The Catcher in the Rye: Techniques

J.D. Salinger, the author of The Catcher in the Rye, has to use techniques to keep the reader engaged so that they get the feeling that they do not want to put the book down until it is done. This book did not have many of the usual tools used by authors including mystery, suspense, or symbolism. However J.D. Salinger used a lot of humor when writing this book.

Humor is said to be the lowest form of entertainment but everyone likes to laugh. I do not know if he meant to makes this book funny but when reading it there are many parts that make you chuckle and crack a smile. Holger is a boy with a very well formed vocabulary but he is also very fond of the "curse" word. It is not that the words themselves are funny because that would be seen as immature in today's social world, but the context that the words are used in are humorous to me. When Holden is talking about when of his good friends he says "I'd double-dated with that bastard a couple of times" (Salinger,52). Holden's entire dialect and his tone and attitude are humorous in the way that he thinks everyone is a "phony". Movies are "phony" too. Holden says that his older brother is a "phony" because he moved to the most "phony" town ever, Hollywood. He has an opinion about everything even money. "Goddam money. It always ends up making you blue as hell"(Salinger,147). Some people may not feel that the way Holden speaks and the way his mind work are humorous and that may be true but I think that it depends on the reader. The book is not "haha" funny, but it is the only technique in this book that i feel Salinger would have used to hook the reader. During some circumstances mystery could be hinted but it is not meant to be any kind of detective book. The reader may wonder who is at the door banging as hard as they can just to get another five dollars from him and maybe Holden did hear wrong. Humor seems to be evident in this novel though.

Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown, 1951. Print