"The Catcher in the Rye"

     We like to believe that children have it easy: they get to play all day and do not have any responsibilities. However, that is not always the case. As much as we would not want to believe it, childhood is often full of trials and despair. And this is probably evident the most, of all of the sections we have discussed, in the documentation.

     These hardships can be seen in J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. This novel is about 16 year old Holden Caulfield who is traveling home after being kicked out of school. The book is about Caulfield's troubles as he is coming home and him reminiscing about previous exploits.

     Life is not easy for Holden Caulfield. He has been kicked out of four different schools. He is worried about what his parents to going to do when they find out. Most of the people he knows annoy him in some way or another. And they are almost all phonies. He often gets roughed up. He accidentally breaks the record he bought as a present for his little sister. He accidentally offends this girl he really liked while on a date. Nothing ever goes right for Caulfield during the entire story. It is basically a book about how hard it can be being a 16 year old.

     The Catcher in the Rye is also told from Caulfield's perspective. Because of this, it is written in a conversational, casual tone. It is full of slang and digressions. Caulfield often digresses, for pages at a time, from what is happening at the moment. He will be in the middle of explaining what is happening to him as he goes home and will be reminded of someone or something from one of his previous schools, which he will talk about at some length before returning to the topic at hand.

     Because of this, The Catcher in the Rye is a documentation, a faux-autobiography. The story is told as the main character experienced it. He is recounting this experience for some unclear reason. He is documenting part of his life.

     I feel like the documentation section we have discussed kind of serves the same function as Holden Caulfield wants to as the catcher in the rye. He wants to stand at the edge of the cliff, waiting for children to come running by and catch them before they fall. He wants to protect them from the harshness of reality.

     Similarly, the documentation also wants to protect children. However, instead of catching them as they fall, it saves them in a different way. It wants to warn them of the despairs and hardships, warn them of the cliff, so they are better prepared to handle it. Documentation stories can help children transition into adulthood.

   Many people idealize childhood: children do not have to work and they do not have any responsibilities; they get to play all day and not worry about a thing. Unfortunately, childhood is not always that easy. Sometimes it can be full of grimness and adversity. Documentation stories, such as The Catcher in the Rye, seek to explore and expound on these situations. And because of this, they can be useful in helping children transition into adulthood without falling off the cliff.