Holden Caulfield and You
The Catcher in the Rye 's unique narrative style creates a connection between the reader and Holden Caulfield. The fourth wall is broken in the very first sentence of the book. The first sentence reads: "If you really want to hear about it." From the beginning, Holden is speaking directly to you . The tone of The Catcher in the Rye is very informal. Holden tells his story through swear words and sentence fragments, which was odd to see from a book written in 1951. These choices make it feel less like reading a book and more like hearing Holden tell you his story. Salinger also uses italics to indicate stressed words syllables in Holden's retelling of the book's events. When he is talking about the boarding school's reputation for turning out clear-thinking boys, he says, "They probably came to Pencey that way." The stress on the word "came" indicates Holden's disgust with the idea that boys are made more mature by going to Pencey. And...