User:Life of Literature

The Catcher in the Rye: Literary Analysis

Mrs. Schilling's G Period English Class

The Catcher in the Rye

The Catcher in the Rye is a novel that was written by J.D. Salinger in 1951 that has battled much controversy throughout the years since being published. The novel features main character Holden Caulfield and offers a glimpse of his sporadic life over the course of two days. The short length of this novel allows for specific analysis of individual topics within The Catcher in the Rye, as well as elements that factored into the writing by J.D. Salinger himself.

Character Analysis

Narrator:

At the beginning of the novel, J. D. Salinger introduces the readers to the protagonist and narrator, Holden Caulfield, a sixteen-year-old junior attending Pencey Prep. Holden has a severe disease called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder has had a huge effect on the way he reacts to different situations and the people around him. When Holden was 12 years old, he experienced the traumatic death of his little, brother that died of Leukemia. Allie had a major impact on Holden’s outlook on life. Since Allie had to overcome numerous struggles that came with leukemia, he taught Holden to never let anything get him down. After the death of his little brother, Allie’s, death, Holden had no motivation to be successful any longer, and gave up on most aspects of his life. Holden was definitely the most affected by Allie, out of all the characters mentioned in this novel. Right away, Holden displays his dynamic characteristics by coming across as very sarcastic and extremely rude. He seems like a consistently annoyed and resentful individual. Right off the bat, Holden is very judgmental and is very frank with his generalizations of people. He philosophizes about people who are boring, annoying, and above all, people who are “phony”. However, Holden is critical of other people to hide the fact that he is depressed and lonely. Since he doesn’t get the attention he craves, his exhibition takes over, and he tries too hard to connect with people. Also, from the beginning, it is very evident that Holden is indifferent to his education. He was forced to leave Pencey Prep due to his academic failure. He didn’t care about the fact that his education, basically, determined his future. On a similar topic, Holden is immensely impacted by the different characters he encounters throughout the novel. He acts different around so many different people to try to please or test them. Since Holden wants to receive approval from others, he is a compulsive liar. Most of the time, Holden surrounds himself with other peoples’ issues to distract himself from his own conflicts. Holden is very significant to this novel because he constantly uses alienation as a way to protect himself. When Holden was attending Pencey Prep and was on the fencing team, “the whole team ostracized [him] the whole way back on the train. It was pretty funny in a way.” Provided that Holden doesn’t usually know the best way to fit in, he isolates himself frequently to avoid any social situation in general. In Chapter 22, specifically, Holden went back to his apartment to talk to Phoebe. When Phoebe asks Holden what he wants to do in his future, Holden responds with his vision of “little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around-nobody big, I mean-except me. 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 from somewhere and catch them.” His ideal image of childhood, that Holden displays for his little sister, Phoebe, shows that more than anything, Holden wants to “shield” children’s innocence. In fact, caul from Holden’s last name, Caulfield, is denotatively defined, on dictionary.com, as a membrane that covers the head of a fetus during birth. So, in relation to Holden’s last name, it could symbolize the blindness of children to see the reality of the world. Holden wants himself, along with every child, to never let go of their innocence or “sightlessness”. Holden’s visualization further reiterates how he only favors visualizing the world that he believes is superlative. Throughout the entire novel, has continued to show his immense disconnection with the world around him.

Characters Encountered:

Major Characters

Although Phoebe Caulfield is six years younger than Holden, she is a very intelligent and gifted yet innocent girl that teaches Holden a lot of significant life lessons. Phoebe’s character challenges Holden’s perspective on the world, overall. She has very high expectations for Holden. She gives Holden all the love and support he needs because she knows him so well, and can tell that he is struggling in finding himself. Thanks to Phoebe, Holden will always have a very open and amiable person in his life. She doesn’t like to see Holden in a negative position and gives him good advice for his benefit. To add, Phoebe is a significantly independent individual. She always strives to be different and more mature than expected. When Holden went to visit Phoebe, he described her preferred sleeping areas. “She likes it because it’s the biggest room in the house. Also, because it has this big old madman desk in it that D.B. bought off some lady alcoholic in Philadelphia....She doesn’t like her room because it’s too little, she says. She says she likes to spread out.” Provided that Phoebe favors a very open sleeping area, it symbolizes her individualism throughout the novel. Phoebe never settles for little, she always wants bigger and better for herself. Furthermore, when Holden opened up her notebook, he noticed that Phoebe changed her full name to: Phoebe Weatherfield Caulfield. In reality, her “middle name is Josephine…she doesn’t like it though." Phoebe never liked to listen to other people’s decisions for her. She made numerous choices for herself, extending the trait that Phoebe is greatly independent.

