The Catcher in the Rye

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The Catcher in the Rye
Author J. D. Salinger
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Novel
Publisher Little, Brown and Company
Publication date 16 July 1951
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages 277 pp
ISBN ISBN 0-316-76953-3
Preceded by N/A
Followed by Nine Stories (1953)
The cover of the 1985 Bantam edition.
The cover of the 1985 Bantam edition.

The Catcher in the Rye is a novel by J. D. Salinger. First published in the United States in 1951, the novel has been a frequently challenged book[1][2][3] in its home country for its liberal use of profanity and portrayal of sexuality and teenage angst.

Originally published for adults,[4] the novel has become a common part of high school and college curricula throughout the English-speaking world; it has also been translated into almost all of the world's major languages.[5] Around 250,000 copies are sold each year, with total sales of more than 65 million.[6]

The novel was chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005.[7]

The novel's protagonist, Holden Caulfield, has become an icon for teenage rebellion and defiance.[8] Written in the first person, The Catcher in the Rye follows Holden's experiences in New York City in the days following his expulsion from Pencey Prep, a college preparatory school.

Contents

[edit] Plot

The Catcher in the Rye is the story of teenager Holden Caulfield's turbulent last few days before his Christmas vacation. During these days, Holden leaves Pencey Prep, a boys' school he's been kicked out of, and takes off for a few nights alone in New York City. Holden tells the story as a monologue, from some sort of a mental facility where he's recovering from the stress of the experiences he retells.

Holden's tale begins at Pencey, which he despises for its prevailing "phoniness." Holden finds a lot of people and attitudes unbearably phony. It's the day of the big Pencey football game, something that Holden has little interest in. In lieu of watching, Holden takes a walk to the house of his history teacher, old Mr. Spencer. This isn't a particularly satisfying visit, nor is his last evening at Pencey, during which he hangs around with a coarse and dull guy named Ackley and later gets beat up by his own roommate, a ladies' man named Stradlater. The idea of Stradlater taking one of Holden's old friends, Jane Gallagher, out on a date, and the thought of suave Stradlater making the moves on his innocent friend drives Holden to his fists. After the fight, Holden decides to get up and leave Pencey immediately. He finishes packing and leaves campus in the middle of the night.

A train takes Holden to New York City, where his family has lived all his life. Here, he checks into the derelict Edmont Hotel, a place that provides him with several adventures including an evening dancing with three dull tourist girls and a clumsy encounter with a prostitute. Holden sends the prostitute away without services rendered, and although he pays her for her time, it's apparently not enough. For this, Holden gets his second pummeling in as many nights, at the hands of Maurice, the hotel's elevator man/pimp.

Holden spends a total of two days in the city, and these days are largely characterized by drunkenness and loneliness. He meets up with an old acquaintance named Carl Luce and has a date with an off-and-on girlfriend, Sally Hayes, but both experiences leave him more miserable than before. Finally, Holden sneaks into his parents' apartment to visit his kid sister Phoebe, who's about the only person he seems to be able to communicate with. After this, Holden feels a little better, and he heads off to the apartment of his ex-English teacher, Mr. Antolini. The comfort Holden hopes to find there is upset when he wakes up in the middle of the night to find Mr. Antolini petting his head in a way that seems "perverty."

After this, Holden gets awfully depressed. His distress with the phoniness and stupidity of the world focuses as he spends his last afternoon wandering around the city. What bothers him most is that the world seems to have no sanctuary from the phony or perverse in it anymore--it's a cruel place to grow up. This becomes all the more real for Holden as he wanders around his little sister's school building and keeps finding swear words scribbled on the walls. Holden begins to envision himself as a guardian of children, someone who will protect their innocence. This hope is crystallized in a vision of himself as the catcher in the rye--a sort of guard at the edges of a field where children can run free and play, a guardian who can keep these kids from falling, in their exuberance, over the field's edges.

Though Holden tells his little sister he's going to move out West, this doesn't pan out. Instead, after a little fight with Phoebe, Holden ends up accompanying her to the park and watching as she rides the merry-go-round, stretching from her wooden horse to reach a prized brass ring. As he watches with a combination of fear and joy, Holden seems to have decided that there can be no catcher, that all you can do is hope kids develop in the harsh world on their own.

Holden never does give a thorough assessment of his prognosis since his hospitalization. But if his voice in the novel's last few pages is any indication, his time recovering has left him calmer and with more perspective, but still lonely and without direction.

