By,Zach Hodgin

THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

Jerome David Salinger was born on New Years Day in New York City in 1919.

Born to a Jewish father, Sol, and Catholic mother MarieMarie changed her name to Miriam to pass as JewishHis family called him SonnySalinger attended a private school. McBurney School.Managed the fencing team, appeared in plays, and

wrote for the school newspaper. Had trouble fi tting inStarted attending New York University but dropped outSol, sent him to Austria to learn the family tradeLeft Austria a month before it was annexed by Nazi

Germany in 1938

J. D. SALINGER

Started attending Ursinus College in Pennsylvania but dropped out.

Columbia UniveristyStarted dating socialite Oona O’Neill but left him for

Charlie Chalpin.Drafted in the US Army and served from 1942 to 1944. Fought in Combat on D-Day and the Battle of the BulgeEntered Dachau labor campHospitalized for combat stress reaction"You never really get the smell of burning flesh out of

your nose entirely, no matter how long you live.“Started writing The Catcher in the Rye after meeting

with Ernest Hemingway.

J. D. SALINGER

Published in 1951. Was a huge success

Secluded himself in Cornish, New Hampshire

There are about five more of his works that are said to be published in the next few years

J. D. SALINGER

Setting - Late forties or early fifties. Beginning at Holden Caulfields private school in Pennsylvania and recounting memories from his time in New York

Point of View – First Person

FOUNDATION

Holden Caulfield – protagonist, narrator, 16, junior in high school. No commitment, socially awkward teenager, rebellious.

Phoebe Caulfield – Holden’s sister, clever, sensitive, the only person that seems to love Holden and accepts him.

MAIN CHARACTERS

Mr. and Mrs. Caulfi eld – lawyer and a homemaker, well-to-do, superfi cial. Mr. Caulfi eld was Catholic. “They’re grand people” and “phony”

Allie – Holden’s younger brother, died of leukemia

D.B. – Holden’s older brother, genius writer, moved to Hollywood to write scripts “phony”

Jane Gallagher – cares about her. Holden’s childhood friend

Sally Hayes – occasional girlfriend, Holden wants to move out west with her. “phony”

Stradlater – Holden’s dorm roomate and Pencey Prep, athletic, popular, prideful. Get into a fi stfi ght “phony”

SECONDARY CHARACTERS

Carl Luce – old friend of Holden’s. Holden admires him

Sunny – prostitute that Holden pays for

Maurice – elevator operator, Sunny’s clientele agent

Ackley – stays in the room next to Holden at Pencey Preparatory. Occasional best friend. Describes him as a “terrific bore” and says he has bad hygiene and is rude.

SECONDARY CHARACTERS

Holden gets kicked out of Pencey Prep for failing all of his classes.

Stradlater gets back from a date with Jane Gallagher and Holden thinks they had sex.

Stradlater and Holden get into a fist fight after Holden repeatedly calls him a moron. “All moron’s hate it when you call them a moron”

Holden leaves Pencey for Christmas break and will not return

Leaves for New York to stay with D.B.At the hotel he meets some women at a bar but they

aren’t interested. Maurice talks him into hiring a prostitute

SYNOPSIS

Holden anxiously waits for the girlSunny is very young and Holden wants to talk. After

Sunny gets upset, Holden pays her to leaveSunny returns with Maurice and he punches him in

the stomach and steal his moneyThe next morning, Holden calls his girlfriend Sally

Hayes to go see a movieAfter the movie they go ice skating at Rockefeller

Plaza Holden vents about his hatred of the city and asks

Sally if she wants to move out west with him and get married.

Sally declines and Holden calls her a “royal pain in the ass” leaving her to cry.

SYNOPSIS

Holden visits a bar where he is a repeating customer. He knows some people in the bar including Carl Luce who Holden admires.

Holden becomes belligerently drunk and makes a phone call to Sally

After gaining soberness, Holden visits his sister Phoebe at his families apartment.

His parents are at a party in Connecticut When he gets up to the apartment, he wakes Phoebe

and they talk. Holden describes to her that he imagines himself running in a rye field catching children from falling off a cliff.

Holden’s parents return home so he leaves to stay with an old teacher of his.

SYNOPSIS

Mr. Anolini cares about Holden, giving him advice.  “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.”

After falling asleep, Holden is wakened by Mr. Anolini petting him on the head. Feeling violated, Holden leaves and spends the night on a bench in Grand Central Station.

The next day, Holden decides to move out west to become a deaf-mute and marry a deaf-mute woman and live in a log cabin.

Holden tells Phoebe his idea and she wants to go with him but he declines and she becomes upset

To cheer her up he takes her to the zoo She rides a carousel and seeing how much fun she has, he

becomes happy for the fi rst time. He decides not to leave

SYNOPSIS

The story ends at the zooThe reader is told that Holden has been retelling this

story from a sanatorium and is going through psychotherapy.

He regrets telling this story to the reader as he now misses all of the people he came across including Ackley, Stradlater, and Maurice.

“Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.”

SYNOPSIS

“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.”

“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 terrifi c friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt l ike it. That doesn’t happen much, though.”

"Anyway, I'm sort of glad they've got the atomic bomb invented. If there's ever another war, I'm going to sit right the hell on top of it. I ' l l volunteer for it, I swear to God I will.“

“He probably was scared he’d fractured my skull or something when I hit the fl oor. “It’s too bad I didn’t.”

QUOTES

Alienation as a form of rebellion and self-protection against society

The cross between childhood and maturitySuperficiality

Lying, deceptionSexuality, intimacy

THEMES AND MOTIFS

The image of the rye field – Holden wants to protect children playing in a rye field from falling off. Holden wants to protect the innocence of children from the corruption of the adult world.

Red hunting hat – Holden’s unique style. He never wears it around people he knows. Symbolizes his introverted personality but need for companionship.

SYMBOLS

Between 1961 and 1982, The Catcher in the Rye was the most censored book in high schools and libraries in the United States

Several shootings have been associated with the novel

Mark David Chapman identified with Holden On the night of Lennon’s shooting, Chapman was

found with a copy of the book in which he had written "This is my statement, Holden Caulfield.”

After Ronald Reagen’s assasination attempt police found a copy of the book on John Hinkley Jr.’s nightstand.

CONTROVERSY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbZjaQsTfEY

VIDEO