Contemporary North American Teenager and The Catcher in the Rye.

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Contemporary North American Teenager and The Catcher in the Rye

        How many people in the world are not aware of, at least some of, the sordid aspects of the American cultural landscape?  In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, the behaviour and attitudes displayed by Holden Caulfield, the novel’s protagonist do much to bolster a unflattering stereotype of the contemporary North American teenager.  Many students encounter difficulty within themselves regarding school work or relationship with one another.  Numbers of scenes of prostitutions have been found all over the America.  Innumerable teenagers are involved in sexual activities and drugs.  There are three significant characters and plots within them captured in The Catcher in the Rye who show the contemptible side of the American cultural landscape of the present.

        Holden Caulfield’s cynical and jaded narration leads chapter by chapter in The Catcher in the Rye.  An American teenager’s wandering life is well-illustrated through Holden’s journey, from his school, Pencey Prep, to New York.  Holden has to leave school and is afraid to tell his parents so he goes to New York.  The statistics from the National Centre for Education Statistics and the U. S. Department of Education indicate that in 1997, the dropout rate for students ages 16 to 24 was 11 per cent.  When Holden stays in Edmont Hotel in New York, he meets a prostitute, Sunny.  Holden does not have an intercourse with her even though he could have.  Sexual relations between teenagers have been considered to be one of the biggest problems in the United States and the teens in The Catcher in the Rye are no exception.  Holden finds the hypocrisy and ugliness of the world around him almost unbearable, and through his cynicism he tries to protect himself from the pain and disappointment of the adult world.  He is uncomfortable with his own weaknesses, and at times displays as much phoniness, meanness, and superficiality as anyone else in the book.  His inability to successfully negotiate the chasm leaves him on the verge of emotional collapse which is occurring to number of American teenagers.

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One seamy aspect of life revealed in the novel is teenage sex.  This is clearly illustrated through Ward Stradlater, Holden’s roommate at Pencey Prep.  Stradlater is handsome, self-satisfied, and popular, but Holden calls him a “secret slob,” because he appears well groomed, but his toiletries, such as his razor, are disgustingly unclean.  Stradlater is sexually active and quite experienced in relationships with girls, which is why Holden also calls him a “sexy bastard.”  After his date with Jane Gallagher, Stradlater avoids Holden’s questions of whether he and Jane had any kind of sexual relationship.  Stradlater’s defensiveness indicates the probability of ...

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