Catcher in the Rye Summary

The novel by J.D. Salinger, Catcher in the Rye, is a classical American novel that has touched the lives of many people.  The Novel takes place during the late 1950s. Told by a guy named Holden Caulfield, who is telling his psychiatrist the story of his latest Christmas experiences.Holden is not a troubled kid, aside from being a heavy smoker and getting expelled from four different schools.  He fails to recognize the importance of his schoolwork and does not agree with his peers on anything of any value. Holden is notorious for making extremely rash decisions. One being he makes the choice to leave his prep school, Pencey Prep, a few days before he is scheduled to leave for winter vacation. He stays in numerous places before finally going home. All the while, he attempts to "live it up" by taking girls out on dates, getting drunk , and ordering prostitutes. In the action of all of this happening Holden is only 17. Typical guy stuff, if you were living in the late 1950s. As he goes through all this stuff, he begins to wonder why he's doing what he's doing. Holden comes to a realization, "Why was he going about, living this way, when everyone and their mother knew that he shouldn't be living his life this way?" J.D. Salinger wrote a masterpiece of a novel that adeptly defines the maturing process of human nature.  Holden goes from being an immature teenager making bad decisions to taking his actions into consideration and making himself a better person.  Salinger takes into consideration the thoughts and actions of the younger generation and pens his main protagonist as a kid that others can easily connect with and relate to.  Through Holden's actions we see the struggles of daily life of newly graduated individuals who, for the first time in their lives, no restrictions in their day-to-day lives.  The dilemmas they face can be brutal and leave them worse off than they were before, but somehow,  through all the pain and suffering, that terrible event can cause the person to rethink his position on life.