[edit] Characters

Holden Caulfield is the protagonist and narrator of the story. Holden is seventeen when he tells the story, but was sixteen years old when the events took place.[9] His narration begins with his expulsion (for academic failure) from a school called Pencey Prep. He is intelligent and sensitive, but Holden narrates in a cynical and jaded voice. He finds the hypocrisy, "phoniness", and ugliness of the world around him unbearable.

D.B. Caulfield is Holden's older brother and lives in Hollywood. Holden professes to despise cinema for he believes it exemplifies his concept of "phoniness", but throughout the book he offers thoughtful and in-depth commentaries on films he has seen.

Allie Caulfield was Holden's younger brother, who died of leukemia when Holden was thirteen. Even though Allie was younger than Holden, Holden idolized Allie. Holden provies a detailed description of the fielder's mitt which Allie covered in poems. Holden even prays to his deceased brother for safety. The night of Allie's death, Holden smashed all the windows in the family garage with his bare fists leading to permanent damage to his hand. Because of this injury, Holden can no longer make a tight fist with his right hand.

Jane Gallagher is a girl with whom Holden spent a lot of time one summer, when their families stayed in neighboring summer houses in Maine. Holden likes to remember Jane as a sensitive, innocent girl with a unique approach to checkers. She is Stradlater’s date Saturday evening, which bothers Holden.

Ward Stradlater Holden’s roommate at Pencey Prep. Stradlater is handsome, self-satisfied, and popular, but Holden calls him a “secret slob,” because he appears well groomed, but his toiletries, such as his razor, are disgustingly unclean. Stradlater is sexually active and quite experienced for a prep school student, which is why Holden also calls him a “sexy bastard.”

Robert Ackley Holden’s next-door neighbor in his dorm at Pencey Prep. Ackley is a pimply, insecure boy with terrible dental hygiene. He often barges into Holden’s room and acts completely oblivious to Holden’s hints that he should leave. Holden believes that Ackley makes up elaborate lies about his sexual experience.

Mr. Spencer is Holden’s history teacher at Pencey Prep.

Sally Hayes is a very attractive girl whom Holden has known and dated for a long time. Though Sally is well read, Holden claims that she is stupid and phony, although it is difficult to tell whether this judgment is cynical or merely stems from Holden’s ambivalence about being sexually attracted to her.

Phoebe Caulfield is Holden's younger sister. She is in the fourth grade at the time Holden leaves Pencey Prep. In some ways, she can be even more mature than him, even criticizing him for childishness, although she clearly idolizes Holden.

Mrs. Morrow The mother of Holden’s contemptible classmate, Ernest, she shares a train ride and creative conversation with “Rudolf Schmidt,” the alias used by Holden.

Horwitz The most interesting of the cab drivers in the novel, he takes Holden to Ernie’s Nightclub and offers unusual zoological insight regarding those ducks and the fish at the lagoon.

Maurice The elevator operator at the Edmont Hotel and Sunny’s pimp, who procures a prostitute for Holden.

Sunny The prostitute Holden hires through Maurice. She is one of a number of women in the book with whom Holden clumsily attempts to connect.

Bernice, Marty, and Laverne Three thirtyish tourists from Seattle, they leave Holden with the tab at the Lavender Room. Bernice is a very good dancer.

Carl Luce A student at Columbia who was Holden’s student advisor at the Whooton School. Luce is three years older than Holden and has a great deal of sexual experience. At Whooton, he was a source of knowledge about sex for the younger boys, and Holden tries to get him to talk about sex at their meeting.

Lillian Simmons All bust and no brains, she and her date ask Holden to sit with them at Ernie’s. She used to date D.B. and oozes her fake charm in hopes of making a good impression.

Ernie A talented pianist at his own club in Greenwich Village, he exemplifies Holden’s concept of an artist who has sold out.

James Castle A student at Elkton Hills, he jumped to his death rather than recant a statement about an arrogant bully.

Mr. Antolini Holden’s former English teacher at the Elkton Hills School. Holden sometimes finds him a bit too clever, but he looks to him for guidance and support.

[edit] Interpretation

Bruce Brooks noted that Holden's attitude is the same at the end as it was in the beginning, which implies a lack of growth in distinguishing the story from young adult fiction.[10] On the other hand, Louis Menand claimed that teachers assign it to students because of the optimism at the end, that "alienation is just a phase." [11] While Brooks maintained that Holden acts his age, Menand observed that Holden thinks like an adult with his ability to see through people clearly.

