Catcher in the Rye

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Catcher in the Rye

• By J.D.Salinger

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Background Info

• Salinger was born in New York City in 1919
• Catcher, written in 1951, was banned in several
  countries.
• Salinger - Upper middle class and attended
  private schools
• Managed the fencing team in high school, but
  flunked out of academics
• Enrolled in a military academy where he began
  writing stories

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Catcher in the Rye published in 1953

• Other works Nine Stories (1953), Franny and
  Zooey (1961)
• Salinger became involved in Zen mysticism
• Became reclusive and hostile towards media and
  outsiders

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Themes in Catcher

• Immaturity
• Responsibility
• Values
• Conformity vs. individuality
• grief

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Motifs

• Recovering from the death of his brother
• Deception
• Coping with parental and school authority
• Defending the vulnerable
• Accepting help for emotional illness

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Literary Terms

• Symbolism an object that stands for a complex
  or abstract idea or relationship and implies more
  than the literal meaning of the word or words
• First person point of view narrative spoken by
  a character indicating personal motivation and
  events. Holden speaks his own story and we see
  his quirks and weaknesses. Slang and diction is
  another clue to his immaturity.

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Allusion

• Allusion. A brief reference to a famous
  historical or literary figure or event
• If you take his parking place, you can expect
  World War II all over again.
• Plan ahead it wasn't raining when Noah built
  the ark.
• Notice in these examples that the allusions are
  to very well known characters or events, not to
  obscure ones. (The best sources for allusions are
  literature, history, Greek myth, and the Bible.)
  Note also that the reference serves to explain or
  clarify or enhance whatever subject is under
  discussion, without sidetracking the reader.

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J.D. Salinger quotes

• .there was discouraging word from Cornish,
  N.H., where J. D. Salinger has been a
  near-recluse in his cliffside chalet almost since
  the 1951 success of The Catcher in the Rye.
  Although his novel of adolescent turmoil still
  sells 400,000 copies annually, the author has not
  published since 1965.
• "I love to write and I assure you I write
  regularly," Mr. Salinger said in a rare interview
  published by The Boston Sunday Globe. "But I
  write for myself and I want to be left absolutely
  alone to do it."
• "I could not have foreseen all that's happened
  since I began this writing business," Mr.
  Salinger said, "and sometimes I wish I'd never
  published. I have absolutely no plans to publish
  at this time.
• "There's no more to Holden Caulfield. Read the
  book again. It's all there. Holden Caulfield is
  only a frozen moment in time."

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Metaphor

• Metaphor. A comparison which imaginatively
  identifies one thing with another dissimilar
  thing, and transfers or ascribes to the first
  thing some of the qualities of the second. Unlike
  a simile or analogy, metaphor asserts that one
  thing is another thing, not just that one is like
  another. Very frequently a metaphor is invoked by
  the to be verb
• Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life."
  --John 635
• The mind is but a barren soil a soil which is
  soon exhausted and will produce no crop, or only
  one, unless it be continually fertilized and
  enriched with foreign matter. --Joshua Reynolds