Book report on the Catcher in

Essay by EssaySwap ContributorHigh School, 11th grade February 2008

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I found the "Catcher In The Rye" to be one of the best books I've ever read. I found it more interesting than books such as "The Crucible", "Great Gatsby", and even Ben Franklin's "Autobiography". Writer Jerome David Salinger has peiced together a great novel.

In New York City, 1919, Salinger was born. With his father, Sol, being a food importer, and having an average mother, Miriam, noone knows where he attained his natural love for theatre. Growing up with his sister Doris, he attended public school in Manhattan. Having average grades, with Arithmic being his worst subject. Apparently, being rumored to be a quiet, polite boy, nicknamed "Sonny". At 15, he attended Valley Forge Military Academy, then shortly attended New York University. In 1942, he was drafted into the Army. Finally, in 1953, he met Claire Douglas. Two years later, in 1955, he married her. After having 2 children, he unfortunatley withdrew more and more from society.

But his career was not wasted.

In this book, Salinger shows just how creative a writer he really was.

From the opening of the book, where an old and withered Holden Caulfield begins with a distant flashback from a rest home to his days in Pencey Prep, a boy's school in Pennsylvania, to the end where an obviously senile Holden, back at the rest home, claims he will be able to leave soon and that he will go back to school next September. I found the ending to be anti-climactic, but it was still pretty humorus.

The overall book seems to be more of a confession than a story, but it provides an entertaining change. The grizzled Holden "spills his guts" to a psychoanylist, revealing an entertaining plot to an entertaining book. One of the most important "angles" in the story is...