The novel has been interpreted as having only a negative answer to the social problems it expresses. In another type of critique, its philosophy has been negatively compared with that of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.[12]

Phoebe's character plays an important role of influencing Holden. Her name, Phoebe, is from the Greek Phoibus, referring to the Greek sun and moon god. [13] The comparison suggests that she serves as an oracle figure for Holden, to whom he can confide and seek advice. [13] Phoebe also stands to be a catalytic character for Holden. Holden pictures himself as a catcher in the rye; he imagines himself standing on a cliff in a field of rye with children playing tag around him, and as they strayed too close to the edge, he would be the one to catch them, and save them from falling. [14] Phoebe and Holden seem to exchange roles as the catcher-fallen as well. Holden gives her the symbol of the catcher, his hunting hat, and becomes the fallen just as Phoebe assumes the role of the catcher. [15]

However, in the final few pages of the novel, Holden realizes that he cannot take control of Phoebe's life nor prevent her from growing up. Inevitably, she will make mistakes as she matures, but he sees that he must allow her to grab the "gold ring" on the merry-go-round - a symbol of adolescent errors. Inevitably, this will include some of what he terms "phoniness." Therefore, Holden has indeed changed over the course of the novel, and has come to terms, to some extent, with his inability to be a "catcher" for Phoebe and all other children - he must allow them to grow up for themselves.

It has also been suggested that Holden is telling his story to a doctor in a hospital on account of it being a first person narrative and the fact that it is a circular story.

[edit] Controversy

In 1960, a teacher was fired, and later reinstated, for assigning the novel in class.[16] Between 1961 and 1982, The Catcher in the Rye was the most censored book in high schools and libraries in the United States.[17] In 1981, it was both the most censored book and the second most taught book in public schools in the United States.[18] According to the American Library Association, The Catcher in the Rye was the 13th most frequently challenged book from 1990–2000.[1] It was one of the 10 most challenged books in 2005, and came off the list in 2006.[19]

The challenges generally begin with vulgar language, citing the novel's use of words like fuck[20] and "goddam",[21] with more general reasons including sexual references,[22] blasphemy, undermining of family values[21] and moral codes,[23] Holden's being a poor role model,[24] encouragement of rebellion,[25] and promotion of drinking, smoking, lying, and promiscuity.[23] Often, the challengers have been unfamiliar with the plot itself.[17] Shelley Keller-Gage, a high school teacher who faced objections after assigning the novel in her class, noted that the challengers "are being just like Holden ... They are trying to be catchers in the rye."[21] A reverse effect has been that this incident caused people to put themselves on the waiting list to borrow the novel, when there were none before.[26]

Mark David Chapman, who assassinated 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.[27] He also read a passage from the book at his sentencing. John Hinckley, Jr., who attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981, was also reported to have been obsessed with the book.[28] Robert John Bardo, who murdered Rebecca Schaeffer, was carrying the book when he visited Schaeffer's apartment in Hollywood on July 18, 1989.

[edit] Impact

Main article: Cultural references to the novel The Catcher in the Rye

In the decade following its publication, there were over 70 essays on the novel printed in American and British magazines[26].

Works inspired by The Catcher in the Rye have been said to form their own genre.[11] The novel helped popularize the slang verb "screw up".[29]

[edit] Attempted film adaptations

Early in his career, J. D. Salinger expressed a willingness to have his work adapted for the screen.[30] However, in 1949, a critically panned film version of his short story "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut" was released; renamed My Foolish Heart and taking great liberties with Salinger's story, the film is widely considered to be among the reasons that Salinger has refused to allow any subsequent movie adaptations of his work.[31] The enduring popularity of The Catcher in the Rye, however, has resulted in repeated attempts to secure the novel's screen rights.

When The Catcher in the Rye was first released, many offers were made to adapt it for the screen; among them was Sam Goldwyn, producer of My Foolish Heart.[31] In a letter written in the early fifties, Salinger spoke of mounting a play in which he would play the role of Holden Caulfield opposite Margaret O'Brien, and, if he couldn’t play the part himself, to “forget about it." Almost fifty years later, the writer Joyce Maynard definitively concluded, "The only person who might ever have played Holden Caulfield would have been J. D. Salinger."[32]

Salinger told Maynard in the seventies that Jerry Lewis "tried for years to get his hands on the part of Holden,"[32] despite Lewis not having read the novel until he was in his thirties.[26] Celebrities ranging from Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson to Tobey Maguire and Leonardo DiCaprio have since made efforts to make a film adaptation.[33] In an interview with Premiere magazine, John Cusack commented that his one regret about turning twenty-one was that he had become too old to play Holden Caulfield. Writer-director Billy Wilder recounted his abortive attempts to snare the novel's rights, saying,

