Too Much Merit

I am going to evaluate the famous novel by J.D. Salinger, “The Catcher in the Rye.” This is the only book that I have ever read on my own besides Michael Jordan’s autobiography. I am not a big reader; however, this book was very highly recommended and people said that its audience was specifically for teenage kids. It was easily one of the best reads I have ever had. This novel holds so much merit it’s almost unfair to other books of its time period. The popularity of this novel is incomparable. There isn’t a person who hasn’t heard of “The Catcher in the Rye.” Even to someone like me who isn’t a big reader by any means, I had heard of the book. Although the novel isn’t new, it is definitely revolutionary. The first point that makes it revolutionary is the tone of the narrator, Holden. Most of the book is Holden talking directly to the reader like the reader is right there next to him on the bus or in his dorm room. The main reason why I would call this novel revolutionary is because of the way Holden speaks to the others characters in the book and to the audience. The way he talks is exactly the way in which a teenager during our time period would talk to his or her friends. Holden’s famous term “sonuvabitch” is spelled out in the book in basically the same exact way that a kid talking would say it. I thought that was the coolest part of the book because it was literally like I was talking to one of my friends and there were telling me about some ridiculous story from his or her weekend.

The category that I would place “Catcher in the Rye” is a dramatic novel. I’m not entirely sure that that is the right way to categorize this book; however, I think that drama is a central theme in the book. The way that Holden tells all of his stories with the way he leads into each thing that happens is how a kid our age would do it. He would probably exaggerate more than Holden did but the words he used, especially in the part with the mom on the train, it’s just how we would tell it. He tries to pull us in and make it seem like we were there sitting right next to him. It reminds me of when a friend goes, “man, you shoulda been there…” Some other works that I could compare “Catcher in the Rye” to are the “Star Wars” movies and the TV show “South Park.” The reason I think that all three of these are comparable is that they all did something for the first time. “Catcher in the Rye” was the first really significant novel to reach teenagers with a tone that they could understand. “Star Wars” was the first movie series that really got a cult following as well as incredible special effects for its time. Finally, “South Park” is the first and still only show that goes out of its way to be offensive to different races and religions and still somehow gets away with it. Lastly, the different kinds of criteria I would use are the tone of the narrator; a book about a teenage kid; running away from home; little kid in a big city; and dream stories.