What narrative technique is prominently used in The Catcher in the Rye?

• A. First-person narration
• B. Omniscient narration
• C. Epistolary format
• D. Dramatic monologue

Answer: (A)

First-person narration is the main technique here. The story is told through Holden Caulfield’s own voice, using I and me, so readers experience the events through his perspective, thoughts, and feelings as he recalls them after leaving Pencey and wandering New York. This intimate, confessional voice shapes the tone—raw, informal, often digressive—and makes Holden’s interpretations and biases central to what readers understand about people and situations around him. Because the narrative is anchored in his single, subjective point of view, we don’t get an all-knowing or objective account of every character’s inner life, only what Holden chooses to reveal or infers. That’s why other options don’t fit: an omniscient narrator would know more than Holden could possibly know; an epistolary format would rely on letters or diary entries written to someone; a dramatic monologue would be a speech meant for a performance rather than a personal recollection. The first-person voice is what makes the novel distinctive and immersive.