall semester and winter break. Holden goes and visits his old teacher, Spencer, and tells him that he is leaving Pencey. The teacher just talks of how bad a student Holden was when he had him. After Holden gets annoyed he leaves, and goes back to his dorm. He gets into a fight with his roommate, Stradlater, over a girl named Jane. He cleans up his bloody nose and prepares to go to New York City. There, and on the way there, he meets a few familiar faces and has some conversations that tell us more about Holden. He criticizes almost everyone he meets, and calls them either insecure, boring, and most of all “phony”. In New York, Holden spends a lot of time trying to lose his virginity. He goes on several dates, and even has a prostitute come to his hotels room. It doesn’t “go down” and Holden continues to express his feelings about sex.
After a few drunken nights, he visits his “kid sister” Phoebe at his own apartment complex. He tells her his dream of being “the catcher in the rye”, a person who saves little kids from falling off cliffs. Phoebe tells him he misremembered the poem they shared previously: “If a body meet a body, coming through the rye”. It’s apparent to the reader that Holden has a bad memory. Phoebe wants to go away and live with Holden but he refuses. She gets angry at him and Holden feels bad. He leaves her a note at school telling her...