The Catcher In The Rye

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Term Paper Title	The Catcher In The Rye
# of Words	4625
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	18.5

The Catcher In The Rye
" I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody around- nobody big, I mean- except me. And I am standing on some edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, is I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff- I mean if they're running and they don't look where they are going I have to come out of somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that is the only thing I'd like to be. I know it's crazy" (Salinger 173). The passage above sets us up for the story of a teenage boy on the edge of a mental breakdown trying to cope with all that is going on in his world. J. D. Salinger tells us a story through the eyes of Holden Caulfield; a teenager just kicked out of another prep school and is on his way home for Christmas. On the way home Holden introduces us to a variety of people that he meets or knows. Most of these people are what he calls "phonies" and he does not really want to see them. Through all that Holden goes through we see his mental faculties start to diminish, and he eventually has a mental breakdown
The story begins with Holden at a "rest home" in California. Holden is talking to a psychologist, and this is where the flashback to the events that led him their start. From the beginning, we see that Holdens' mental state is not the best. Holden starts out with his school, "Pency Prep," he says that the school in full of phonies, and the headmaster is the "biggest phony" of all. The school is full of people that are just out for something; most of these people he calls phonies. We meet Robert Ackley he is the neighbor to Holden and is characterized by him as " sort of a nasty guy " (Salinger 19). Holden feels Ackley is an idiot, but he is good for conversation when no one else is around. We also find out that Holden is quite a liar, and this introduces a problem. If Holden is a liar, then what he is saying cannot be true. If Holden is not a liar, then the statement that he is a liar cannot be true. This situation is key to many of Holdens psychological problems. Next, we see his roommate Ward Stradlater appear. Ward is going out on a date with Jane Gallagher, a girl that he has known for a long time. Holden debates himself over the idea of going to see Ja...

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