The Catcher in the Rye - Tone

One of my favorite features of The Catcher in the Rye is the tone of the novel. It is very depressing, yet sarcastic at the same time. I am a very sarcastic person myself, so I am capable of relating to Holden in his struggles with society. Holden basically tells reader’s he has a messed up life full of phonies and bad grades. Nothing seems to go right for the young lad, and because he is the narrator, his attitudes and feelings are well expressed throughout the novel. In a way, Holden has somewhat of a bipolar mentality in my opinion. One minute he is talking about his life and how “phonies” are pretty much taking over the world, the next minute he is discussing how awesome his kid sister Phoebe is.

I think that the tone definitely drew me in as a reader. I am sick and tired of novels with happy endings and sappy love stories. I was able to relate to a lot of the things Holden was struggling with in his own life. Holden’s narration of his journeys at Pencey Prep and in New York City makes me feel like I am reading a personal journal of his. I know in most diaries, people do not hold back their feelings and tell it how it is. That is hard to come by in most novels because society seems to knock down authors who chose to use that kind of writing style (i.e. the thousand of critics bashing Salinger for The Catcher in the Rye because of Holden’s depressed mood). I believe Salinger was successful in keeping his novel down to earth and portraying the tone he did.

Basically, if a book fails to draw my attention in the first chapter, I refuse to enjoy it. The first chapter of a book needs to be a strong one. In chapter one of The Cather in the Rye, readers are introduced to Holden, who is sitting on top of a hill watching a football game (Salinger 3). He immediately begins to tell it how it is, introducing the novels depressing and sarcastic tone. This writing technique makes the novel (instead of breaking it like some people believe) hands down, no questions asked.

Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown and, 1991. Print.