By: J.D. Salinger

THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

J.D. Salinger • Born January 1, 1919, in New York, New York as Jerome David Salinger• Flunked out of McBurney school and was sent to Valley Forge Military Academy •Went to New York University before

going to Europe and learning language• Began taking classes at Columbia

University where he met Professor Whit

Burnett• WWII came and he was drafted into

the military from 1942-1944

J.D. Salinger • Began writing The Catcher in the Rye while in the military • In 1951 The Catcher in the Rye was published • In 1953 Salinger retreated to a secluded place in Cornish, New Hampshire• In his second marriage in 1955 he married Claire Douglas who he had two kids with, Margaret and Matthew• Claire sued for a divorce then a while after he married Colleen O’Neill who he was with until his death on January 27,2010• There are about 5 unpublished works that are said to be scheduled for release over the next few years

• http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1596753/

Foundation• Setting- in the late 1940’s or early 1950’s, post WWII. Beginning in Pennsylvania then recounting adventures in New York

• Point of View- first person

Main Characters• Holden Caulfield- narrator, 16, inability to adjust, lonely

• Phoebe Caulfield- Holden’s younger sister, 10, clever, loves Holden completely

Additional Characters• D.B.- Holden’s older brother, writer, moved to Hollywood to be a scriptwriter • Allie- Holden’s younger brother, died from leukemia, the smartest person Holden has ever known• Mr. and Mrs. Caulfield- Holden’s parents, lawyer and housewife• Mr. Antolini- Holden’s English teacher from Elkton Hills, sensitive• Jane Gallagher- Holden’s childhood friend, would play checkers, always in Holden’s thoughts and memories, romantic interest• Sally Hayes- a girl that Holden dates sometimes, she annoys Holden, “phony”•Ward Stradlater- Holden’s roommate at Pencey Prep, conceited, prep, athelete, good-looking, has a fist fight with Holden

Additional Characters• Robert Ackley- always known as just Ackley, stays in the room next to Holden at Pencey Prep, “terrific bore”, “slob”, Holden is sympathetic towards him, sometimes likes him company • Carl Luce- academic advisor from Whooton, considered an intellectual, meets with Holden in New York• Sunny- the young prostitute that Holden paid for, from the hotel operator• Maurice- the hotel operator at a hotel Holden stays at, bullies Holden out of money he didn’t owe• Mr. Spencer- Holden's history teacher from Pencey Prep, cares for Holden and his future, is seen by Holden as old and pathetic• Lillian Simmons- a woman D.B. used to date, typical phony, loves and demands attention• James Castle- a student who committed suicide at Elkton Hills

Overview• Holden wants to tell the story of his madmen events• He gets kicked out of Pencey Prep School in Pennsylvania for failing all of his classes• Goofs around with Ackley, while wearing a red hunting hat he bought • Stradlater tells Holden he is on a date with Jane Gallagher, which Holden is not happy about, but agrees to write a composition for him anyway• In the composition for Stradlater, Holden writes about Allie and his left-handed baseball mitt which had poems written all over it• Stradlater returns from his date and Holden questions him about what went on during the date but Stradlater is brief so Holden tackles him and ends up getting a bloody nose

Overview• Holden tries to talk to Ackley for company but is being ignored so he decided to go ahead and leave Pencey and head to New York• Holden gets to New York and gets a hotel room where he can see other peoples windows and sees some weird things happening• He goes to the hotel lounge where he meets these older ladies and he dances with them and makes fun of them looking for celebrities• He leaves there and goes to a bar, “Ernie’s”, where he can get a drink• At “Ernie’s” Holden sees Lillian Simmons who invites him to sit with her and her boyfriend so he decides to leave so he doesn’t have to speak to her any longer• On the way back to his room he is asked by Maurice if he would like a prostitute so he ends up with a prostitute named Sunny in his room

Overview• Holden sees how young Sunny is so he pays her and lets her leave• Sunny comes back with Maurice as her pimp and argues she didn’t get all of her money.• Maurice punches Holden in the stomach and steals his money• He spends the night at the hotel but packs up the next morning and leaves to make a date with Sally Haynes • To kill time before he meets with Sally he goes and buys a record for Phoebe, “Little Shirley Beans”• He wants to find Phoebe so he sees a little girl in the park who knows Phoebe but doesn’t know where she is so Holden just spends some time talking with the little girl and helping her with her skates• On his date with Sally they go see a movie and then they go ice-skating

Overview • When they are done ice-skating Holden tells Sally about his fantasy of

running away and that she should come with him, that they can live in a cabin in the woods and he can get a job• Sally doesn’t support the idea so Holden gets mad and leaves her at the

rink crying• Holden meets with Carl Luce but he keeps calling him immature and

then he leaves so Holden drinks by himself until everything is fuzzy• Holden walks to the park to see the ducks that aren’t there and the

accidentally breaks the record for Phoebe then decided to go see Phoebe at home• At home his parents are out and he tells Phoebe about how all that he

wants to be is the catcher in the rye and how he imagines that to be• Holden’s parents return so he leaves and he goes to stay with Mr.

Antolini• Mr. Antolini really cares about his future and wants to help him but

when Holden falls asleep he wakes up to find Mr. Antolini petting him on the head

Overview • This creeps Holden out so he leaves and spends the night in the train

station depressed• Holden decides to run away to the cabin in the woods so he sends

Phoebe a note the next day telling her to meet him so they can say goodbye• Phoebe shows up with a suitcase saying she is going too but Holden

tells her no and she starts to sulk• They go to the zoo and end up at the carousel where when watching

Phoebe on the horse makes him really happy for the first time and so he tells her that he won’t leave• It picks up where it is a year later and Holden has been in therapy for

being “sick”• Holden is supposed to return to school but doesn’t know if it will work

out • Since he has told all of this he is now regretting it because telling this

story has made him miss everyone that he has met. • “Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing

everybody.”

Quotes • “What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn’t happen much, though.”• “Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.”• “And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff – I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out of somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing I’d really like to be.”• “People are always ruining things for you.”

Quotes • “Certain things, they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone.”• “The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.”• If you do something too good, then, after a while, if you don’t watch it, you start showing off. And then you’re not as good any more.”• “It was that kind of crazy afternoon, terrifically cold, and no sun out or anything, and you felt like you were disappearing every time you crossed the road.”

Themes and Motifs• Alienation as a Form of Self-Protection• The Painfulness of Growing Up• The Phoniness of the Adult World

• Loneliness• Relationships• Lying and Deception

Symbols• The “Cather in the Rye”: innocence

• Red Hunting Hat: uniqueness and individuality

• The Museum of Natural History: the world where nothing ever changes

• The Ducks in Central Park: change isn’t permanent, choosing to be unique when the world tells you to conform