The Catcher in the Rye
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The Catcher in the Rye is a novel by J. D. Salinger. First published in the United States in 1951, the novel remains controversial to this day. It was the 13th most frequently challenged book of the 1990s, according to the American Library Association. "[The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000]" Ala.org. URL Accessed June 17, 2006. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, it has become one of the most famous literary works of the 20th century, and a common part of high-school curricula across the United States.
Its protagonist, Holden Caulfield, has become an icon for teenage angst. The book, written in the first person, relates Holden's experiences in New York City in the days after he runs away from his University-preparatory school Pencey Prep.
Synopsis
The novel is a bildungsroman which reveals a few important days in the life of the protagonist Holden Caulfield, a tall, lanky, highly-critical and depressed sixteen-year-old who decides one night to run away from Pencey Prep boarding school, just before Christmas vacation. Holden has actually been expelled from Pencey Prep; he is required to leave the school before vacation begins, but he instead he secretly leaves a few days before his scheduled departure date, late one night after having a particularly depressing day with the people in his orbit. Rather than return to his family home in New York City, he decides to kill a few days in the city on his own. Because he is overly critical, and the fact that he points out faults of people only to exhibit them later, Holden is widely considered to be an unreliable narrator, and the details and events of his story are apt to be distorted by his point of view. Nonetheless, it is his story to tell.
His story starts on Holden's last day at Pencey Prep. He is standing on the crest of a hill that overlooks the football stadium. It is the final game of the season, but Holden has never cared much for established tradition or things like that, as he explains. He instead runs across the street to the residence of Mr. Spencer, Holden's history teacher. It is revealed here that Holden has been expelled and how much he really doesn't care about it, or for anything for that matter. Holden made a feeble attempt at an essay in Mr. Spencer's class, and wrote a note at the bottom telling Mr. Spencer not to feel crappy about flunking him because it doesn't matter to Holden.
Back at the dorm, Holden's roommate, Stradlater, is tall, good-looking and fairly experienced with women. Holden sees him very differently, describing him as a "phony" and the sort of person who shaves and grooms himself for women, but doesn't bother to clean the dirty, rusty razor he uses to do so. Stradlater returns home late from a date with Jane Gallagher, one of Holden's childhood friends on whom he has had a long-standing crush. During Stradlater's date, Holden had been told by Stradlater to write a theme for him on "a room or something." Holden finds inspiration in writing about his brother Allie's baseball mitt, but when Stradlater returns and finds what Holden has written, he gets mad at Holden. During the ensuing argument, Holden snaps and tries to hit his unsuspecting roommate. Stradlater quickly wins the fight, Holden not being particularly strong.
His neighbor in the dorm, Robert Ackley, is also introduced. Ackley is a pimple-ridden loser whose relationship with Holden is fairly complex: On the one hand, Holden criticizes Ackley by calling him a "phony", and expresses disgust at his hygiene, acne, and personality. But Holden spends time with him of his own free will; he is drawn to Ackley because there is nobody else, going to movies and having snowball fights with him even though he comments how abrasive Ackley is.
That night, considering everything, especially the fact that he will be leaving Pencey anyway, Holden packs a suitcase and takes the train to New York City. En route, Holden meets the mother of one of his schoolmates. This schoolmate, in particular, was not popular at all; he was in fact was nominated for class president as a joke. But Holden decides to benevolently lie to the mother; he tells her that her son is a terrific young man and very friendly.
Holden loiters around New York City, drinking heavily and meeting various people. He visits Club Ernies, but he is disappointed by the "phonies" who visit the club. He becomes increasingly depressed as he spends more time there, observing those around him and judging their hypocrisy.
Holden encounters a pimp at his hotel, the Edmont. He hires the pimp's prostitute, Sunny, but when she comes to his room, Holden cannot bring himself to have sex with her. He pays her, instead, to talk about life with him. Later, she leaves – but only to return with the pimp, who extorts another $5 from him forcibly.
