"the Catcher In The Rye: Song Of The Growth Of The Homeless

The Catcher in the Rye is the only novel written by the American author J.D. Salinger. It narrates a series of picaresque adventures of a seventeen-year-old boy in New York City. The novel is at the same time praised and abused by many literary critics since its publication. But it proves valuable with the time passing by, for it is well accepted by readers as it vividly describes the psychological world of the youth and arouses the resonance of readers.The Catcher in the Rye is an American initiation story. American initiation story is a novel genre similar to Buildungsroman, for both genres attach great importance to the growing-up problems of the adolescent, but it has its own features in terms of narrative structure, plots and protagonists. The thesis will give a detailed analysis to the characteristics of American initiation story. The thesis will focus on the narrative structure of the genre and make use of the "Prototype" theory of Swedish Psychologist Carl Gustav Jung in order to prove the value of its special narrative structure. The structure mainly consists of "picaresque adventures" and "epiphany" of the protagonist.The thesis will also take Salinger's advanced narrative mode and language use into consideration. His framework narration and Unreliable narrator enrich the content of the novel and his colloquial language of typical 1950s' students brings readers back in time. In these aspects, Salinger contributes a lot to the development of American initiation story.During the past fifty years, The Catcher in the Rye has always appealed readers of different ages, different countries and different backgrounds. This fully proves its power and its value. The novel is attracting more and more attention in the field of literary critics.