Catcher in the Rye

Jerome David Salinger was born on January 1, 1919 into a wealthy family in Manhattan, New York. His father, a successful meat importer, had high expectations for Salinger and sent him to numerous prep schools where Salinger usually failed. One school he attended was the Valley Forge Military Academy in Pennsylvania. His unpleasant experiences at the institute created a basis for his cynical description of Pency Prep in his novel. During Salinger’s brief attendance at Columbia University, he discovered his interest in writing fiction. After college, he served in the Army during World War II, where he saw combat action with the U.S. 4th Infantry Division. Critics argue that this experience emotionally scarred him. Thereafter, he was hospitalized for combat stress reaction. During and after the war, he published stories about his combat experience in the “Collier's” and the “Saturday Evening Post”. In 1951, Salinger published his first novel, The Catcher in the Rye. Despite some controversy regarding the style of the book, Salinger’s novel garnered huge worldwide success. Ironically, even with the book’s embracing reception, Salinger never published again. Salinger’s cynical attitude and distrust in society made him very unsocial. He soon withdrew entirely from the outside world. Salinger’s character from The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield, seems to embody much of Salinger’s personality. Some even refer to his novel as a semi-autobiography (Wikipedia).

The Catcher in the Rye is a first person narrative of a sixteen year old boy named Holden Caulfield. He tells the story from a mental hospital where he is getting treatment. The narrative begins when he is expelled from Pencey Prep School and chronicles his return to Manhattan three days early. He concludes that he will stay in the city and not go home for a couple days. He checks into a hotel and encounters many different people during his adventure. He refers to most people he meets as being “phonies” and artificial. He views the world with criticism and does not want to face the realities of adulthood. Yet as the novel progresses, Salinger uses Holden’s characterization and idealism to depict the theme that growing up and experiencing life is inevitable.

Salinger uses characterization to construct the development of the major theme. Holden Caulfield, the main character in the novel, has a cynical point of view towards the world. He cannot stand the corruption and hypocrisy of society. He especially hates “phones” and tries hard to resist becoming one. The adult world becomes his enemy: he is disgusted with its cruelty and corruption. He admires people who are innocent. Allie is Holden’s ultimate symbol of innocence. She was always sweet and “never [got] mad at anybody” (50). She died at an early age so she never had to be exposed to the ugly world and lose her innocence. Although Holden is obsessed with the perseverance of innocence, he slowly finds himself drifting into the adult world. He becomes attracted to the very aspect of life that he wanted to keep away from the innocent children. Holden is immature and unrealistic at the beginning of the book. He wants to prevent natural events from occurring. But as the novel progresses, he slowly becomes more mature