The Catcher in the Rye

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The Catcher in the Rye by jd salinger  

First edition cover
Author J.D. Salinger
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Novel
Publisher Little, Brown and Company
Publication date July 16, 1951
Media type print (hardback & paperback)
Pages 276 pp
ISBN 0-316-76953-3
Preceded by N/A
Followed by Nine Stories (1953)
The cover of the 1985 Bantam edition.

The Catcher in the Rye is a 1951 novel by J. D. Salinger. Originally published for adults,[1] 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.[2] Around 250,000 copies are sold each year, with total sales of more than sixty-five million.[3] The novel's antihero, Holden Caulfield, has become an icon for teenage rebellion and defiance.[4]

The novel was chosen by Time among the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005,[5] and by Modern Library and its readers as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. It has been frequently challenged[6][7][8] in the United States for its liberal use of profanity and portrayal of sexuality and teenage angst.

Contents

[edit] Plot summary

The first-person narrative follows Holden's experiences in New York City in the days following his expulsion from Pencey Prep, a fictional college preparatory school in Pennsylvania.

Holden shares encounters he has had with students and faculty of Pencey, whom he criticizes as being superficial, or as he would say, "phony." After being expelled from the school, Holden packs up and leaves the school in the middle of the night after an altercation with his roommate. He takes a train to New York, but does not want to return to his family's apartment immediately, and instead checks into the derelict Edmont Hotel. There, he spends an evening dancing with three tourist girls and has a clumsy encounter with a prostitute; he refuses to do anything with her and tells her to leave, although he pays her for her time. She demands more money than was originally agreed upon and when Holden refuses to pay he is struck by her pimp.

Holden spends a total of two days in the city, characterized largely by drunkenness and loneliness. At one point he ends up at a museum, where he contrasts his life with the statues of Eskimos on display. For as long as he can remember, the statues have been fixed and unchanging. It is clear to the reader, if not to Holden, that the teenager is afraid and nervous about the process of change and growing up. These concerns may largely have stemmed from the death of his brother, Allie. Eventually, he sneaks into his parents' apartment while they are away, to visit his younger sister Phoebe, who is nearly the only person with whom he seems to be able to communicate. Holden shares a fantasy he has been thinking about (based on a mishearing of Robert Burns' Comin' Through the Rye): he pictures himself as the sole guardian of numerous children running and playing in a huge rye field on the edge of a cliff. His job is to catch the children if they wander close to the brink; to be a "catcher in the rye".

After leaving his parents' apartment, Holden then drops by to see his old English teacher, Mr. Antolini in the middle of the night, and is offered advice on life and a place to sleep. During the speech on life, Mr. Antolini has a number of "highballs," an alcoholic drink popular at the time. His comfort is upset when he wakes up in the night to find Mr. Antolini patting his head in a way that he perceives as "flitty". There is much speculation on whether or not Mr. Antolini was making a sexual advance on Holden, and it is left widely up to the reader whether or not this is true. Holden leaves and spends his last afternoon wandering the city. He later wonders if his interpretation of Mr. Antolini's actions was correct.

Holden intends to move out west, and relays these plans to his sister, who decides she wants to go with him. He refuses to take her, and when she becomes upset with him, he tells her that he himself will no longer go. Holden then takes Phoebe to the Central Park Zoo, where he watches with a melancholy joy as she rides a carousel. At the close of the book, Holden decides not to mention much about the present day, finding it inconsequential. He alludes to "getting sick" and living in a mental hospital, and mentions that he'll be attending another school in September. Holden says that he has found himself missing Stradlater, Ackley (his former classmates), and the others—warning the reader that the same thing could happen to them.

[edit] Writing style

The book is written as if Holden were speaking out loud, like a transcription of him telling the story to another person. There is flow in the seemingly disjointed ideas and episodes; 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 discussions about past experiences. Critical reviews agree that the novel accurately reflected the teenage colloquial speech of the time.[9]

[edit] Interpretation

The novel begins with a refusal to be lengthy like David Copperfield. Two connections are of note: David Copperfield is a famous example of a bildungsroman, a genre that The Catcher in the Rye falls under; and the character David Copperfield was born with a big caul.[10]

Holden is widely considered to be an unreliable narrator[11][12] due to his unstable perceptions, which allows for multiple interpretations of many events in the novel.[13]

Writer Bruce Brooks held that Holden's attitude remains unchanged at story's end, implying no maturation, thus differentiating the novel from young adult fiction.[14] In contrast, writer and academic Louis Menand thought that teachers assign the novel because of the optimistic ending, to teach adolescent readers that "alienation is just a phase."[15] While Brooks maintained that Holden acts his age, Menand claimed that Holden thinks as an adult, given his ability to accurately perceive people and their motives. Others highlight the dilemma of Holden's state in between adolescence and adulthood.[16][11] While Holden views himself to be smarter than and as mature as adults, he is quick to become emotional. "I felt sorry as hell for..." is a phrase he often uses.[11]

