Young adult novels set at boarding schools typically feature protagonists that encounter trials not necessarily representative of life outside of fiction on their journey towards adulthood. Rather, these texts amplify struggles and cause problems...

The World Wars, being some of the most important events in history, changed society and created the modern world we know today. The Catcher in the Rye, by JD Salinger, is a critic of the new, modern world that was created in the post war era....

Thirty-six middle-aged people lean in simultaneously, a collection of ears trained intently on the speaker. He clears his throat before addressing the smattering of adults comprised mostly of teachers, a handful of parents, and an empty-nester...

“Sex is something I just don't understand. I swear to God I don't,” (Salinger, 63). It might take Holden Caulfield nine chapters to admit to this, but his sexual confusion is present from the first pages of J.D. Salinger’s famous novel The Catcher...

In both “The Country Husband” and The Catcher in the Rye, Francis Weed and Holden Caulfield attempt to escape the cyclical nature of their societies, but are ironically brought back to a routine lifestyle that is both predictable and blatantly...

According to Joseph Cummins, a researcher on teenage rebellion in the 50’s and 60’s, in 1946, 3.4 million babies were born in the U.S, which is more than ever before. This was followed by 3.8 million in 1947. After 1954 4 million babies were born...

J.D Salinger’s ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ has been controversial since its release in 1951. Its focus on crude and sexual subject matter means it was banned in many places, even in some American schools today. Works in the canon, sometimes referred...

As a soldier in WWII, J.D. Salinger did not write about the war like his counterparts. He wrote about tragedy, but from a teenage perspective in the shape of Holden Caulfield. Through the psychological theory of trauma in J.D. Salinger’s The...

The most fundamental human beliefs are often expressed in unconventional ways, and Holden Caulfield is the embodiment of this aspect of human nature. In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield is an easy character to relate to...

In an interview with The Millions, Teju Cole was quick to state that Salinger’s American classic The Catcher in the Rye is “one of the not-often-noticed shadows” (Morton, 2014) of his debut novel, Open City. At face value this statement simply...

Although sometimes minute details are as they appear, in the short stories “Seven People Dancing” by Langston Hughes and “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” by J. D. Salinger the minute details paint a larger picture of social alienation. Through the...

By the 1950s, classical stylings in literature had been all but abandoned by American writers. Poets and novelists were bent on revolutionizing literature by rejecting traditional stylings and standards. After seemingly every arbitrary limit to...

Composers draw on their political and social milieu in the representations of people and politics which align with their contextual purpose and hence, such representations are inherently manipulated to serve a particular agenda. Such is...

The process of discovery is often catalyzed by a provocative environment which compels the individual’s opposition to existing values, engendering the realization of one’s own ideas, inherently encouraging the formation of renewed perceptions of...