The Catcher in the Rye by J.D>Salinger

Holden Caulfield, a teenager growing up in 1950s in New York, has been expelled school for poor achievement once again. Here begins the story of Holden, who narrates in a monologue about the 3 days before claiming insanity. The narration is about Holden talking loudly in his mind (something what we all do) about his nervous breakdown, unexplained depression, impulsive spending, and erratic behavior, to eventual nervous collapse. Holden's tale begins at Pencey (school), which he despises for its prevailing phoniness. Holden finds a lot of people and attitudes unbearably phony. He leaves the hostel after getting into fistfight with Mr. Ladiesman Stradler, as he could not bear that this guy is taking his friend (a girl) out for a date. He comes to New York, but doesn’t go home, he checks in a derelict hotel called edmont. He spends two days here in drunkenness, loneliness, getting beaten by pimp for not engaging hooker, getting to be petted by his ex teacher! All things leave him so depressed, and he sees the world as most cruel place to grow up. Holden begins to envision (more delusion) himself as a guardian of children, someone who will protect their innocence (which is rarity nowadays). This hope is crystallized in a vision of himself as the catcher in the rye--a sort of guard at the edges of a field where children can run free and play, a guardian who can keep these kids from falling, in their exuberance, over the field's edges. Holden decides not to mention much about the present day, finding it inconsequential. He alludes to "getting sick" and living in a mental hospital, and mentions that he'll be attending another school in September. Holden says that he has found himself missing Stradlater, Ackley, and the others, warning the reader that the same thing could happen to them. Its very tough at least for me to weave a structure of the story with only one main element, but the author has succeeded wonderfully. is Holden actually the one who is going insane, or is it society which has lost it's mind for failing to see the hopelessness of their own lives? I found multiple interpretation of same event which I like, cos I do the very thing. Holden is disgruntled, alienated, isolated, directionless, and sarcastic. To him becoming a adult is to lose innocence and struggles to change and grow up. The novel still courts controversy that actually has increased its popularity.