The Post-War Era and The Catcher in the Rye

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The Post-War Era and The Catcher in the Rye
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Historical Context WWII

• The Catcher in the Rye was published in 1951.
• August, 1945 first atomic bombs used in warfare
  dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• Reasons for the bombings controversial
• President Truman in his radio speech from Aug. 9,
  1945
• The world will note that the first atomic bomb
  was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base. That
  was because we wished in this first attack to
  avoid, insofar as possible, the killing of
  civilians. But that attack is only a warning of
  things to come.

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Historical Context WWII

• Hiroshimas civilian population was approx.
  300,000. It was also an important military
  center, containing about 43,000 soldiers.
• Death toll estimates for both Hiroshima and
  Nagasaki are only approximate
• In Hiroshima, approx. 70,000 people immediately
  killed as result of initial blast, heat, and
  radiation effects. After five years, the death
  total was approx. 200,000 due to cancer and
  other long-term effects.
• In Nagasaki, approx. 40,000 people were
  immediately killed. After five years, the death
  total was approx. 140,000.

4
Historical Background WWII

• On August 10, 1945, Japan surrendered to the
  Allies, the only condition being that the emperor
  be allowed to remain the nominal head of state.  
  

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The Post-War Era

• After end of WWII (1945), growing confidence in
  U.S. military and economic might
• End of war rationing meant access to consumer
  items
• Opportunities for employment for many (although
  women employed in wartime factories often exited
  the workforce)
• Burgeoning consumer culture of luxury for the
  masses

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The Cold War

• 1946 Churchill coins the term Iron Curtain
• 1948-9 Berlin Airlift (Soviet Union attempts to
  gain control of Berlin via blockade is thwarted
  by U.S./British airlift)
• 1949 Communists take control in China Chairman
  Mao Tse-Tung travels to Moscow and negotiates
  Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and
  Mutual Assistance.

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The Cold War

• 1950 North Korean Communist troops invade South
  Korea U.S. and U.N. intervene
• 1951 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are convicted of
  selling U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviet Union.
  They are executed in 1953, despite protests of
  some who believe they were targets of Red Scare
  witch-hunt
• 1950-1954 The Joseph McCarthy Erainvestigations
  into alleged Communists in the government ended
  in McCarthys being discredited by the U.S. Army

8
Culture of the Post War/Cold War Era

• Symbols and signs of optimism, wealth, and
  vulgarity
• the car (In the 50s, 20 of GNP of U.S. went
  to purchasing vehicles)
• gaudy colors chrome
• the supermarket (with an astounding selection
  of goods)
• home appliances (the mod cons)
• the suburbs
• Levittown considered first planned,
  mass- produced community in the suburbs built
  1947-1951 on Long Island

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The Mainstream vs. The Artists

• While the mainstream was embracing the
  consumerism and prototypical suburban family,
  many artists felt isolated and disconnected from
  the mainstream.
• These artists were often seeking
• apolitical subject matter that was avant-guard
• a divergence from past art forms
• sublime beauty and transcendence (we are back
  to Emerson and Thoreau in some ways)
• reactions and meaning-making from the
  viewers/readers/listeners

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Discuss How can we characterize the overall
Zeitgeist of the late 1940s-1950s?
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About Salinger

• Born 1919 in New York City to parents Sol and
  Miriam father was Jewish, mother, Catholic
• Attended public and private schools in
  Manhattan then Valley Forge Military Academy in
  Pennsylvania (may be basis for Pencey Prep)
• Attended New York University and Ursinus College,
  but did not graduate from either

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About Salinger

• Distinguished himself as writer in second
  semester of night class at Colombia with Whit
  Burnett, editor of Story magazine
• First publication appeared in 1940 in Story The
  Young Folks
• Many stories submitted to, and rejected by, The
  New Yorker

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About Salinger

• In December 1941, The New Yorker accepted Slight
  Rebellion Off Madison, about a teenager named
  Holden with "pre-war jitters."
• Story was not published until 1946 because deemed
  inappropriate after Pearl Harbor attack in same
  month

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About Salinger

• Served in WWII participated in D-Day Landings in
  1944 was one of first soldiers to enter a
  liberated concentration camp
• Was treated for shell shock, aka combat stress
  reaction, after the war
• Met and began correspondence with Earnest
  Hemingway while overseas E.H. called Salinger a
  helluva talent

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About Salinger

• Critically acclaimed A Perfect Day for
  Bananafish published in The New Yorker in 1948
• The Catcher in the Rye, featuring Holden
  Caulfield, was published on in July 1951
• Salinger on Catcher "My boyhood was very much
  the same as that of the boy in the book. It
  was a great relief telling people about it.

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About Salinger

• Novel was immediate popular success but also
  faced criticism for profanity, irreverance, and
  other inappropriate content
• Attention after publication of Catcher led
  Salinger to move to a small town in New Hampshire
• Most recent well-known publications are from the
  1960s best-known is Franny and Zooey (1961),
  from a series of stories about the Glass family.
• Salinger lived as relative recluse until his
  death in 2010, very rarely giving interviews,
  with no publications since 1965

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About Salingers techniques and themes

• Techniques/aspects of style
• internal monologue
• sparse but revealing dialogue
• young characters as focus
• colloquialisms intermingled with elevated
  diction
• Themes in Catcher and other works
• youthful innocence and the loss thereof
• alienation and isolation of the individual
• failure to live up to parental and societys
  expectations
• Be on the lookout for these elements!