Dream Broken——a Monologue from a Boy in the Catcher in the Rye

Dream broken

——a monologue from a boy in The Catcher in the Rye

The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger, was about a boy, Holden Caulfield, who was from a middle-class family and was kicked out because of his poor performance in study. Instead of going home directly after leaving Pencey (a military school), he wandered in the New York City and lived in a small hotel, thinking about wine, sex and women, but ultimately doing nothing. He decided to leave home after saying good bye to his younger sister, Phoebe Caulfield, but was persuaded to stay and was considered to have a mental disorder.

The book was written in first person, which renders the readers straightly know about the authentic feelings of the main character. The author describes a plenty of inner thoughts and activity of the boy and the conversations between him and other persons, which express contradiction and sorrow in his mind.

The title of the book comes from a poem “Coming through the Rye”. Holden just wants to be such a catcher who prevents the children from falling down the cliff, when they are playing in the rye, which reflects his kind-hearted, but the reality is that, on one hand, he gets tired of almost everything and hates everyone expect his younger sister and his passed away brother. Considering that something wonderful must be fragile, he doesn’t dare to touch them, let alone to believe in them. In his opinion, the society is full of fake and deceit. On the other, he is dreaming of getting away from all these things and living a simple life and searching for the pure and sincere emotion himself. But the persuasion from his sister makes him compromise, which means that his dream has broken and he cannot get rid of the burden of society and the severe contradiction in his mind finally leads him to mental disorder.

The book is written in an ironic way and has a tragic ending. What it reflects not only the despair of the character, but the general persons living in...