Catcher in the rye.. helpp!?

Question

hey, i've read the book and i don't really understand what its about.

i'm taking honors english and i need to take notes on it, and it's pretty hard to write notes when you don't know what its exactly about.

i understand the book, i just don't what i'm supposed to be pulling out of it. you know what i mean?

thanks for the help!

Answer 1

Is it about a guy struggling to grow up?  Not exactly.  I don't feel like he's struggling at all, at least not any more so than any other teenager.  

To me, this book is all about teenage angst and the phase of feeling alienated from everything around you that the majority of people feel in their life.  

It could also be said that the novel is certainly somewhat of an autobiography of Salinger.  It's been said that 'the only person who might ever have played Holden Caulfield (in a film) would have been J. D. Salinger'

There are several ways you could go with this book whether you're writing notes for an essay or test or anything.

Answer 2

There are numerous online resources to help you with The Catcher in the Rye, most of which analyze the story, discuss themes and symbolism and other literary devices, and give character sketches.  If you do a search you will find many helpful resources.  Additionally hundreds of questions have been asked here on Y!A about The Catcher in the Rye so do a search for it in the Yahoo Answers search window and you will find lots of Q’s and A’s that should help you.    A couple of these links have quite a few quotes from the novel.

http://www.bellmore-merrick.k12.ny.us/ca...

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/catcher/

http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/t...

http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guide...

http://www.allgreatquotes.com/catcher_in...

http://classiclit.about.com/od/catcherin...

Answer 3

Holden has a day out.  Re-read the book and take some time to let it percolate.