It is always nice to get a little help from literary sources while writing a term paper. I found some very helpful insight into the character from "The Catcher in the Rye" from the C
yclopedia of Literary Characters. Go figure. The brief biographies include interesting character analysis that helped me develop my claim and craft my arguments. I was pleased to find that not only the main characters had been analyzed, but also the minor characters. This allowed me to (1) review each character side by side and see how each one affected Holden Caulfield and (2) see how each character fit into my claim. I was able to get a really good analysis of Holden's sister, Phoebe. I had not realized the important role that she played and how well she helped my claim. If it wasn't for the help, I would have neglected to use her in my paper.
The other useful literary source was the Magill On Literary Plus via BYU. I came up with a few sources that eventually contributed to my paper and helped make my arguments more clear. I tried not to use too many outside sources because I wanted to focus on my own analysis, but the sources that I did use allowed me to develop my arguments more clearly and give them more validity.