Ward Stradlater is the perfect definition of what Holden calls “phony”. The readers are introduced to Stradlater as Holden’s roommate at Pencey Prep. He is a handsome, popular individual that is also significantly arrogant. He has major disrespect for woman and all he can think about is being sexually active. From an outside perspective, one would see that he is academically gifted, charming, open, and would automatically think that he is a wonderful guy. However, in reality, he isn’t a very reliable friend and wouldn’t be considered the nicest person. Overall, Stradlater is immensely unscrupulous. In Chapter 6, Stradlater had assigned Holden to do his essay for him. Holden poured his heart out into this essay. However, when Stradlater read it, he screamed, “’God damn it….You always do everything backasswards….No wonder you’re flunking the hell out of here.” First of all, Stradlater shouldn’t have been criticizing Holden’s work at all; Stradlater was the one that should have completed the assignment. Second of all, Holden based the essay off a symbolic baseball glove that his little brother that died of Leukemia owned. It was extremely disrespectful for Stradlater to say those harsh words. This further reiterates Holden’s ungratefulness and discourteousness.

Robert Ackley, otherwise known simply as Ackley, is Holden’s neighbor at Pencey Prep. A senior at Pencey, Ackley is considered to be very peculiar and quite anti-social. He is known particularly for his very poor hygiene, and uncouth personality, “And not only that, he had a terrible personality. He was also sort of a nasty guy. I wasn’t too crazy about him, to tell you the truth.” To Holden, he is somewhat reliable; however, his utter lack of cleanliness and rude behavior leaves them to only tolerate each other. They create and odd sort of pair, comforting one another unintentionally. Holden finds comfort in Ackley after his fight with Stradlater, and Ackley says not a word to do so. Being that they both have few friends, they provide for each other the human need for at least the most basic amount of human interaction. However, their relationship ceases from growing because of Ackley’s abhorrent attitude. Despite the comfort he provides to Holden, he still manages to annoy him at the same time. He is described as going around Holden’s dorm and touching everything, being very nosey in Holden’s business and very blunt with his thinking. He has shown to have no regards for proper social actions and has no shame inflicting his disgusting behavior on those around him.

A character introduced much later in the novel is Mr. Antolini. Described as intellectual and an honorable man, Holden considers him to be one of his favorite teachers. Holden admires him especially for his personality as he says, “you could kid around with him without losing your respect for him.” Holden also admires him for his courage in difficult situations being that he was the one who picked up the boy who jumped from the window, and as Holden mentions, “He didn’t a damn if his coat got all bloody.”. Mr. Antolini and Holden are also very close, so much so that Mr. Antolini would have many dinners with Holden and his family, and Holden would go out with the Antolinis. The only negative comment to be said about Mr. Antolini is his heavy drinking, which seems to have played an important key role in the most important event between Holden and his teacher. It is when Mr. Antolini makes Holden uncomfortable when he is sleeping as Holden says, “I woke up all of a sudden…I felt something on my head, some guys hand… It was Mr. Antolini’s hand.” This event leads to a discovery of an important part of Holden and the era he is living in. It shows that what Mr. Antolini did to frighten Holden, giving him the impression that he was being sexually harassed, may have had a key impact on the person he is, more specifically why he is so distrusting. Holden’s experience with Mr. Antolini brings the events where this had happened to Holden “about twenty times” as a kid.

In the beginning of the novel, the readers are introduced to Old Spencer, a seventy year-old retired teacher had Holden at Pencey Prep. When Holden conjures up memories of him, he pictures how “he was all stooped over, and [how] he had terrible posture.” In his old age, he is debilitated, struggling with the simple things, such as bending down to pick up items off of the floor. No matter, he always has an upbeat and positive attitude, and this is the reason why Holden admires and looks up to him. In addition to his outlook on life, old Spencer is also very knowledgeable and he always knows the right thing to say when Holden comes to him looking for advice; his words are inspirational. These qualities mixed together are the recipe for the ideal mentor for Holden. There are few people that see the potential in Holden, but Spencer has always believed in him. This unique bond between a teacher and his former student is one of the motivating factors in Holden’s life. As Mr. Spencer would put it, “life is a game”, so why not play it?

