The Catcher in the Rye: Final Thoughts

My final thoughts about The Catcher in the Rye are as followed:

I like The Catcher in the Rye very much. The novel made me laugh from start to finish. Holden Caulfield may be one of my favorite characters out of the many books that I have read. He is a very troubled character, and although I can not relate to him in some areas, in others I can. I can relate to how he feels when Jane goes on a date with someone besides himself. I can relate to how he sometimes hates people without even really knowing them, but I also know how it feels to just meet someone and know that they are a good person (like the nuns.)

I think The Catcher in the Rye has a pretty good message. The message being that sometimes you just need to grow up and see the world for what it really is and not what only you see it as. I think that was the problem Holden had throughout the whole novel. He was very skeptical with people that he did not know, and with the people he did know, he did not like most of them. The only people he really seemed to like were his sister, his little brother, and Jane.

I like that throughout the novel Holden is finding out what he really thinks about the world. At the beginning he is just one person in a world full of hate and "phonies". Towards the middle he meets some good people that he likes a lot, and in the end he finds out what he really likes about the world. He likes the innocence of childhood, and he wishes everyone could still be like that. Of course, he does go through therapy at the end, so we all know he was definitely a little wacko.

All in all I thought the book was a very good one. It was very entertaining, and I enjoyed it very much.