“ Of course I read The Catcher in the Rye....Wonderful book. I loved it. I pursued it. I wanted to make a picture out of it. And then one day a young man came to the office of Leland Hayward, my agent, in New York, and said, 'Please tell Mr. Leland Hayward to lay off. He’s very, very insensitive.' And he walked out. That was the entire speech. I never saw him. That was J. D. Salinger and that was Catcher in the Rye.[34] ”

In 1961, Salinger denied Elia Kazan permission to direct a stage adaptation of Catcher for Broadway.[35] More recently, Salinger's agents received bids for the Catcher movie rights from Harvey Weinstein and Steven Spielberg,[36] neither of which was even passed on to Salinger for consideration.

In 2003, the BBC television program The Big Read featured The Catcher in the Rye, intercutting discussions of the novel with "a series of short films that featured an actor playing Salinger's adolescent antihero, Holden Caulfield."[35] The show defended its unlicensed adaptation of the novel by claiming to be a "literary review," and no major charges were filed.

According to a speculative article in The Guardian in May 2006, there are rumors that director Terrence Malick has been linked to a possible screen adaptation of the novel.[37]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b "100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000". American Library Association. Retrieved on 2007-01-21.
  2. ^ List of most commonly challenged books from the list of the one hundred most important books of the 20th century by Radcliffe Publishing Course.
  3. ^ Jeff Guinn (2001-08-10). "'Catcher in the Rye' still influences 50 years later" (fee required), Erie Times-News. Retrieved on 2007-12-18.  Alternate URL.
  4. ^ Michael Cart (2000-11-15). "Famous Firsts. (young-adult literature)", Booklist. Retrieved on 2007-12-20. 
  5. ^ Magill, Frank N. (1991). "J. D. Salinger", Magill's Survey of American Literature. New York: Marshall Cavendish Corporation, p. 1803. ISBN 1-85435-437-X. 
  6. ^ According to List of best-selling books. An earlier article says more than 20 million: Jonathan Yardley (2004-10-19). "J.D. Salinger's Holden Caulfield, Aging Gracelessly", The Washington Post. Retrieved on 2007-01-21. 
  7. ^ Grossman, Lev; Richard Lacayo (2005). "All-Time 150 Novels: The Complete List", Time. 
  8. ^ Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Allusions By Elizabeth Webber, Mike Feinsilber p.105
  9. ^ The Catcher in the Rye,'" p. 9
  10. ^ Bruce Brooks (2004-05-01). "Holden at sixteen", Horn Book Magazine. Retrieved on 2007-12-19. 
  11. ^ a b Louis Menand (2001-09-27). "Holden at fifty", The New Yorker. Retrieved on 2007-12-19. 
  12. ^ Carl F. Strauch (Winter 1961). "Kings in the Back Row: Meaning through Structure. A Reading of Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye". Wisconsin Studies in Contemporary Literature 2 (1): 5–30. doi:10.2307/1207365. Retrieved on 2007-12-22. 
  13. ^ a b Margaret Dumais Svogun (Winter 2003). "Salinger's THE CATCHER IN THE RYE", pp. 110-113. Retrieved on 2008-02-26. 
  14. ^ Shelly Keller-Gage (1990-03-13). "The Catcher in the Rye". 
  15. ^ Yasuhiro Takeuchi (Fall 2002). "The Buring Carousel and the Carnivalesque: Subversion and Transcendence at the Close of The Catcher in the Rye", pp. 320-337. Retrieved on 2008-02-26. 
  16. ^ Fernando Dutra (2006-09-25). "U. Connecticut: Banned Book Week celebrates freedom", The America's Intelligence Wire. Retrieved on 2007-12-20. "In 1960 a teacher in Tulsa, Okla., was fired for assigning "Catcher in the Rye." After appealing, the teacher was reinstated, but the book was removed from the itinerary in the school." 
  17. ^ a b "In Cold Fear: 'The Catcher in the Rye', Censorship, Controversies and Postwar American Character. (Book Review)", Modern Language Review (2003-04-01). Retrieved on 2007-12-19. 
  18. ^ Sylvia Andrychuk (2004-02-17). "A History of J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye" (PDF) 6. Retrieved on 2007-12-19. “During 1981, The Catcher in the Rye had the unusual distinction of being the most frequently censored book in the United States, and, at the same time, the second-most frequently taught novel in American public schools.”
  19. ^ "The Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2006". American Library Association. Retrieved on 2007-12-19.
