JD Salinger expresses a controversial, skeptical view of the world seen through the eyes of Holden Caulfield. Holden is a sixteen year old boy who jumps from numerous prep schools because of his failure and lack of interest in his education. He carries a pessimistic view of everyone around him except for children. Holden’s cynical perspective on life causes his isolation from the rest of world. He searches for relationships but seems to fear intimacy because he ends up blocking people out with his bitterness and negativity. Although Holden appears as a gloomy teenager looking only for the “phoniness” in others, Salinger uses him to expose his personal possible views on our society.
Salinger’s purpose is to point out that Holden’s outlook on life is not simply from his cynical view but is reality. The unmethodical novel, twisting and turning in random places, force us, the reader, to think about the “phoniness” of our own lives today. The immediate emotional response compels us to evaluate our own life for this flaw that many pass without notice. Holden loves and cares for his younger sister which may have caused his new, optimistic view, leading him to look forward on attending a new school and beginning a bright future.
Salinger uses the ending to explain that skepticism can be transformed. It’s harvest time at the Chandler family farm in Arkansas, and there are two groups of workers on hand to help pick the burgeoning cotton crop. There are the Spruills, a large family from the Ozark mountains; and there is also a group of migrant workers from Mexico. When beautiful young Tally Spruill becomes romantically involved with Cowboy, a dashing Mexican, tensions begin to build.
The flames are fanned by Hank Spruill, an adolescent boy who is perfectly capable of beating a man to death with his bare hands. The story is told from the point of view of 7-year-old Luke Chandler, and is based on Grisham’s own recollections of his boyhood. More than just the story of mounting tension between the Spruills and the Mexican migrants, it is also a meditation on childhood in a bygone rural America.