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Maya Sammane
Ms. Smit
12 AP
31 October 2014
Holdens Profound Love:
A Close Reading of Salingers The Catcher in the Rye
The manner in which a character describes events and thoughts in a text has more to do
with his mental state and opinions than readers may perceive. If a character spends a long time
pondering or talking about one specific subject in great detail, it may be because it captivates the
character or because the character is very fond of the subject. If a character is not outspoken
about a subject, and talks in short, choppy sentences without much to say, it may be because he
is uncomfortable with the given situation. Even the connotation of the words that the character
uses can reveal what the character truly thinks about the topic at hand.
In The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger utilizes word choice and syntax to show his
readers, without explicitly stating it, how Holden feels about what goes on in his day-to-day life.
Specifically, when Holden talks about his beloved brother, Allie, Salingers use of positively
connoted diction and rich/extensive detail reveals that when Allie was alive, he had a positive
influence on Holden. The use of these two literary devices in turn reveals how even after Allie
dies, Holden still holds his brother close to his heart.
Holden Caulfield is notorious for having a cynical outlook on life. Whenever he gets the
chance, he takes it to call anybody out on being a phony because he does not like what he sees.
Rarely does Holden ever say what he likes about somebody; however, Holden does spend some
time talking about how much Allie means to him. In one scene of The Catcher in the Rye,
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Holden is forced to write a paper for his roommate Stradlaters English class, and Holden must
describe one object with substantial detail. The first item he thinks of is his brother Allies
baseball mitt. Holden talks about why the mitt was so important to Allie, and he then goes off on
a tangent about what a remarkable person Allie used to be in the eyes of all people who knew
him. Holden refers to his brother as being terrifically intelligent and even being the most
intelligent member of the family (Salinger 38). It is crucial to point out the importance of this
section, because based on Holdens typical reaction to peoples stark characteristics, readers
would expect Holden to react by scrutinizing Allie or even calling him a phony. Holdens
opinion says a lot about Allies impact on Holden as a person, because Holden seldom attempts
to point out the good in people, but he does make this attempt for Allie. In a different portion of
this selection, Holden highlights yet another optimistic opinion about his brother: Holden says,
He was also the nicest, in lots of ways. He never got mad at anybody (38). Again, it would not
be surprising to readers if Holden made any harsh or critical observations about Allie because the
audience is accustomed to Holdens judgmental personality. The use of pleasant-sounding words
such as nicest, terrifically, and intelligent are Salingers way of showing readers that it is
significant how Holden is capable of seeing the good traits of people around him as a result of
Allies positive influence.
In conjunction with the use of pleasant-sounding diction, Salinger utilizes long sentence
and paragraph structure to form a contrast between Holdens usual dialogue and his dialogue
when discussing Allie. When viewing the section that focuses on Holden talking about Allie, it
can be seen that the entire section is a part of one full paragraph, and that no breaks or spaces are
put in between Holdens thoughts. This stylistic choice emits the feeling that Holden is having
successive, uninterrupted thoughts about his brother because the topic brings back numerous
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enjoyable memories. Another facet of this section that demonstrates the impact Allie has on
Holden is how Holden goes off on long tangents describing nuances about his brothers
character. Holden goes into great detail when describing what kind of red hair Allie has, and how
one can see his hair from far distances. The miniscule detail about Allies red hair is important to
Holden because this distinguishes Allie from anyone else in Holdens life, literally and
figuratively. Holden never goes into such deep detail about anyone else in his life, and the fact
that he focuses so much on Allies distinguishable characteristics is a way for Holden to show
how special Allie is to him. The fact that Holden repeatedly wanders off to talk about Allies
little quirks shows how fascinated Holden is with Allie and how Allie still has a place in
Holdens heart. Even after Allies death, Holden can still be found thinking deeply about his
brothers unique traits, which is shown by the large extent of description and the pattern of long
sentences in one large paragraph.
Salinger successfully demonstrates how Allie is an important figure in Holdens life by
showing this love through Holdens expressiveness in casual discourse. Holden talks about Allie
with aurally-pleasing words as if Allie is up on some high pedestal, under a bright light where
only his positive features can be seen. Holden also spends time describing Allies admirable
quirks by using one long paragraph with his continuous, consecutive thoughts. Salinger shows
how the use of description and connotation of word choice can reveal more about a character
than a character explicitly says about himself.
Works Cited
Salinger, J.D. Catcher in the Rye. New York City: Little, Brown and Company, 1951.
Print.