Rhetorical Analysis Of The Catcher In The Rye

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The book The Catcher in the Rye is a story of internal conflicts and the shallowness of adulthood. The main character, Holden, is struggling to maintain his strong voice of innocence in a fight only involving himself. One of the many reasons for Holden’s emotional devastation is the death of his younger brother Allie. Allie passed away three years earlier from leukemia and this of course highly affected Holden’s mental state at the time even if he didn’t know it. Salinger’s tone held the most importance of this book. He gives it a very pessimistic and cynical attitude. Since Holden sees everything in such a negative manner, he refers to almost everyone except for his sister, Phoebe, as a phony. He instantly gives everyone he meets the title of a phony. As he is on the topic of an all boys school, he refers to it as “full of phonies” (page 131). Salinger has given Holden such a negative outlook that almost everything that comes out of Holden’s mouth is negative. He also referably doesn’t have a filter. Having no filter is just Holden not thinking about what he is about to say or not holding back any of his feelings. …show more content…

The fact that Holden calls everyone a phony, when he is the biggest phony himself. He starts off chapter 3 by stating “I’m the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life.” (page 16). He spends some time in the novel talking about how good of a liar he is. This refers back to him holding onto his childhood innocence. Children, especially lie all the time but usually about the smallest things, whether it be about candy or a toy. Holden carries on this trait by being a compulsive liar at age 16. After bragging about how much of a liar he is, he then tells the readers to “trust him”. Holden vented about how much he hated Sally but then continued to ask her on a date; which would be an example of situational

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