I wasn’t sure if The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger would really be something I would enjoy or if it would just be another assignment I needed to complete. But, once I really started reading, I felt so interested in how the main character's life was described and how there were so many differences but still a few similarities between his life and mine. 

     The book gives you a deep dive into the life of a troubled teenager in New York City during the 1940s and 1950s—smoking cigarettes, drinking, and lying about his age. Holden Caulfield can’t stop himself from getting kicked out of different schools and just when he got kicked out of his most recent one, Pency, he didn’t know how to break the news to his very prestigious parents. Holden has bad grades, loves to lie, and does not have many friends. Holden is a rule-breaker. 

     I don’t want to say I couldn’t put the book down because that would be a lie, but it really made me think differently about what life was like then and gave me a chance to compare it to my life now. The description the book gives makes me feel like I've lived in the time the book is taking place, like the area Holden is in is familiar to me even though all the things I am introduced to in this book are things I have never experienced before. For example, Holden gives me a great picture of the nightclubs he goes to and his thought on all the people there he knows in the clubs whether they are good or bad.

     This book moves slowly, but only because of how deeply detailed Salinger goes when explaining every scene. It is easy to create a great picture of what is going on and where Holden is because of how descriptive the book is. 

     One thing about this book that I am uncertain of is the plot. It is kind of hard to see if there is anywhere the book is trying to go or if there is a deeper meaning to some of the basic things Salinger has Holden do. For this reason, I would say the plot of this book may bore some people because of the fact there aren’t any major events that take place in the book. 

     In Conclusion, The Catcher in the Rye is a very descriptive book that can give you a perspective from a teen in the 1940s you’ve probably never been able to look through before. It can help you understand what life could’ve been like for a teenager and you can compare it to how much it has changed to how your life is now. I feel like life is a lot more restricted now as a teenager with all the different rules and reinforcements to those rules that have been put in place.