Wandering And Returning In The Phony World

With the publication of The Catcher in the Rye in 1951,J.D. Salinger gained an almost immediate acceptance as being among the most significant post-World War â…¡American novelists. The protagonist of the novel, the deeply disturbed Holden Caulfield also became a legendary figure, and his acute adolescent awareness became synonymous with the sensitivity of a great many young Americans. Holden fails in school, uses vulgar expressions, gets drunk, and is very interested in sex. He may be considered to have low moral standards. Although these common adolescent characteristics may not fit in with the idealistic conception of a teenager, Holden represents the lonely American youth seeking to establish a moral code based on transcendent values. He rejects the traditions of school because they are artificial, lacking depth and warmth. His loneliness and rebellion come from his passive rejection of the false conventions and materialistic values that surrounded him. Salinger's success mainly depends on his acute observation of the teenager's psychology and inner world of the teenager of the post-World War â…¡--the difficulty of growing up, the lonely and arduous voyage from innocence to experience. The success of the novel also depends on the unique technique. First-person narration, journey-like narrative structure and various narrative time fully demonstrate the theme of the novel. First-person narration is not only to engage readers directly in the novel but also to create depth. Journey-like narrative structure illustrates Holden's search for love and authenticity in the phony world. Various narrative time depicts the complicated psychological transformation from childhood to adulthood. So The Catcher in the Rye is a classic, which unifies content and form perfectly. The dissertation analyses the perfect unity of content and form of the novel in detail and reveals the moral of the novel: life experience is an indispensable process to our spiritual growth and life is such an ever-searching process.