Salingers The Catcher in the Rye and the Crisis of Coming of Age: An Inevitably Fearful Move toward Growth

The Catcher in the Rye is an iconic arguably quintessential American novel and an existential Coming-of-Age story that is both the adventures of a specific likable opinionated young narrator and a universal work that deals with highly relatable themes and symbols about society and modern living in America. J. D. Salinger had institutionalized forced depression and post-traumatic stress disorder after the war. After his discharge from the hospital, he began a critical work on The Catcher in the Rye deals with the crucial, but hard to talk about human issues of depression, sex, identity, alienation, the challenges of expression and processing feelings, suicide, homosexuality, perversion and taboo topics throughout his life. The Catcher in the Rye illustrates how Holden tries to find stability and acceptance in a broken society full of people who are always faking. Holden is tripping because he has a legitimate desire to search for beauty in human contact, nevertheless, he can't find it in a world of such ugliness. This is what makes Holden one of the loneliest characters in all of literature. The Catcher in the Rye is a powerful, upsetting, and intellectually provocative novel about growing up and reflecting on the human condition. In the end, this young naive boy pays the price for being too soft in a world twisted by deceit.