Later, he has a date with one of his previous girlfriends, Sally Hayes. They go ice skating at Rockefeller Center and see the Christmas show at Radio City Music Hall. The experience leaves him more depressed, as he realizes that they do not have much in common. Holden tells her about a plan he has had for a long time to go out to the west coast and build a cabin and live off the land. Sally rejects him and his idea, especially after Holden frustratedly blurts out that she's "a pain in the ass."
Holden finally decides to surreptitiously return home to see his younger sister Phoebe. During a short conversation with her Holden reveals the meaning of the novel's title: The "Catcher in the Rye" idea is based on a misreading of a line in the song "Comin' Thro' the Rye," by Robert Burns, which Holden heard a young boy singing. The young boy instead substituted "When a body catch a body, comin' thro' the rye" for "When a body meet a body, comin' thro' the rye."
Holden has a dream in which children play a game in a field of rye near a cliff, and it is his role to protect the children by catching anyone who comes too near to the edge. Such a job, he says, would make him truly happy. Holden tells Phoebe he has always wanted to be a Catcher in the Rye (symbolically, a rescuer of children). Holden tells her his plan to run away, to live far away from everybody, and Phoebe offers him her Christmas money. Holden flees the house when his parents arrive home.
Holden goes to a former teacher's house, Mr. Antolini, where his teacher gives him a speech about life and how, in order to live happily, Holden has to be prepared. After Mr. Antolini becomes drunk, Holden and Antolini part to go to bed. Holden awakes to find Mr. Antolini patting and rubbing his head. Holden interprets this as a sexual advance, although the question of whether Antolini is gay, drunk, or just a really caring man was never answered by the author. Holden leaves confused and even more depressed after Antolini says he was just admiring him.
Holden sleeps in the train station. In the morning, he decides to hitchhike West and build a cabin for himself away from the people he knows. He plans to pretend he is a deaf-mute, and get an ordinary job. However, he can't leave without saying goodbye to Phoebe and returning her Christmas money to her.
Explaining the situation, Holden gives a message to a person at her school so it could get to her. He tells her to meet him at lunchtime outside the museum so he can give her back the money. At the same time, Holden witnesses a "Fuck you" message etched on the wall, and comments that if you had a million years, you couldn't get rid of half of the "Fuck you" messages on Earth.
When Phoebe arrives at lunchtime, she is carrying one of Holden's old suitcases, full of clothes. Phoebe tells Holden that she no longer wants to be away from her brother, and is going with him. He refuses angrily, feeling that he has influenced her to want to go with him instead of staying in school. She cries and refuses to speak to him. Knowing that she will follow him, Holden walks to the zoo, letting his anger lift. After walking through the zoo, with a short distance between them, they visit a park across the street. Phoebe starts talking to Holden again, and Holden promises to go back home. He buys her a ticket for the carousel in the park and watches her ride an old horse on it. As Holden watches her ride the carousel, his own mood lifts. Soon he is nearly moved to tears with remorse, longing, and bittersweet happiness.
At this point in the book, the reader is given several clues as to the possibility that Holden is narrating the book from a mental hospital in California. He explains that he will be going to another school in the fall again but doesn't know for sure if he will start applying himself. He then finishes talking with the words, "Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody."
Characters
Protagonist
- Holden Caulfield. The protagonist and narrator of the story. Holden is a tall sixteen-year-old high-school junior who has just been expelled (for academic failure) from a school called Pencey Prep. Although he is intelligent and sensitive, Holden narrates in a cynical and jaded voice. He finds the hypocrisy and ugliness of the world around him almost unbearable, and through his cynicism he tries to protect himself from the pain and disappointment of the adult world. However, the criticisms that Holden aims at people around him are also aimed at himself. He is uncomfortable with his own weaknesses, and at times displays the exact phoniness, meanness, and superficiality as the people that he tells the audience he despises.
Holden's Siblings
- Phoebe Caulfield. Phoebe is Holden's younger sister, whom Holden adores. She is in the 4th grade at the time Holden leaves Pencey Prep. Holden holds her as a paragon of innocence, and gets furious at the sight of graffiti in her school that reads "Fuck you", for fear that she'd try and find out what it meant. In some ways, she can be even more mature than he, even criticizing him for childishness.
