LANGUAGE FEATURES IN THE CATCHER IN THE RYE
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typical, common features and individuality; it is vulgar, slang and lack of accuracy, with imitation marks, without losing
the creativity. (Donald, 1953, p. 53)
Firstly, the vulgar or crude words can be seen in any situations in the novel. Holden’s mouth was closed
with “damn”, “goddamn”, and “hell”, for example, when he mentioned that he was fond of the red cap, he used
“goddamn hunting cap” and called his luggage was “my goddamn bags”.
In daily life, for the people and things which Holden did not like, he could not but to scorn. In the middle
of the second chapter, Holden used such words to describe the principal of the original school:
They were coming in the goddamn window. For instance, they had this headmaster, Mr. Haas that was the phoniest
bastard I ever met in my life. Ten times worse than old Thurmer. He’d be charming as hell and all. Except if some boy had
little old funny-looking parents. You should’ve seen the way he did with my roommate’s parents. I mean if a boy’s mother
was sort of fat or corny-looking or something, and if somebody’s father was one of those guys that wear those suits with
very big shoulders corny black-and-white shoes, then old Hans would just shake hands with them and give them a phony
smile and then he’d go talk, for maybe a half an hour, with somebody else’s parents. (Salinger, 1951, p. 15)
Holden said that the window was “damn” and former school Principal Mr. Haas was “the most
hypocritical bastard in the life”; and Mr. Haas was buttering up people just like a whore and so on.
On the surface, the vulgar words that protagonist Holden used were informal, colloquial, and rude, but if
think carefully, we can see the author Salinger dealt with the language in fine and innovation. On one hand,
Holden lived in a corrupt, depraved, and hypocritical society, he was unconsciously and inevitably tainted with
some bad habits such as smoking, drinking, lying, and talking about sex, etc. But he had to do so in order to
integrate into such a society. On the other hand, he felt depressed and he expressed his dissatisfaction with the
society in the crude words to unleash his inner bitterness. He looked down the phony adult society, which was
full of pursuing money, right and emotional alienation interpersonal. Holden expressed his disgust for society
through abusive language to alleviate the grievances of mind.
Secondly, the author used a lot of slang words. Holden used a large number of “old”, for instance, he
called his little sister as “old Phoebe”; called the elevator who forced to blackmail him, and he hated not to
shoot six times as “old Maurice”; called his history teacher as “old Spencer” who he both had sympathy and
disgust; and as “my old heart”, “the old hunting hat” and so on. Holden had reverse psychology and he had
some innovation ideas but a little cynicism. So the fuzzy slang was consistent with his identity and his
character.
Thirdly, attachment language appeared in the novel, as “and all”, “or something”, and “or anything”. For
example, “she won’t even talk or anything”; “I thought I was going to choke to death or something”; and “Then
I finished buttoning my coal and all”. This expression was ambiguous, as if there was still something to say but
did not want to say more words. It abandoned the traditional expression such as “and so on”, “and the like”, and
“etc.”. In the twelfth chapter, there was a text described the pianist in the bar:
He’s a terrific snob and he won’t hardly even talk to you unless you are a big shot or a celebrity or something, but he
can really play the piano. He’s so good he’s almost corny, in fact. I don’t exactly know what I mean by that, but I mean it.
(Salinger, 1951, p. 92)
This was the protagonist’s hated to the corrupt society and holds indifferent and cynical attitude. Society
was full of chaos and false, in turn, Holden used the vague and uncertain language to express his inner thoughts
and emotions. There was some other attachment, like “I really don’t”, “I admitted it”, and “no kidding” were
