Aaron Fournier's Reviews > The Catcher in the Rye

** spoiler alert ** As a reader, I thinks that "The Catcher in the Rye" is one of the best books I have ever read! It's plot and moral meanings are amazing to think and read about. This book is a must read for anybody who likes classic literature.

This book starts out with the main character, Holden Caufield, being kicked out of Pency High School. Another school, on what seems like an endless list of schools, that he has been flunked out of. Anyways, the school sent a letter to his parents about him flunking out that won't get to them for a couple of days. So, Holden decides to leave Pency early and spend a couple days in New York on his own. Over the course of his adventure in New York he copes with his relations with women, his difficulties with "phonies", and whether or not he is ever going to return back home. Over the course of the book and his adventure, he also struggles with the cruel adulthood that ruined his innocent childhood that he is now forced to live with. An example is on p. 191 when he says "[the children] don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all." This shows that he wants to save the children's innocence so they don't "fall off the cliff" that ruins it, as he did. At the end of the book, Holden decides to not return home, distancing himself from when Pheobe, his younger sister, grows up. However, when Pheobe insists that she goes with him, Holden can not handle ruining her life by dragging her away from her family into the cruel world, or leaving her behind to be forever scared because of his absence. Ultimately Holden decides to stay and go back home.

Overall, "The Catcher in the Rye" is one of my favorite book of all time and is clearly a classic book. I can not stress enough that every reader evenually reads this book.