- Allie Caulfield. Allie is Holden's brother, two years Holden's junior, who died of leukemia when Holden was thirteen. Allie was mild, considerate, and intelligent. Allie and Holden were very close, and Holden smashed all the windows in the garage of the family's summer home with his fist the night he died, permanently damaging his hand. His death is presumably a major cause of Holden's turbulent maturation process.
- D.B. Caulfield. D.B. is Holden's older brother, an author who has become a successful screenwriter in Hollywood. Although Holden enjoys his brother's books and stories, he thinks D.B.'s Hollywood career is phony because he hates movies. During Caulfield's narration of the events following his expulsion of Pencey, Holden and D.B. never meet, but D.B. is mentioned frequently. D.B. is only seen in person at the very end of the novel, in the present day, after Holden has finished his story.
Major supporting characters
- Robert Ackley. Ackley occupies the room adjacent to Holden's at Pencey Prep. He is described by Holden as "one of these very, very tall, round-shouldered guys." Since Holden himself if 6'2", one could estimate that Ackley must be at least 6'6" to be described by Holden as "very, very tall." Ackley is a "pimply-faced" social outcast with poor personal hygiene and an annoying personality. Though Holden says he is irritating, he does feel occasional pangs of sympathy for him because he, like Holden, hangs out in the dorm a lot and does not go out very often.
- Ward Stradlater. Stradlater is Holden's handsome and popular roommate, and one of the few sexually active boys at Pencey Prep. Holden is infuriated by his date with Jane Gallagher and provokes a violent encounter with him.
- Jane Gallagher. Jane does not appear in the novel, but Holden thinks of her frequently as one of the few girls he had felt truly intimate with, albeit not physically. Several times, he plans on calling her, but he usually backs out at the last minute, saying he is not in the mood or he does not feel right. Holden does ultimately call (twice), but she does not answer.
- Mr. Spencer. Mr. Spencer was Holden's history teacher at Pencey. He feels guilty for failing Holden, and he unsuccessfully attempts to make Holden understand the "game of life".
- Mr. Antolini. Antolini was Holden's English teacher at Elkton Hills, another school he attended before, who Holden seeks for guidance and a place to stay for the night. Like Mr. Spencer, he too tries to make Holden understand maturity and perhaps even succeeds; but, later, Holden catches him patting him on the head while he's sleeping. He fears that Mr. Antolini may be making homosexual advances, and flees his apartment.
- Carl Luce. Carl is a student at Columbia University whom Holden knows from Whooton, a school Holden once attended. Holden meets up with him at a bar and is anxious to discuss sex, as they had done many times before. But Holden's immature and childish behavior causes Carl to leave.
- Sally Hayes. Sally is a girl that Holden has known for years. He asks her out on a date, and they go ice skating at Rockefeller Center, and even go see a show at Radio City Music Hall. Later, Holden asks her to run away with him out to the California coast. Sally, however, questions Holden's plan, even disputes his mental health. Holden drives her away by calling her a "pain in the ass" in frustration. Apologetically, he later phones her house while intoxicated.
- Maurice. Maurice is the elevator operator at the Edmont Hotel. He asks Holden if he wants a little "tail" tonight, and Holden agrees. After his prostitute Sunny is done with Holden, he barges into Holden's hotel room, unfairly forcing him to pay more than they had agreed upon.
- Sunny. Sunny is the young prostitute Holden hires through Maurice. As soon as she enters Holden's hotel room, he strangely loses interest in having sex, and instead asks her about her life, etc. He pays Sunny, even though they didn't do anything, but Sunny disputes the price. Holden refuses to pay her any more, and she later returns with Maurice.