The death of his younger brother Allie was a catalyst for Holden's fear of change. Phoebe revolving on the carousel can be seen as a symbol for Holden's revelation that change does not always produce negative consequences. Whether this is understood determines the reader's interpretation of Holden's predicament in the final chapter.[17] For instance, the novel has been read as positing only a negative answer to the social problems it criticizes, with its philosophy being negatively compared with that of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.[18]

Each Caulfield child has literary talent: D.B. writes screenplays in Hollywood; Holden passed his English course while failing everything else; Allie wrote poetry; and Phoebe is a diarist. Phoebe is particularly influential on Holden; her name denotes and derives from the Greek Phoibe—the Greek Titaness associated with the moon, suggesting she is oracle and catalyst for the boy who sees himself as the catcher in the rye at a cliff-side rye field where children play tag, whom he catches, and saves from themselves, when they stray too near the edge.[19] This "catcher in the rye" is an analogy for Holden who sees these children playing tag as innocent and pure. Falling off the cliff would be a progression into adulthood and maturity (which he often views as a digression from this innocence into a negative world). Later, Phoebe and Holden exchange roles as the Catcher and the Fallen; he gives her his hunting hat, the catcher's symbol, and becomes the fallen as Phoebe becomes the catcher.[20]

[edit] Reception

The Catcher in the Rye has been listed as one of the best novels of the 20th century. For The New York Times, James Stern wrote a negative review of the book,[21] while Nash K. Burger called it "an unusually brilliant novel".[22] President George H.W. Bush called it "a marvelous book," listing it among the books that have inspired him.[23] In June 2009, the BBC's Finlo Rohrer wrote that, 58 years since publication, the book is still regarded "as the defining work on what it is like to be a teenager. Holden is at various times disaffected, disgruntled, alienated, isolated, directionless, and sarcastic."[24]

Not all reception was positive, however. The book has had a share of critics. Rohrer writes that "Many of these readers are disappointed that the novel fails to meet the expectations generated by the mystique it is shrouded in. JD Salinger has done his part to enhance this mystique. That is to say, he has done nothing."[24] Rohrer assessed the reasons behind both the popularity and criticism, that is "captures existential teenage angst" and has a "complex central character" and "accessible conversational style" – while at the same time some readers may dislike the "use of 1940s New York vernacular", "self-obsessed central character" and "too much whining".[24]

[edit] Controversy

In 1960 a teacher was fired for assigning the novel in class. He was later reinstated.[25] Between 1961 and 1982, The Catcher in the Rye was the most censored book in high schools and libraries in the United States.[26] In 1981, it was both the most censored book and the second most taught book in public schools in the United States.[27] According to the American Library Association, The Catcher in the Rye was the thirteenth most frequently challenged book from 1990–2000.[6] It was one of the ten most challenged books in 2005, and came off the list in 2006.[28] The challenges generally begin with vulgar language, citing the novel's use of words like fuck[29] and "goddam",[30] with more general reasons including sexual references,[31] blasphemy, undermining of family values[30] and moral codes,[32] Holden's being a poor role model,[33] encouragement of rebellion,[34] and promotion of drinking, smoking, lying, and promiscuity.[32] Often, the challengers have been unfamiliar with the plot itself.[26] 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."[30] 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.[35]

Mark David Chapman's shooting of John Lennon, John Hinckley, Jr.'s assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan, and other murders have also been associated with the novel.[36] [37]

In 2009, Salinger sued to stop a novel that presents Holden Caulfield, the disaffected teen protagonist of his classic "The Catcher in the Rye," as an old man.[38][24]

[edit] Impact

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

References to The Catcher in the Rye in media and popular culture are numerous. Works inspired by The Catcher in the Rye have been said to form their own genre.[15] Dr. Sarah Graham assessed works influenced by The Catcher in the Rye to include the novels Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis, A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and Judith Guest's Ordinary People; as well as films including The Graduate, Dead Poets Society, Tadpole, Igby Goes Down and Donnie Darko; as well as music by Green Day and The Offspring.[24] In the decade following its publication, there were over 70 essays on the novel printed in American and British magazines. The band "Pencey Prep" (a pre-cursor band to My Chemical Romance) also was heavily influenced by The Catcher In The Rye, naming many of their songs for symbols in the book.[35]

[edit] Attempted film adaptations

Early in his career, J. D. Salinger expressed a willingness to have his work adapted for the screen.[39] 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 plot, the film is widely considered to be among the reasons that Salinger has refused to allow any subsequent movie adaptations of his work.[40][41] 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.[40] In a letter written in the early fifties, J. D. 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."[42]

