Holden Caufield in Catcher In The Rye by J.D Salinger :: essays research papers

The setting of this story takes place in Agerstown, Pennsylvania. The home of Pency bording school. Pency is one of those college prep schools that advertises only the best aspects and never mentions how much the students will hate going there. On the brochure there is an unrealistic, imaginary student that does not exist playing polo. In real life Pency, there are a couple hundred spoiled little rich students whose parents do not want the burden of raising them. The point of view in this story is expressed in first person. Throughout the story Holden tells of other characters and of course his opinion of them. Always criticizing them and their decisions and labeling most of them phonies. In the beginning of the story Holden is watching the Friday night football game from atop a hill. He had just gotten back from a fencing match that had to be cut short in New York because the captain of the fencing team, which happened to be Holden left all of the equipment on the subway. Needless to say it was a long trip home for Holden. After all of this has happened Holden gets back only to learn that he has been released from Pency and placed on academic probation. Holden was not stupid by any means but if he did not desire to learn what was being taught he refused to try. The professors on the other hand did not agree with Holden’s reasoning. Therefore, he was failing all but one of his classes. Holden had a friend that was a teacher at Pency. He was perhaps the only person that halfway understood him. The only problem was that Mr. Spencer was old and senile and did not have much pull with in the school board, which meant he did not serve as much help in Holden’s current situation. Mr. Spencer was always trying to prepare Holden for life, and was always telling him that â€Å"life is a game and you have to make the right moves†. Holden rarely listened but felt obligated to say good-bye to him because he had tried to understand him, which is more than most people had ever done for him. Holden went to visit Mr. Spencer before he left. As usual he did not get much out of his usual â€Å"life is a game† lecture but he would have felt guilty if he had not gone by to say fair well.