Summary of Skaz Essay

Skaz is a word that could possibly refer to ‘scat’ as scat singing, and jazz. It is used to write in first person form, which is usually used when the character refers to himself. He narrates the story using ‘I’ and uses mostly colloquial speech. Colloquial speech means the language that is used every day. It is not formal, but very relaxed and simple. English people saw skaz as a way to ‘free themselves’ from the normal traditions of England and ‘book speech’. The Catcher in the Rye is apparently a ‘relative’ of the book Huckleberry Finn, the first book to use skaz.

The way that Catcher in the Rye refers to skaz is because it is written is a lot like the way that teenagers speak nowadays. He uses slang, and an sometimes and excessive amount of repetition. His sentences are very short and he usually exaggerates when referring to certain things. Some people may disagree because of the way this book is written, but what makes it interesting is the style of the text. The simpleness of the writing is what makes you keep reading, because of the differences between that and other books. The analysis of why this genre of writing is called skaz is because it is said that there is a poetic trace in the method of writing, making it swing like a jazz musician.