J.D. Salinger told Maynard in the seventies that Jerry Lewis "tried for years to get his hands on the part of Holden,"[42] despite Lewis not having read the novel until he was in his thirties.[35] Celebrities ranging from Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson to Tobey Maguire and Leonardo DiCaprio have since made efforts to make a film adaptation.[43] 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:

“ 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.[44] ”

In 1961, J. D. Salinger denied Elia Kazan permission to direct a stage adaptation of Catcher for Broadway.[45] More recently, Salinger's agents received bids for the Catcher movie rights from Harvey Weinstein and Steven Spielberg,[46] neither of which was even passed on to J. D. 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 J. D. Salinger's adolescent antihero, Holden Caulfield."[45] 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.[47]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Michael Cart (2000-11-15). "Famous Firsts. (young-adult literature)". Booklist. http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-28671475_ITM. Retrieved on 2007-12-20. 
  2. ^ Magill, Frank N. (1991). "J. D. Salinger". Magill's Survey of American Literature. New York: Marshall Cavendish Corporation. pp. 1803. ISBN 1-85435-437-X. 
  3. ^ According to List of best-selling books. An earlier article says more than twenty million: Jonathan Yardley (2004-10-19). "J. D. Salinger's Holden Caulfield, Aging Gracelessly". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43680-2004Oct18.html. Retrieved on 2007-01-21. 
  4. ^ Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Allusions By Elizabeth Webber, Mike Feinsilber p.105
  5. ^ Grossman, Lev; Richard Lacayo (2005). "All-Time 150 Novels: The Complete List". Time. http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/the_complete_list.html. 
  6. ^ a b "The 100 most frequently challenged books of 1990–2000". American Library Association. http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedbydecade/100mostfrequently.cfm. Retrieved on 2009-06-24. 
  7. ^ List of most commonly challenged books from the list of the one hundred most important books of the 20th century by Radcliffe Publishing Course
  8. ^ Jeff Guinn (2001-08-10). "'Catcher in the Rye' still influences 50 years later" (fee required). Erie Times-News. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=ET&p_theme=et&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EDCAD301800C85B&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D. Retrieved on 2007-12-18.  Alternate URL
  9. ^ Donald P. Costello (October 1959). "The Language of 'The Catcher in the Rye'". American Speech 34 (3): 172–181. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0003-1283(195910)34%3A3%3C172%3ATLO'CI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-4. Retrieved on 2007-12-20. "Most critics who looked at The Catcher in the Rye at the time of its publication thought that its language was a true and authentic rendering of teenage colloquial speech.". 
  10. ^ Graham, 20.
  11. ^ a b c Katrina Onstad (2008-02-22). "Beholden to Holden". CBC News. http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/bartlett.html. 
  12. ^ Timothy May (1997-05-06). "A liberal says students should wait on Catcher in the Rye" (fee required). The Cincinnati Post. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-67901764.html. Retrieved on 2008-02-19. 
    Mike Littwin (2001-07-17). "Caulfield of Catcher still talks to teen-age angst" (fee required). Denver Rocky Mountain News. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-76595331.html. Retrieved on 2008-02-19. 
  13. ^ Graham, 28.
  14. ^ Bruce Brooks (2004-05-01). "Holden at sixteen". Horn Book Magazine. http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-21384266_ITM. Retrieved on 2007-12-19. 
  15. ^ a b Louis Menand (2001-09-27). "Holden at fifty". The New Yorker. http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2001/10/01/011001fa_FACT3?currentPage=all. Retrieved on 2007-12-19. 
  16. ^ Graham, 33.
  17. ^ Graham, 33–4.
  18. ^ Carl F. Strauch (Winter 1961). "Kings in the Back Row: Meaning through Structure. A Reading of J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye". Wisconsin Studies in Contemporary Literature 2 (1): 5–30. doi:10.2307/1207365. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0146-4949%28196124%292%3A1%3C5%3AKITBRM%3E2.0.CO%3B2-5&size=LARGE&origin=JSTOR-enlargePage. Retrieved on 2007-12-22. 
  19. ^ Margaret Dumais Svogun (Winter 2003). "J.D. Salinger's THE CATCHER IN THE RYE". Explicator 2 (2): pp. 110-113. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=9553015&site=ehost-live. Retrieved on 2008-02-26. 
  20. ^ Yasuhiro Takeuchi (Fall 2002). "The Burning Carousel and the Carnivalesque: Subversion and Transcendence at the Close of The Catcher in the Rye". Studies in the Novel 34 (3): pp. 320-337. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=7592838&site=ehost-live. Retrieved on 2008-02-26. 
