The Catcher in the Rye Does Resonate with Teenagers Today

Ashton Hart

Period B

2/25/18

The Catcher in the Rye Does Resonate with Teenagers Today

The Catcher in the Rye deeply resonates with Teenagers today. Not relate but resonate. Teenagers can definitely relate to the novel such as anyone else who reads the story, but only they can resonate.

Throughout the story, the main character Holden escapes the terrible experience of his high school to go venture off at New York City just one train ride away. Holden was kicked out of the school due to grades and has three days until his parents find out, so he decides to just stay in a hotel for the remainder of the time in New York. He runs away from his high school mainly due to the people there, not just his classmates but also the staff. He is always getting into arguments with the people around him and the night he leaves actually ends up getting into a fistfight with his roommate in the dorm. Throughout his time in New York, he is accompanied by several diverse people such as prostitutes, nuns, tourists, children, and his own conscience. Holden although is with all these people and is up to something always feels lonely and upset that he is surrounded by phonies. Holden has very strong opinions on these phonies who is everyone. Holden believes that the entire world is phony and no one is genuine to others or themselves. These are the reasons in which Holden and the story of the catcher in the rye are able to resonate with today's teenagers.

Teenagers today can resonate a lot to Holden's life. And not just public school teenagers either, private school students are prone to the struggles just as much as anyone else. Modern day teenagers even have a lot more stress than Holden but can still feel his pain. With the pressures to succeed and not let your parents down is a common theme in the novel and almost all teenagers feel today. With the pressure to get into college and achieve the unreachable goals parents have set, but also socially among our peers. To withstand the peer pressure but still fit in is easily the hardest obstacle teenagers today will face. The teenagers reading the novel can feel that Holden is going through a tough time as well, with his fear of calling his parents and his mom figuring out he is in New York and doesn't want to feel the disappointment and anger. Teenagers can also resonate with the loneliness even with the current surrounding of people. Even when I’m at school I can start to feel lonely if my best friends aren't at school that day. I can be at lunch talking with ten other classmates but I still feel that depressing feeling of loneliness if the person I want to see isn't there. This