Catcher in the Rye :: essays research papers

The backstop in the Rye---What was He Thinking?Nash K. Burger wrote a review of the book, The Catcher in the Rye, which waspublished in the New York Times on July 16, 1951. In his review, Burger idolizes thebook, calling it an unusually brilliant prototypal novel. Burger bumps that this book haswonderful spoken communication and portrays the typical teenager. He thinks that Holden has acheerful disregard and that there is nothing wrong with him. He also feels that Holdensmistakes are not caused by him, precisely by the adult world. This book is totally opposite ofhow he categorizes it. In fact, Holden has is far from typical. The language he uses ispreposterous and he always jumps to assumptions.Burgers first thought that Holden is a typical teenager is way off. Typicalteenagers do not flunk out of school after school. An example of this is, They kicked meout. I wasnt supposed to come back after Christmas vacation on account of I wasflunking all four subjects and not applying my self and all. Typical teenagers also do notgo and stay in a hotel and hire a hooker, When I opened the door, this prostitute wasstanding there. and then ask her, Dont you feel like talking for a while? The last thinghe does that is totally untypical of a teenager is to propose to a girl and then start callingher names. If this is someones idea of typical, they need to re-evaluate typical teenagelife. Next Burger says that the book is told in wonderful language. This book isabsolutely, without a doubt, make full with very vulgar language. There is absolutely nothingwonderful about Holdens language. Every other thought that comes out of his head isfilled with gent words. A good example of this would be when he went to Phoebesschool and he found fuck you written on the wall. This is Holdens reaction to theprofanity, It drove me damn near crazy. I thought how Phoebe and all the other littlekids would see it, and how theyd wonder what the hell it meant, and then at long last somedir ty kid would tell them -- all cockeyed, about it and maybe even worry about it for acouple of days. I kept lacking to kill whoeverd written it. I figured it was some pervertybum thatd sneaked in the school late at night to take a leak or something and then wroteit on the wall. I kept picturing myself catching him at it, and how Id smash his head on