Minor Characters

Sally Hayes may appear to be just another girl that Holden does not appreciate or respect, but her importance to this novel goes much deeper than that. She is the character in the story that teenage girls can relate to and picture themselves as. She increases the size of the audience that this tale is applicable to. For instance, despite Holden’s beliefs that her emotions are “phony,” when Holden told her of his plans to run away with her, “she hit the ceiling." This reaction, filled with anger, surprise, and hurt, is completely sincere; most girls would feel this way in her situation. She felt sensitive and gullible for believing Holden’s lies in the first place, and plenty of girls can understand that. In addition to that, she is a follower. She wants to fit in, for others to like her, so she goes along with what other people are doing. She craves approval, especially of Holden, and is crushed when he does not return the feelings she wants. Without people like her in this novel, it would be less relevant, or appealing, to the female audience.

An interesting character Holden meets on his travels is Maurice, having the profession as a “pimp”. He is best described as shifty, sly, and devious. He takes advantage of people: Holden included. After relieving Holden of his funds, Maurice physically attacks him, “Then he smacked me…all I felt was this terrific punch in my stomach.” In Essence he shows Holden what sort of person he does not want to be. For Holden, he represents an understanding that the path he is on is bad and wrong. Despite Maurice’s shrewd and deceitful nature, he represents a very important change in Holden. Maurice symbolizes the bad decisions Holden has made in his life.

Sunny is a person who accidently becomes the object of Holden’s impulsivity. A ‘prostitute’, Holden purchases her services by mistake. Despite her abrupt demeanor, she is considerably innocent and almost childlike. Holden observes this when she says “like fun you are”, rather than saying something more analogous with her personality. Her statement is something that Holden finds to be more similar to a young child. She tries her best to appear experienced, yet her over-exaggeration shows how little experience she truly had. Also contrasting her brusque demeanor is her very “push-over” like attitude. Not even coming to Holden’s defense when Maurice attacked, although she knew Maurice was wrong. She becomes the object of Holden’s mistake, and in turn, like Maurice, also represents the change in Holden as he realizes what he is doing is wrong.

Characters Discussed

Allie Caulfield is another one of Holden’s siblings. A talented writer and baseball player, he had a baseball mitt that he filled with his writing. After he passed away with Leukemia, Holden kept his glove to have a piece of his brother. In death, it is also important to note Allie’s appreciation for life, although it was cut short. Also, it is important to note his place within the Caulfield family, “But it wasn’t just that he was the most intelligent member in the family. He was also the nicest." As brothers, Holden and Allie were very close. This is why Allie’s death affected Holden so deeply and had such a long and lasting impact on Holden’s life. Allie represents a very big change in Holden that ultimately affected who he became.

In practically every chapter, Holden’s thoughts have wandered to Jane Gallagher, one of his closest friends. Since he is constantly thinking of calling her and confiding in her, she is obviously friendly, reliable, and easy to talk to. In addition to listening, Jane loves to talk; actually Holden notes that “she never really closed it all the way, her mouth." She is such a valuable friend to Holden because of these qualities. Since Holden mentions her so often, one can also determine some of her other characteristics. For example, Holden becomes enraged when he discovers what Stradlater did with Jane, most likely by force. This hints that Jane is a very modest person and would not do something like this if not pressured into doing so. In addition, the incident with her step-father shows her emotional strength. In the story that Holden shared, he depicted her as normally being able to maintain her composure in public and suppress her true feelings to deal with them later. Jane is important in understanding how Holden’s grief over the loss of his brother led to his depression. They both suppress and keep their emotions from others. Holden, however, is not as strong and could not carry his burdens alone and broke down under the weight. Because of Jane, the readers can clearly see one of the causes of his depression.

Holden’s parents are mentioned quite often within this novel. When one thinks of parents, the characteristics such care, concern, and love all come to mind. Yes, Holden’s parents do possess these typical traits. However, there are a few qualities that set them apart from the rest. To them, appearances are very important. Obviously, they are rich, but it goes much deeper than that. The mother cares very much about her clothing and how she presents herself to other people. The father wants to show others how successful his children are, through their schooling and career paths. They want the best for their children and for themselves. This concept is not blatantly stated in the novel, but more subtly noted when Phoebe continues exclaiming how the parents will kill Holden because he was kicked out of school. They care a lot about what this is saying about their parenting. They feel as if they have something to prove to the world and they do it through their children. In addition, the mother “can make a very big stink” and cause drama over the smallest details, such as the neighbor’s dog relieving itself in her yard. Her yard represents her and her husband and, since image is everything to them, it must look perfect.

