The Catcher in the Rye, just like all other great works, was met by scornful criticism and unyielding admiration. However, many literary critics also marveled at Salinger’s genius use of language, which was used to make Holden Caulfield, the main character, unbelievably realistic. Such language includes both repetition of phrases and blatant cursing, in order to capture the informal speech of the average, northeastern American adolescent. Through Holden’s thoughts and dialogues, Salinger successfully created a teenage boy. The language used in The Catcher in the Rye has been a topic of controversy in the literary critic’s realm. Holden Caulfield’s thoughts and comments serve to deepen his personality and to provide entertainment. Salinger wanted to create a typical teenager while keeping Holden as an individual at the same time. Like most teenagers, Holden speaks in trite sentences.

However, he also uses words in places that were then uncommon. Holden often leaves his sentences dangling with words like “and all” and “or anything.”

Often he uses these phrases to extend some indescribable emotion or action like, “… how my parents were occupied and all before they had me” and “…they’re nice and all.” Many times there is no significance at all to the expressions as in “…was in the Revolutionary War and all,” “It was December and all,” and “…no gloves or anything.” (Salinger 5-7) Not only does Holden speak like this at the beginning of the novel, but also throughout the entire novel, making this pattern a part of his character. Therefore, the “and all” and “or anything” tags to Holden’s speech serve to make his speech authentic and individual.

Salinger intentionally used such speech repetition to individualize Holden, and, at the same time, make him a believable teenager of the early 1950s. Moreover, Holden has other expressions that appear consistently throughout the novel. In some places, the expressions only serve to make Holden more realistic, while in other places Holden is trying to reinforce his values. Holden repeatedly comments on his hatred towards phonies. This could be the reason why he frequently confirms a statement with “I really do,” “It really does,” or “if you want to know the truth.” He also authenticates remarks by reiterating them. For example, Holden says, “She likes me a lot. I mean she’s quite fond of me.” (Salinger 141) and, “He was a very nervous guy- I mean a very nervous guy.” (Salinger 165) In each case, Holden makes a remark and then feels obliged to elucidate that he is not making the statement up. Such mannerisms disclose several aspects of his character. For instance, because Holden has been dismissed from numerous amounts of schools, he may feel inadequate because no one ever took him seriously and he had no substantial academic standing. Thus, Holden attempts to solidify comments by reminding the reader that what he says really is the truth. Salinger uses repetition with different phrases and styles to give a more factual backing to Holden’s comments, thus preventing Holden from seeming like a phony.

Furthermore, Holden’s speech can be rather vulgar and obscene. However, whenever he says words like “ass,” it is simply teenage dialect for a part of the human anatomy. He does not say it to be distasteful. “Ass” is simply another word that Holden uses to better express his ideas. He can mean cold by saying “freezing my ass off,” or incompetence by saying, “in a half-assed way,” or even disbelief by saying, “Game, my ass.” Similarly, “sonuvabitch” is reserved for Holden’s extreme anger, as found in the example where he kept calling Stradlater a “moron sonuvabitch” for the boy’s presumably unpleasant behavior towards Jane Gallagher. Again, Holden’s intermittent use of “sonuvabitch” in his angriest moments only alerts the reader to the grave quality of his anger. Salinger carefully constructed such speech patterns to help the readers recognize Holden’s character without drawn-out descriptions of him. Here, the odious words let the reader know when Holden is most irritated and the types of situations that make him so. This offers additional insight into his character, and does so often through the use of a single word. It also shows that Holden’s vocabulary is somewhat inadequate, as observed in a person much younger than himself. Holden’s regular use of cursing reveals not only the depth of his emotion, but indicates to the reader the fact that he is caught in the stage where childhood and approaching maturity collide. In vain, Holden tries to bridge the gap between adolescence and adulthood with the use of blasphemies.