  20. ^ "Art or trash? It makes for endless, debate that cant be won", The Topeka Capital-Journal (1997-10-06). Retrieved on 2007-12-20. "Another perennial target, J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye," was challenged in Maine because of the "f" word." 
  21. ^ a b c Seth Mydans (1989-09-03). "In a Small Town, a Battle Over a Book", The New York Times, pp. 2. Retrieved on 2007-12-20. 
  22. ^ Ben MacIntyre (2005-09-24). "The American banned list reveals a society with serious hang-ups", The Times. Retrieved on 2007-12-20. 
  23. ^ a b Helen Frangedis (November 1988). "Dealing with the Controversial Elements in The Catcher in the Rye". The English Journal 77 (7): 72–75. doi:10.2307/818945. Retrieved on 2007-12-22. “The foremost allegation made against Catcher is... that it teaches loose moral codes; that it glorifies... drinking, smoking, lying, promiscuity, and more.” 
  24. ^ Anna Quindlen (1993-04-07). "Public & Private; The Breast Ban", The New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-12-20. ""The Catcher in the Rye" is perennially banned because Holden Caulfield is said to be an unsuitable role model." 
  25. ^ Yilu Zhao (2003-08-31). "Banned, But Not Forgotten", The New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-12-20. "The Catcher in the Rye, interpreted by some as encouraging rebellion against authority..." 
  26. ^ a b c Stephen J. Whitfield (December 1997). "Cherished and Cursed: Toward a Social History of The Catcher in the Rye". The New England Quarterly 70 (4): 567–600. doi:10.2307/366646. 
  27. ^ "Crime Library: The man who shot John Lennon Crimelibrary.com. URL Accessed June 17, 2006.
  28. ^ "Items Found In Searches Conducted Of Hinckley's Wallet And Hotel Room Famous American Trials: The John Hinckley Trial 1982
  29. ^ William Safire (1990-04-08). "Screwing Up", The New York Times, pp. 2. Retrieved on 2007-12-20. "Screw up, in this sense, is first found in a December 1942 issue of Yank, and was further popularized in the 1951 Catcher in the Rye, the famed novel by J. D. Salinger: Boy, it really screws up my sex life something awful." 
  30. ^ Hamilton, Ian (1988). In Search of J. D. Salinger. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-394-53468-9.  p. 75.
  31. ^ a b Berg, A. Scott. Goldwyn: A Biography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989. ISBN 1-57322-723-4. p. 446.
  32. ^ a b Maynard, Joyce (1998). At Home in the World. New York: Picador, p. 93. ISBN 0-312-19556-7.  p. 93.
  33. ^ "News & Features". IFILM: The Internet Movie Guide (2004). Archived from the original on 2004-09-06. Retrieved on 2007-04-05.
  34. ^ Crowe, Cameron, ed. Conversations with Wilder. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999. ISBN 0-375-40660-3. p. 299.
  35. ^ a b McAllister, David (2003-11-11). "Will Salinger sue?", The Guardian. Retrieved on 2007-04-12. 
  36. ^ "PAGE SIX; Inside Salinger's Own World". The New York Post. (2003-12-04). Retrieved on 2007-01-18.
  37. ^ Ones that got away | Special Reports | guardian.co.uk Books

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
v • d • e
Works by J. D. Salinger
Novels:
The Catcher in the Rye (1951) • Franny and Zooey (1961)
Short story collections:
Short stories:
"Blue Melody" • "Both Parties Concerned" • "A Boy in France" • "De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period" • "Down at the Dinghy" • "Elaine" • "For Esmé with Love and Squalor" • "Go See Eddie" • "The Hang of It" • "Hapworth 16, 1924" • "The Heart of a Broken Story" • "I'm Crazy" • "The Inverted Forest" • "Just Before the War with the Eskimos" • "Last Day of the Last Furlough" • "The Laughing Man" • "The Long Debut of Lois Taggett" • "The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls" • "Once a Week Won't Kill You" • "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" • "Personal Notes of an Infantryman" • "Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes" • "Slight Rebellion off Madison" • "Soft-Boiled Sergeant" • "The Stranger" • "Teddy" • "This Sandwich Has No Mayonnaise" • "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut" • "The Varioni Brothers" • "The Young Folks" • "A Young Girl in 1941 with No Waist at All"
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