On Transitory Stage: Vacillation in J. D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye

Abstract

This study is a critique of a transitional state of mind and a comment on a juncture of indecision in J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye (1951). It is about a teenage boy who got expelled from his school and avoided going to his home for a few days. Lonely, on the cusp of adulthood, Holden Caulfield reclusively vacillates between what he was and what he is going to be. Since its publication till present, J. D. Salinger's Catcher is perceived as one of the perceptible novels to protrude from post-World War II. It revolves around the mettle of a troubled boy, called Holden Caulfield, towards a revelation. Tracking Holden's biography allows Salinger to wander into the minds of his peer adolescents and create a microcosm for them. The analysis will, therefore, be designated as a coming of age novel and as a trauma of World War II. The paper aims at examining the psychological structure of adolescence and what lies beyond and of the trauma of war and what did leave behind. The notions of Holden's angst and alienation justify the concept of vacillation and deepen the psychological and mental disorder of his oscillatory time and age. In short, this article aims to give a comprehensive account of the ambience of adolescents and how certain psychological and social conditions are crystalized behind their vacillation.