Essay | The Catcher in the Rye

"I'll just tell you about this madman stuff that happened to me around last Christmas just before I got pretty run-down and had to come out here and take it easy." Holden Caulfield says in the opening segment of The Catcher in the Rye. I immediately wonder if he could be in a mental hospital talking to a psychoanalyst. Coming out here and taking it easy seems like a phrase that one would use in that sort of circumstance. Something about this statement makes me want to read on and find out exactly where he is and who he is talking to.

Holden is what I would call a cynic or a skeptic. He views the world in a different way than everyone else, and as a result most people misunderstand him. Holden sees the world in black in white; he sees the cold...
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