Growing up, some of the high expectations set for Holden were established by his older brother, D.B. Caulfield. His shoes are big ones to fill because of his long list of achievements and talents. First, D.B. is a skilled author trying to make it in the glamorous city of Hollywood. He has always been intelligent and excelled in school, leading other people to believe that Holden would be just as successful. Another thing that people in Holden’s life always imagine when they think of his brother is his way with women. He is very handsome and favored by many girls. Some, like Lillian Simmons on pages 86 – 87, still have him on the brain.1 Third, D.B. was in the military for four years, risking his life for his nation. His looks and the respect he has gained from people make him someone who is hard to forget. Even after moving miles and miles away from his family and friends, he and his accomplishments are never actually far from thought.

Outside Elements

Authors Mentioned:

• Ring Lardner was an American short story writer as well as sports columnist. He was the son of nine children, and was born into a wealthy family under his two parents. He wrote the lyrics for “That Old Quartet,” composed by Nathaniel D. Mann, and also wrote numerous short stories. His first successful book, called You Know Me Al, was originally a compilation of short stories, but was then put together as a novel. Lardner used satire in most of his stories, which highlighted the “stupidity and avarice” of specific athletes. Ring Lardner was admired by the author of The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger.

• Emily Dickinson was an American female poet born in 1830 in Massachusetts. After attending one year in Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, she returned home due to extreme homesickness. For the rest of her life, she rarely let her home, and therefore came into contact with very few people. The people she did come into contact with, however, had a major impact upon her poems and thoughts. Some such people include a reverend, a Massachusetts Supreme Court Judge, and the editor of a newspaper. Even though she lived in almost total physical isolation by the time she was 30, she maintained much contact with others by writing with others and reading avidly. Dickinson’s poetry deeply reflects her loneliness, and the narrators of her poems generally live in destitution. Despite this, however, her poems also have hints of happiness and inspiration. Dickinson died in 1886. The first volume of her poems was not published until 1890, and the last was published in 1995. Salinger probably included Emily Dickinson in the novel in order to exemplify the isolation that Holden is feeling during the novel. Holden has felt emotionally isolated from everyone since Allie’s life. He was also physically distant from the people he cares about for parts of the novel. Even though Dickinson was not emotionally or mentally distant from others during her lifetime, she was still isolated. Holden felt isolated, as well. Also, Dickenson was most likely included in the novel to give the reader a bit of hope that Holden will be able to find happiness again later in his life. The majority of Dickenson’s poems deal with isolation and the feeling of want. There are many instances, however, where hints of happiness and joy can be seen. These instances are something that the reader hopes to see in Holden’s life in the near future. If Holden has already reached the stage of want and desperation, it is only logical to assume that he will eventually feel happiness in his lifetime.

Books Mentioned:

[[:File:OutOfAfrica.jpg‎|thumb|left|alt=The novel Out of Africa by Isak Dineson.|The book, Out of Africa.]]

• Out of Africa is a memoir that was written by Isak Dineson, the pen name of the Danish author Baroness Karen Blixen, which was first published in 1937. It was written in English and then translated into Danish. The memoir is told from the point of view of a narrator, a Danish woman who owns the farm. She has natives who work on her farm that she’s very close to. The majority of the memoir consists of different events that occurred on the farm, told out of chronological order. During the memoir, the narrator creates a beautiful landscape, in which she lives in unity with the natives, any visitors, and the animals. Out of Africa is concluded on a tragic note, for the farm goes bankrupt and the narrator is forced to sell it. The narrator has to leave Africa and her farm. Salinger probably included the memoir Out of Africa to exemplify how a good life can turn to disaster suddenly. This is a direct parallelism of Holden’s life. In Out of Africa, the narrator had a wonderful life in a paradise-like land. This all fell apart abruptly, however, and she had to leave all of her old life behind. Similarly, Holden had a wonderful life, but after his brother’s death, he suffered great turmoil and had his life fall apart. He stopped doing well in school and distanced himself emotionally from all those people he loves. Thus, he left behind everything he loved in order to deal with his new emotional problems. The inclusion of Out of Africa in Catcher in the Rye reveals the emotional turmoil Holden is experiencing throughout the entire book. Holden says that the memoir “was a very good book.” This shows a clear connection between Holden’s emotions and the tone of the memoir. To further this connection, Holden goes on to say that he “wanted to read certain parts [of the memoir] over again.” The fact that Holden identifies with this memoir, especially with particular pieces of it, shows that he felt a deep personal connection to the loss and suffering the narrator in the memoir goes through. This gives the reader of Catcher in the Rye a peek into the emotions that Holden feels.

