The crisis of adolescence in J. D Salinger's the catcher in the rye

Abstract EN

This paper is concerned with the difficulties, mainly mental, social and personal crises which most adolescents had suffered from in the developing American society during the twentieth century.

Because of modernisation, there was an unexpected blast in the American economy and numerous individuals ended up materialistic which made the youths distanced from their family and society.

Jerome David Salinger depicted those problems and struggles in the seventeen- year protagonist of his famous novel The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield.

Salinger portrays the internal struggle of Holden as he clings to the childhood innocence and abhors the adult world with all its responsibilities and unstable life issues.

He also shows the battle between the youths and the institutions where the adolescents feel themselves governed and controlled by rules of different systems such as the educational system, turning them to passive and fake characters in the society.