Themes
Given J.D. Salinger has never commented on the work and its intended meanings, interpretations are fractured and vary from reader to reader. However, there are certainly a few themes which are discussed in the book — it is what Salinger actually meant that is under contention.\"Phoniness\"
A major theme is what Holden calls "phoniness." He feels surrounded by dishonesty and false pretenses, and throughout the book is frequently picking out the "phonies" he sees around him. It may be significant that many of the people that Holden sees as phony are outwardly happy or successful people. There is evidence that Holden exhibits much of the same "phoniness" he denounces in others. For example, at the start of the novel, the character Ackley barges in on Holden's privacy, and asks intrusive questions. Later, when Holden's roommate Stradlater is getting ready for a date, Holden follows him into the bathroom, asks Stradlater personal questions, and then tackles him while he is shaving. Holden also puts on pretenses, lies, and makes irrational and contradictory assumptions to mask his feelings and actions from others, which further alienates him from society. However, others say that this is a misinterpretation of Holden's use of "phoniness", and that while he lies and exhibits other flaws, he doesn't fall into his own category. Possibly, the "phoniness" is about not being honest with yourself about your feelings of pain and disappointment. Holden's "phonies" rarely give the impression of admitting their flaws and insecurities, and this could be what he has in mind when he labels them as such. By contrast, he is honest with himself, and the reader, throughout the book.Loss of Innocence
One more significant theme, which may also tie in with the theme about "phoniness" is that the loss of innocence is unavoidable. Holden's idea of a "catcher in the rye" illustrates how he wishes to wipe out corruption from the world and protect children like his sister from becoming like the many "phonies" he hated, i.e adults. This is clearly illustrated by Holden's attack on Stradlater after the date with Jane Gallagher. The fact that Jane always kept her kings in the back row during a game of checkers was significant to Holden because he wanted her to protect her virginity. However, Holden finds it impossible to maintain innocence. After seeing some vulgar graffiti on the walls in his sister Phoebe's elementary school and the museum, bastions of learning and culture, he realizes that he won't be able to erase it all and protect children from the world indefinitely.Adolescence
Running contrary to the desire to maintain innocence is Holden's obviously strong desire to be an adult and live in the adult world, for which he is not prepared. He is immensely frustrated by his repeated attempts to fit into adult society, foiled by his saying something wrong, or simply being seen as an adolescent by the adults around him. Having been rejected, Holden's response is an even stronger rejection of the people with whom he was trying to fit in. This resentment, combined with his observations of "phoniness" in many of the people around him, cause him to be repelled by adult society and to sometimes view himself as a loner with outsider status.Education
Another theme in the book is whether or not Holden's education is important. Holden has failed out of quite a few schools in his career, and exhibits no signs of remorse or promise of improvement. In the final chapters of the book, his former teacher, Mr. Antolini, tells Holden that it is imperative to his future that he apply himself at school, that he believes that education helps to organize the thoughts of brilliant and creative people — a group to which he presumably believes Holden belongs. Whether this speech is intended to be considered true is convoluted by the ambiguous actions of Mr. Antolini shortly after Holden goes to sleep. At the end of the book, Holden states that he thinks he will apply himself in the next school he's going to, but that he isn't sure and that he won't be until he gets there.Style
Sarcasm
Though the tone of the novel is gloomy, Holden's sarcastic comments add humor. When Holden watches some men unloading a Christmas tree while swearing, he comments: "It certainly was a gorgeous way to talk about a Christmas tree."Stream of consciousness
This style, used throughout the novel, refers to the use of seemingly disjointed ideas and episodes used in a pseudorandom and highly structured way that is used to illustrate a theme. For example, as Holden sits in a chair in his dorm, minor events (such as picking up a book or looking at a table) unfold into long discussions about past experiences.Controversy
The Catcher in the Rye has been shrouded in controversy since its publication. Reasons for banning have been the use of offensive language, premarital sex, alcohol abuse, and prostitution.Mark David Chapman, murderer of musician John Lennon, was carrying the book when he was arrested immediately after the murder and referred to it in his statement to police shortly thereafter. "[Crime Library: The man who shot John Lennon] Crimelibrary.com. URL Accessed June 17, 2006. John Hinckley, Jr., who attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981, was also reported to have been obsessed with the book.