• Of Human Bondage, a novel written by Somerset Maugham, is about a nine year old boy named Philip Carey. In the beginning of the novel his parents die and he is sent to live with his aunt and uncle. His aunt tries to act like a mother to him but fails because of her immaturity. On the other hand, Philip’s uncle takes a strong hatred towards him and has a lot of power over him since his fortune is held in custody by his uncle. When he goes to Oxford to become a clergyman, he does not make any lasting relationships causing him to become miserable and moody. In Germany Philip meets a boy named Hayward who he believes to be superficial. When he returns from Germany, Miss Wilkinson, a family friend, is very flirtatious towards Philip. Although Philip is not attracted to her due to her old age, he likes the idea of having an affair so he pretends to be passionate towards her. Later on, Philip moves to Paris to study art. His fellow student, Miss Price falls in love with Philip and when he does not feel the same way, she commits suicide. When he returns from Paris, he learns that his aunt has died. He struggles in medical school and comes across a waitress names Mildred whom he falls in love with although she never showed any emotion towards him. She abandons him many times and turns to prostitution yet he still helps her. In the end, he has a job, is married, has kids, and then later dies; simple and perfectly. Salinger included the novel Of Human Bondage in The Catcher in the Rye to show the parallel lives between Philip and Holden. They both go through similar experiences including struggling in school, hatred towards guardians, moving around a lot, and sexual maturity issues such as prostitution and affairs. Holden most likely enjoys the book because he can connect well to Philip because of the many similarities between the two of them. However, Holden is not fond of Somerset Maugham, saying that “he isn’t the kind of guy [he’d] want to call up.” Holden clearly states many times that people who write for movies are phonies such as his brother D.B. and that they should write for enjoyment rather than fortune.
  

    “If there’s one thing I hate, it’s the movies. Don’t even mention them to me.” -Holden Caulfield

In 1934, a film was created based on the book which could be a cause of Holden’s hatred towards Somerset Maugham. Also, Holden called his brother a prostitute for selling his writings for money in Hollywood. Ironically, Somerset Maugham was the highest paid author in the 1930s.

• The Great Gatsby is a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Taking place during World War I, main Character Nick Carraway is home and in search of a career. He moves to New York from Minnesota into a wealthy district within Long Island. Carraway's neighbor, Jay Gatsby, is regarded as a very mysterious man for good reason. He lives in an enormous mansion with multiple gothic features, and manages to throw parties for no apparent reason, every weekend. Nick Carraway's district is known as the West Egg, and typically, most who are stationed in the West Egg are unfamiliar, and therefore lack connection to the East Egg. However, Nick is different because of his experience at Yale, where he met others who are from the East Egg. One night during the summer, Nick recieves an invitation to Jay Gatsby's party. At this party, Nick runs into Jordan Baker, who he'd previously seen that summer when some of his old friends introduced him to her while out to dinner.

Comin' Thro' the Rye:

The title of the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, is taken from the poem Comin' Thro' the Rye by Robert Burns, written in 1782. It is also known as a children’s song, which is how Holden first heard the poem. The poem is about a girl losing her virginity which is an essential part of growing up. The poem hints at casual sex without commitments, one of the things that Holden dislikes the most during the novel. When Holden first heard the poem, he thought the lyrics were “If a body catch a body comin’ through the rye”. Holden then goes on to explain to Phoebe that he wants to be the catcher in the rye in order to save children from falling over the cliff. Phoebe then breaks this illusion by telling him that he misheard the lyrics, thus shattering his chance of happiness. Salinger based the title of his novel off of Burns’ poem in order to show that Holden’s dreams will never become reality. Holden uses the poem as a connection to show that all he wants to do is save children’s innocence and protect them from growing up. He wanted to protect others from the harsh realities that he encountered while maturing. Burns’ poem actually symbolizes growing up and the loss of innocence. This directly contrasts what Holden hoped to do in his future. Holden wanted to protect innocence, while the example that he used is actually about losing innocence. This contrast proves that Holden’s hopes and dreams for happiness will never exist.

Bibliography

1. "SparkNotes: Out of Africa: Plot Overview." SparkNotes: Today's Most Popular Study Guides. Web. 31 Jan. 2012. <http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/africa/summary.html>.
2. "SparkNotes: The Great Gatsby: Plot Overview." SparkNotes: Today's Most Popular Study Guides. Web. 31 Jan. 2012. <http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gatsby/summary.html>.
3. Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown, 1951. Print.
4. "Emily Dickinson." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets. Web. 31 Jan. 2012. <http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/155>.