How do you feel about the characters? Whom did you like or not like and why?

I think that it is a very tough call on withier on no I like Holden or not. I think that he is a very ignorant and egoistical person. At the same time, I feel very bad for him. He evokes pathos because of how messed up and the struggle that he is going through. I am right around his age where I am experiencing the same things that he is, kinda. I do not have the same mental health issues that he has but I can completely relate on how he is having a hard time growing up, because in a way I am too. I feel like that Holden is not actually disrespectful as he comes across to be, which would lead me to like him more. Being mean and rude is not something that I like about people, I enjoy jokes but when you are actually trying to hurt someone than it goes too far.

Holden says things to try and hurt people, like what he says to Sally about how stupid and annoying she is. That is the part of Holden that I do not like. It is hard to hate someone when they are such issues like he does, which makes me feel for him and want him to become what he can be and get help. I think that I like Holden more than I dislike him, just because he has potential to be a good person, everyone does. I like Holden overall, he is just extremely disrespectful at times, but has some serious mental health issues.

What do you consider to be the most important episode in the text? Why do you think that it is the most important?

I think that the most important episode of the text is when Holden leaves Pencey. I consider this to be the most important part because it is the turning point of the whole novel. It unleashes what and who Holden really is. This starts his crazy journey through New York City where he tries to find himself. He leaves his private school after getting kicked out because he is failing all of his classes except English. This is so important because after this Holden begins to really struggle with what is wrong with him and what he really is.

This scene sets up the whole book and starts his quite weird experience of walking around NYC. If Holden just goes home then he would never of found his true passion, helping little kids. Another reason why this episode is so important is because of the set up that it creates. It sets up the whole novel and reveals to us who Holden thinks he is, but we later find out who he really is, not what he thinks. This is a extremely important scene in the book.

How is the setting important to the plot of the story?

The setting of the book is a huge factor to the plot of the novel. Catcher in the Rye is set during the late 1940s to early 1950s, war and post war times, in New York City. This creates a very different dynamic compared to current day. The timeframe is important to the plot because Holden does things that he would not be able to do if he was trying to in the year 2016. First off he just leaves his private school a few days before it is actually Christmas break. In modern day his parents would have been told almost instantly that he is skipping. Him even being aloud to leave is because of the setting, meaning that the rest of the book wouldn't even be able to happen.

Another reason why setting is such a large part of the novel is because he obviously has mental health issues that we as a audience in 2016 can see. During Holden's there is no awareness that mental health is even a thing, everyone thinks that he just crazy and cannot be helped. A lot of these problems stem from his brother Allie dying at such a young age. If the setting was different than Holden would of been able to get help and maybe would not have such crazy problems.

How are the conficts in the book related to real life strugggles. What specific elemens of the text are especially relevant to the patterns of modern human interaction?

The conflicts in the book directly relate to real life struggles. The biggest one is that growing up is hard. Holden battles with finding out who he really is and what he really wants to do with his life. This is a fight that almost every teenager has to go through. It is very rare for someone to know what they wanna do post -secondary, most kids have no idea. The theme of trying to find yourself is extremely evident in the novel, that is what Holden is doing through-out the whole book . This is a huge real life struggle that does not just affect adolescents, even people who have kids and have grown up still have no idea who they really are. Holden tries to find himself through getting drunk and running away from his problems.

Even though the novel was written over 50 years ago, this is still relevant in modern human interaction. People still hid from their problems and run away from them. People still try to solve these problems by "drinking them away". Holden does all of these things that really has never helped anyone. Things that Holden battles with a long time ago still haunt people in today's world.

Why do you think the author wrote this story? What is his most important message?

I think the author wrote this story because he wanted to bring attention to things that were troubling him in  adolescence and during the time the novel was wrote. J.D Salinger does this as a form of therapy because no one has helped him with his problems and now he needs a outlet to try to save himself. The novel talks about running away to Vermont, this is a idea that Holden has and asks Sally to go with him. This is something that Salinger does himself. The novel is written about himself because he needed a way to tell people about his problems. During the time of the novel there was very little information about mental health and Salinger knew that he has something wrong but he did not know what.

He wrote the novel to show that pain can also be on the inside, in your mind, not just on the outside. His most important message is that mental health is a real thing. Like I said earlier there was little to no mental health awareness, so not many people knew that mental health was even a thing. He may not have known exactly what it was or what he had, but he knew something was wrong and wanted to share his problems to add more awareness to the issue of mental health.

What effects does the setting (time,place and historical background) have on the character's thoughts,actions and choices?

The setting in Catcher in the Rye really effects how Holden and the other characters act. I am going to focus on only Holden because he is the protagonist. He does things that are only really acceptable during that time frame. The novel is set in the late 1940s to early 1950s, which makes the customs very different from today. Holden does many things that someone of his age should really not be aloud to do, but he gets away with it because the laws were not enforced as strong as they are today. He buys a prostitute and gets really drunk. Things that a seventeen year old could only get away with during that time period. He also says things that are acceptable at this timeframe but not in today's world, this is called moral blindness. He calls a gay person at the end of the bar a derogatory term that is completely not acceptable in today's culture.

This is only acceptable because of the timeframe, it directly effects Holden's actions. Another area affected by the setting in Holden's mind. He thinks the way that they would in the 50s. Naïve to what is really going on in the world and knows only what he has experienced and what other boys at his various private schools have told him. There was no internet to confirm his thoughts about life, just what people have said. The setting of the novel greatly effects the way Holden acts and thinks.

In what various ways does the narrative viewpoint affect the text?

The style in which The Catcher in The Rye by J.D Salinger greatly affects the novel. The first person narrative from Holden really makes the text different. With Holden giving us his story of what happened when he leaves Pencey, we do not always get the full story. We can not always trust him to be honest and tell exactly what happens. He is a narrator that always wants to tell a story that favours him or makes himself seem cooler than he really is. He does say "I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life." which is true even when he is talking about his own life, he lies a lot.

This really changes the text because what he is telling us may not always be true. We cannot trust him to always give us a reliable description of what really happened. This creates a very interesting novel that is only seen through the eyes of a seventeen year old, which is very different than most novels, affecting Catcher in the Rye in a large way. It creates a way of looking at the world that can only really be seen when you are around this age, making a very fascinating novel.