Holden’s vocabulary also contains many religious words, although they are not used in that way. Holden says “hell” to mean “to a great extent” when describing something, as in, “We had a helluva good time,” “old as hell,” and “playful as hell.” He does use words that pertain to the divine, such as “God’s sake,” “God” and “goddam,” but he never means them in an irreverent manner. They are just parts of his daily speech. Holden uses these words nonchalantly when referring to his “goddam hunting cap” or saying somebody is a “goddam moron.” For more emotional situations, Holden reserves “Chrissake” or “Jesus Christ.” Even though Holden is not extremely religious, he never uses “Chrissake” unless he is depressed or infuriated. For tremendous rage, Holden readily uses “sonuvabitch.” After his fight with Stradlater, Holden continually refers to him as a “moron sonuvabitch.” His anger is also displayed in the sudden escalation in the appearance of “goddam.” While the words Holden uses may not be proper, he is not trying to be sacrilegious. Salinger is merely using the language to make Holden seem like a normal teenager, and also to reflect Holden’s state of mind.

A prevalent word in Holden’s vocabulary was “crap.” Holden inserted it into any part of any sentence. He used it to mean a filthy substance, as in, “I spilled some crap all over my gray flannel,” or a miscellaneous item as in, “I was putting in my galoshes and crap.” He also used it to mean something unwanted as in, “The show was on the crappy side.” Holden also used a couple phrases like "shoot the crap," and “chuck the crap” to mean tête-à-tête.

Correspondingly, Holden uses the adjective “old” quite frequently. In the novel, Holden states, “I liked Ring Lardner and The Great Gatsby and all. I did, too. I was crazy about The Great Gatsby. Old Gatsby. Old sport.” (Salinger 183) In The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gatsby also used the word “old” a lot, and in the same manner as Holden did. Both characters use it as a term of endearment. Gatsby always reefers to acquaintances as “old sport,” and Holden refers to his sister as “old Phoebe.”

In addition, Holden is a sincere person. He tries not to offend people, but when he gets infuriated he speaks without thinking, often resulting in a strongly abusive statement. Holden basically combines all of his expressions in order to form the most negative comments that he can. This became evident after his clash with Stradlater when Holden said, “Get your dirty stinking moron knees off my chest,” (Salinger 43) and “You’re a dirty stupid sonuvabitch of a moron.”(Salinger 43) This also offers a humorous effect.

Holden is able to explain certain situations very well. He makes similes that are so unanticipated that they become amusing. To describe someone’s personality he says, “That guy Morrow was about as sensitive as a goddam toilet seat.”(Salinger 52) To describe Spencer’s facial expression he comments, “He put my goddam paper down then and looked at me like he’d just beaten the hell out of me in Ping-Pong or something.” (Salinger 14) Such similes catch the reader off guard and are exceptionally comical, yet they get Holden’s ideas across.

Many times Holden abstains from deliberately stating something in an impolite way. At times he will talk like an established man and refer to a drunk as an “alcoholic,” and instead of saying that he had not ever had sex, he says, “lose my virginity.” However, at other times Holden will do almost the exact opposite; instead of using the mature and politically correct phrasing, he will regress to teenage slang. Instead of saying, “lose my virginity,” he says, “to give someone the time.” Rather than saying somebody is an “alcoholic,” he would say the person is a “booze hound.” Contradictions like this make Holden more life-like. Holden is on the threshold of adulthood so his language is going to be a mix between adult colloquiums and teenage slang. Holden’s speech pattern is very revealing about his personality and age.

After certain laughable events, or after a show of innocence, Holden would often say, “that killed me.” This further proves that Holden appreciates innocence, and that he is able to see humor in society. Holden’s lack of vocabulary shows how young and uneducated he really is. At one point, Holden even admits this lacking when he says, “‘Boy!’ I said. I also say ‘Boy!’ quite a lot. Partly because I have a lousy vocabulary and partly because I act quite young for my age sometimes.” (Salinger 12) Even though there were some critics who thought The Catcher in the Rye should be banned because of its language, it still became the greatest novel of the post World War II era. J. D. Salinger’s virtuoso use of language throughout the novel made Holden Caulfield human. Due to the precise representation of a teenage boy, the reader is able to become intimate with Holden’s peculiarities, therefore making him seem more credible. By making Holden come to life through repetition of dialogue and thought, Salinger was able to create one of the most unforgettable characters.