Catcher In The Rye Historical Analysis

The novel, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger was set in the late 1940s to the early 1950s. The novel is narrated though the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, who is a sixteen-year-old junior who traveled to New York by himself for a weekend after getting expelled from his former school Pencey Prep. During the late 1940s, parents rarely checked up on their children for long periods of time, which in this case was an advantage for Holden. The 1940s and 2016 are extremely diverse times in history. If The Catcher in the Rye, was set in this day and age, there would be a substantial effect on how the characters are supervised and what they were permitted to do back then. As a result of these two times being so different, there would be several events changed in the novel. Holden Caulfield is mostly free to do and have what he wants because of the certain time period The Catcher in the Rye was set in. In the novel, Holden is supposedly allowed to smoke and drink
In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden's parents rarely check up on him, visit him, or even talk to him. His parents just sent him off to school to live without them once in a while checking up on Holden. If The Catcher in the Rye was set during 2016, Holden's parents would most definitely call or text him just to make sure he is doing alright. In addition, when Holden checked into a hotel, none of the people who worked there checked up on him, even if he was a sixteen year old, which he was. If the sixteen year old checked into a hotel in 2016, the front desk would probably question Holden and wonder who was taking care of him. Another factor that would differentiate the two time periods by the supervision is the increased technology used today to communicate. Today, there are so many ways to contact someone far away so if The Catcher in the Rye was set in 2016, the parents of Holden would have communicated with him much