The Bildungsroman Project
coming-of-age since the 18th century
the catcher in the rye
by j.d. salinger
1951
The Catcher in the Rye is often the example that first enters people's minds when they hear the word "bildungsroman." Read in high schools all over the United States, the tale of a few days in life of a prep school dropout has become the textbook example of teen angst. Few things happen in Catcher's plot. Rather, the novel wins readers via the sheer originality of Holden Caulfield's unreliable, unforgettable narrative voice.