Critics see Holden as a disturbing influence on youths they consider to be "social outcasts." Holden is portrayed as a juvenile who rejects and is rejected by many peers and individuals. People like Chapman and Hinckley come to relate themselves to Holden, the person that nobody understands and that can't understand anybody else.
Thirty years after its first publication in 1951, The Catcher in the Rye was both the most banned book in America as well as the second most taught book in public schools.
Time period
The Catcher in the Rye clearly takes places in the late 1940s to the early 1950s, which is about the time the novel was written. The death of Allie, Holden's younger brother, is given to be July 18, 1946 and it is stated Holden was thirteen at that time. It follows, therefore, that the bulk of the story takes place in approximately December of 1949 and the story's "present" is the summer of 1950. Given that in 1949 Christmas fell on a Sunday, the two days that consume most of the novel are most likely December 18 and 19 (if it was one week later, the second day of Holden's romp would be Christmas and, if it was one week earlier, Pencey would be letting its students out two full weeks before Christmas).Memorable and significant quotes
- "I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes. That way I wouldn't have to have any goddam stupid useless conversations with anybody."
- "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'll volunteer for it, I swear to God I will."
- "I think, even, if I ever die, and they stick me in a cemetery, and I have a tombstone and all, it'll say "Holden Caulfield" on it, and then what year I was born and what year I died, and then right under that it'll say "Fuck you." I'm positive, in fact."
- "If you had a million years to do it, you couldn't rub out even half the "Fuck you" signs in the world."
- "Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules."
- "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 from 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. I know it's crazy."
- Joseph Fort Newton: "People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges."
- "All morons hate it when you call them a moron."
- "Once you get past all the Mr. Vinsons, you're going to start getting closer and closer— that is, if you want to, and if you look for it and wait for it— to the kind of information that will be very, very dear to your heart. Among other things, you'll find that you're not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You're by no means alone on that score, you'll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You'll learn from them— if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn't education. It's history. It's poetry." He stopped and took a big drink out of his highball. Then he started again. Boy, he was really hot. I was glad I didn't try to stop him or anything. "I'm not trying to tell you," he said, "that only educated and scholarly men are able to contribute something valuable to the world. It's not so. But I do say that educated and scholarly men, if they're brilliant and creative to begin with— which, unfortunately, is rarely the case— tend to leave infinitely more valuable records behind them than men do who are merely brilliant and creative. They tend to express themselves more clearly, and they usually have a passion for following their thoughts through to the end. And— most important— nine times out of ten they have more humility than the unscholarly thinker. Do you follow me at all?"
- Funniest line in the book: "Then she introduced me to the Navy guy. His name was Commander Blop or something. He was one of those guys that think they're being a pansy if they don't break around forty of your fingers when they shake hands with you. God, I hate that stuff."
Cultural references
Trivia
- Holden Caulfield's middle name is Morrisey. Although it does not appear in this book, Salinger used it in a 1946 short story featuring Caulfield called "A Slight Rebellion off Madison," that ran in the New Yorker.
- The word "fuck" appears in the book only 6 times and was sometimes given as reason for it being banned. However, in context Holden is trying to remove the word from the walls of a school and the Museum of Natural history to preserve the children's "innocence".
- The word "goddam" appears in the book 255 times and at least on every other page.
- Approximately 250,000 copies of The Catcher in the Rye are sold each year, with total sales at about 10 million copies. [link]
- The names of Chasing Amy's title characters, Holden McNeil and Banky Edwards, are references to Catcher in the Rye. Holden is an obvious reference to the title character and Banky is named after Ed Banky.
References
External links
- [The Catcher in the Rye and Related Matters]
- [SparkNotes On Catcher in the Rye]
- [Character list and information on censorship of Catcher in the Rye]
- [Article listing themes in Catcher in the Rye]
- [Extensive Catcher in the Rye study guide]
- [Homework-online study guide]
- [Bookryags study guide for the novel]
- [Literary analysis of Catcher in the Rye]
- [Jiffynotes on Catcher in the Rye including some historical context]
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