Catcher in the Rye, The, is a famous novel by the American author J. D. Salinger. The novel was published in 1951. The novel has been praised for its skill in humorously and convincingly capturing the speech, gestures, and feelings of a highly sensitive student who has been expelled from a Pennsylvania prep school and is returning home to New York City. The Catcher in the Rye was Salinger’s first novel and has remained popular, especially with generations of adolescent readers.
The central character and narrator of The Catcher in the Rye is 16-year-old Holden Caulfield. The novel is a single long monologue delivered by Holden after his recovery from a nervous breakdown. The story covers three days in the boy’s life near Christmas. He takes the train to New York City, but registers at a hotel rather than tell his parents he is in the city. Holden becomes involved in a series of adventures with some shabby New Yorkers, with friends and acquaintances, and with his younger sister, before ending up on a park bench emotionally exhausted. Throughout the novel, the confused and disillusioned Caulfield expresses his contempt for the phoniness and hypocrisy he finds in the adult world.