  21. ^ James Stern (1951-07-15). "Rand-rye01.html Aw, the World's a Crumby Place". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/09/13/specials/Ayn Rand-rye01.html. Retrieved on 2009-03-18. 
  22. ^ Nash K. Burger (1951-07-16). "Rand-rye02.html Books of The Times". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/09/13/specials/Ayn Rand-rye02.html. Retrieved on 2009-03-18. 
  23. ^ "Academy of Achievement - George H. W. Bush". The American Academy of Achievement -. http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/bus0int-1. Retrieved on 2009-06-05. 
  24. ^ a b c d e Rohrer, Finlo (June 5, 2009). "The why of the Rye". BBC News Magazine. BBC. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8084931.stm. Retrieved on 2009-06-05. 
  25. ^ Fernando Dutra (2006-09-25). "U. Connecticut: Banned Book Week celebrates freedom". The America's Intelligence Wire. http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-18592168_ITM. 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." 
  26. ^ a b "In Cold Fear: 'The Catcher in the Rye', Censorship, Controversies and Postwar American Character. (Book Review)". Modern Language Review. 2003-04-01. http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-4139523_ITM. Retrieved on 2007-12-19. 
  27. ^ Sylvia Andrychuk (2004-02-17). "A History of J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye" (PDF). 6. http://www.slais.ubc.ca/courses/libr559f/03-04-wt2/projects/S_Andrychuk/Content/history_book_catcher.pdf. 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." 
  28. ^ "The Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2006". American Library Association. http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/challengedbanned/challengedbanned.htm#mfcb. Retrieved on 2007-12-19. 
  29. ^ "Art or trash? It makes for endless, debate that cant be won". The Topeka Capital-Journal. 1997-10-06. http://www.cjonline.com/stories/100697/snider.html. 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." 
  30. ^ a b c Seth Mydans (1989-09-03). "In a Small Town, a Battle Over a Book". The New York Times: pp. 2. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE1D7103CF930A3575AC0A96F948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2. Retrieved on 2007-12-20. 
  31. ^ Ben MacIntyre (2005-09-24). "The American banned list reveals a society with serious hang-ups". The Times. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,923-1792974,00.html. Retrieved on 2007-12-20. 
  32. ^ 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. http://www.jstor.org/stable/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.". 
  33. ^ Anna Quindlen (1993-04-07). "Public & Private; The Breast Ban". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE7DE123EF934A35757C0A965958260. Retrieved on 2007-12-20. ""The Catcher in the Rye" is perennially banned because Holden Caulfield is said to be an unsuitable role model." 
  34. ^ Yilu Zhao (2003-08-31). "Banned, But Not Forgotten". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B06E2DF1438F932A0575BC0A9659C8B63. Retrieved on 2007-12-20. "The Catcher in the Rye, interpreted by some as encouraging rebellion against authority..." 
  35. ^ a b c Stephen 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. 
  36. ^ Linton Weeks (2000-09-10). "Telling on Dad". Amarillo Globe-News. http://www.amarillo.com/stories/091000/boo_tellingondad.shtml. Retrieved on 2009-01-13. 
  37. ^ Aidan Doyle (2003-12-15). "When books kill". Salon.com. http://dir.salon.com/story/books/feature/2003/12/15/books_kill/index1.html. 
  38. ^ Doug Gross (2009-06-03). "Lawsuit targets 'rip-off' of 'Catcher in the Rye'". CNN. http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/books/06/03/salinger.catcher.lawsuit/index.html. Retrieved on 2009-06-03. 
  39. ^ Hamilton, Ian (1988). In Search of J. D. Salinger. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-394-53468-9.  p. 75.
  40. ^ a b Berg, A. Scott. Goldwyn: A Biography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989. ISBN 1-57322-723-4. p. 446.
  41. ^ Katrina Onstad (2008-02-22). "Beholden to Holden". CBC News. http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/bartlett.html. 
  42. ^ a b Maynard, Joyce (1998). At Home in the World. New York: Picador. pp. 93. ISBN 0-312-19556-7.  p. 93.
  43. ^ "News & Features". IFILM: The Internet Movie Guide. 2004. Archived from the original on 2004-09-06. http://web.archive.org/web/20040906/vgn.ifilm.com/db/static_text/0,1699,5784,00.html. Retrieved on 2007-04-05. 
  44. ^ Crowe, Cameron, ed. Conversations with Wilder. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999. ISBN 0-375-40660-3. p. 299.
  45. ^ a b McAllister, David (2003-11-11). "Will J. D. Salinger sue?". The Guardian. http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,6109,1082699,00.html. Retrieved on 2007-04-12. 
  46. ^ "PAGE SIX; Inside J. D. Salinger's Own World". The New York Post.. 2003-12-04. http://entertainment.myway.com/celebgossip/pgsix/id/12_04_2003_1.html. Retrieved on 2007-01-18. 
  47. ^ Ones that got away, guardian.co.uk Books

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

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