1
and
The Catcher in the Rye
2
J.D. SALINGER
•
•
•
•
3
Born in 1919 in New York City
Upper middle class upbringing
Jewish father and Catholic mother gave Jerome broad view of life
Educated in private boarding schools
J.D. SALINGER
• Managed the fencing team in high school, but flunked out of academics
• Enrolled in a military academy where he began writing stories
• Attended NYU to study writing
4
J.D. SALINGER
•
•
•
•
•
•
5
Drafted in World War II
War affected him – alienation from society
Began selling short stories to New Yorker magazine
1951 – The Catcher in the Rye published
Critical & popular success but controversial
Banned by many schools & libraries
J.D. SALINGER
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Catcher became a “cult” novel
1953 – Nine Stories published
Early 1960’s he published two more novels
His last published work was in the mid 60’s
Became reclusive and hostile towards media and outsiders
He said he had nothing more to write
He lives a quiet life in New Hampshire
6
7
8
Censorship
In J. D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield dreams of playing in a patch of rye near a
cliff. He must protect the children by catching them before they fall over the cliff. Part of his
protection is to go into rest rooms and change all of the f-words to b-words (BOOK).
9
Major Themes
• Children seeking acceptance into the adult world
1
• Lack of communication between children and adults
• The difficulties a good, sensitive man faces when confronted with issues of love
and/or death
Themes
10
•
•
•
•
•
•
Alienation
Immaturity
Responsibility
Values
Conformity vs. Individuality
Grief
Motifs
11
•
•
•
•
•
Recovering from the death of his brother
Deception
Coping with parental and school authority
Defending the vulnerable
Accepting help for emotional illness
Two World Concept
12
Children’s World
• Nice
• Kind
• Imaginative
• Creative
• innocent
13
2
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."
2