The Catcher in the Rye

In life, one is often made aware of particular subjects which they would prefer not to possess any knowledge about. J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye provides consummate examples of these circumstances, told through the eyes of an adolescent boy, Holden Caulfield. Holden's internal turmoil and subsequent nervous breakdown is a result of the knowledge he holds but desperately wishes he did not. He is bombarded by conflicting feelings concerning Mr. Antolini, Jane, Stradlater, …

…trouble him throughout the novel, Holden becomes increasingly mentally fragile as each chapter progresses. The intensity with which he feels life's flaws pushes him to his psychological breakdown. At the culmination of his ordeal, Holden still cannot answer if he will succeed in school. He does, however, undergo a transformation in his thinking. "I think I even miss that goddam Maurice. It's funny. Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody," (214).