1. The basic plot of the story is a young boy named Holden finding his purpose, or at least his moral compass, while wandering through some metropolitan area in the winter (presumably New York). The action starts after he gets ejected from his school for terrible grades and was forced to face his family back at his home with the disappointing news. He wanders the city near Christmas time looking for things to do. He finds he is not a hard resilient person, but rather mortal like any average Joe. He begins to crave a purpose, and through multiple visits with his sister he decides that above all he would like to be the metaphorical, and literal, catcher in the rye. A sort of savior or protector who in Holden's words would, "do nothing all day but catch the people falling from the cliff".
2. I view the theme of the story as being that What you do in life should be what you want to do above all. It doesn't matter what people think of you as, but if you are productive and succeeding at being happy and making the world a better place, do it. You will be rewarded for your efforts.
3. The author seemed blunt. When describing things from Holden's point of view he seemed sort of wormed arrogance into the dialogue, but when describing scenery and other poetic styled views, he made his language very florid and wordy, when he was describing the bright lights of the city lit up at night during Christmas was when this caught my attention. But for the most part, he was describing as if through a frosted lens, What stuck with me the most was the way Holden described how everyone wants to help them self and how they're faces were as cold as the snow yaddah yaddah. Everything was cold until you got the impression Holden was content, (most apparent at the end pertaining to the love for his sister at the end of the story.)
4. 1). General synesthesia while describing settings. 2).Ethos to give you feelings for Holden's predicament at the end, Puts you in Holdens shoes . 3). The entire story was an allegory of Holden finding his way in the world, and the emotional struggle tacked on to each of us. 4). Early on it alludes to Holden's weakness, or his general inability for true deep conflict. 5). Irony is in play as Holden makes himself to be a hardcore urbanite, but is actually quite inexperienced. 6). Holden set himself as the archetype of the male gender, he knew his faults, but he exploited his positives. 7). Euphemisms were hurled left and right to make the reader involved in the demography of the story. 8). Holden's sister seemed to be Holden's foil as she moderated his negative behavior that Holden thought so much of. 9). The point of view was very creative, it seemed to be Holden reciting events that he knew of, but also didn't know the chronology of. Sort of a laxed omnipotence. 10). The entire story seemed to be a stream of consciousness. I said Holden seemed like he was recalling points of his life, so he also created tangents to follow until intersected by another tangent.
Characterization:
1. It is implied Holden is intelligent due to his cynical view of life, and it also he is referred to by his sister as an irresponsible child, so we can gather he is, or at least was, hypocritical. What is directly stated is that Holden is a junior in high school making him either 16 or 17. We can also see he is not the strongest child physically, but is often mentally superior to his peers, despite his expulsion.
2. When Mr. Salinger described his characters, he softened, or hardened his tone depending on what role they played. The angry pimp was a allusion to the negative aspects of Holden's life and was therefore described with brutal resolve. Further, The sister, a beacon of hope, was shown as an angel practically.
3. The protagonist is highly dynamic. Holden changes as the story changes almost directly in relationship to the plot. He is so deep that you only see what he is truly like near the end of the story after the crusty exterior has been peeled away. He only really is fully understood when you tie in all elements of the story to the resolution, if you could call it that. (which is admittedly very nice)
4.It feels like I took a swan dive into Holden's life. I was living with him and sharing his struggles. This shone most when at the end (yes I love that ending) Holden was describing his mutual content.. Not really a mutual content, more of a content bliss.
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