Holden's Dialogue In The Novel example essay topic

The Catcher in the Rye Ashley Page Essay After reading the novel 'The Catcher in the Rye' by J.D. Salinger, I felt sorry for Holden Caulfield, the main character, and felt a need to help him. The reason I felt this way is because the text influences you to have this point of view. The Author can portray Holden as lonely and mentally unstable very easily by writing the book in first person point of view, which Salinger did. By doing this he has access to many different techniques to write the novel, which include dialogue, choice of words, structure, tone, description and setting. All these techniques play a key role in influencing the readers understanding of the novel. Holden's dialogue in the novel is very similar to that of an ordinary teenager in the 1950's (when the book was written) and makes Holden values and attitudes more understandable to the reader and makes the things he does and says more believable.

Salinger uses this to his advantage because by using first person he can let the reader know anything about the character by just making the character think or say it. Holden's constant rambling and comments show that he is mentally unstable and confused also the fact that he's hesitant to say some things suggests that he's afraid of the world and what it might do to him. Salinger's choice of words or language is a technique that he uses to help establish the distance that exists between Holden and the world around him. This can be seen in the novel when Holden calls every one around him "Phony".

This shows the reader he's out of touch with reality and that he's unwilling to trust anybody around him. Holden uses a lot of coarse language in the novel, which shows his disregard for society. He does this to release his anger and frustration and to shock the reader. After seeing this sort of language you can understand why there was an uproar when the novel was brought out. The setting of the novel is basically just Holden's mind. You see all the events and characters through his eyes.

This subjective point of view can very easily persuade the reader because they are part of the action and share Holden's feelings and thoughts about things. It also reveals to the reader how much of a misfit Holden is in the world that he neither likes nor dislikes. Because it is set in this point of view it was very easy for me to forget that he's telling the story from a bed in a mental hospital. He mentions this fact briefly at the beginning and the end but you get so caught up in what's happening in the rest of the book it slips your mind. Salingers use of this first person point of view makes the reader feel as if they where Holden's and where doing all the things he talks about. The structure of the novel or lack of it makes the novel more believable.

Its is structured in the same way as a humans thought pattern, which is one event triggers the memory of an other which triggers a memory of another and so on. This can be seen in the novel when Holden is talking about something and then all of a sudden starts talking about something else for no apparent reason. He just lets his mind lead him wherever it wants to go and leaves the reader to decide the significance and relationship of these events. The fact that he recalling these events from a hospital bed it is likely that Salinger has done this to show that Holden's losing grip on what's past and present. The way Salinger has written this book makes it very easy for the reader to feel like the have some connection to Holden.

The first person point of view positioned the reader as if they were Holden, thinking his thoughts and doing what he did. Salingers uses the techniques very effectively and I would say that anyone who read the book would develop a connection with Holden.