Vernacular of Catcher in the Rye

I definitely prefer the speech in this book to that of The Grapes of Wrath and The Old Man and the Sea . It still makes the people sound uneducated and lazy, but not nearly as bad as the other two. Fahrenheit 451 was definitely the best about the speech. The Catcher in the Rye comes in second, The Old Man and the Sea comes in third, and The Grapes of Wrath comes in very last.

This book doesn't make me think like a hick, like I really try to avoid, but it does do something else. It makes me want to swear a lot. The Grapes of Wrath made me want to a little bit, but nothing like this. Holden swears a lot, but never really much out loud or around other people. He mainly swears in his thoughts or when he's talking with one of his school mates. He keeps calling everyone "old" even if they are younger than he is. I know he doesn't really mean it as an age indicator, but it still really annoys me. I do like how he calls the people he hates "prince". The sarcasm and irony in that just make me smile every time he does.

He uses the word "goddamn" a lot, which really annoys me. Not for any religious reasons, particularly, even though it is a sin. He can sin if he wants to, it's not my business. He uses it all the time though, and it makes him sound stupid. I always think people sound stupid when they swear, which is why I hardly ever do it. It makes me think they don't have a very big vocabulary or that they're really lazy or both. I also think it's obnoxious.

That's really the only problem I have with the speech in this book. Well other than the old-fashioned words. I can forgive those though, considering they weren't old fashioned when the book was written.