The Catcher in the Rye
AP Literature and Composition
Dawn McNew
The Gospel
According to
Holden
J.D. Salinger
author of The Catcher in the Rye
You’re
all a
bunch
of
phony
morons.
What does Holden look like?
•
YouTube - Captains Courageous 1937 Death scene of Spencer Tracy
Holden is a world- weary and
tortured soul trapped in the
body of a prep-school
student.
The original cover of
The Catcher in the Rye
as J.D. Salinger ordered it.
Connections to The
Catcher in the Rye in
popular culture.
CRIME
Mark David Chapman, the 25
year-old- assassin of John
Lennon, was arrested clutching
a copy of Catcher. He had
written on the inside cover
“This is my statement.” He later
told the New York Times that
“this extraordinary book holds
many answers” and “all of my
efforts will be devoted towards
getting people to read it.”
Other killers have since used
the book as a touchstone, John
W. Hinkley, Jr., who attempted
to asasinate Ronald Reagan,
was also said to have a special
fascination with Catcher.
Connections to The
Catcher in the Rye in
popular culture.
SLANG
What Dante’s The divine Comedy was
to 14-the century Italian…
What Huckleberry Finn was to the
Reconstructionist-era South...
Catcher in the Rye,
written in the 1940s
slangy vernacular of
Holden, is a historical
linquistic record of
postwar
colloquialism.
Screw-up
Moron
Lousy
Liberal use of
profanity
Connections to The
Catcher in the Rye in
popular culture.
FILM
J.D. Salinger famously banned the
book from ever being turned into a
film. Why? Ask Oona O’Neil
Chaplin.
The 1985 film Field of Dreams
features a character that is a thinly
veiled reference to Salinger
himself.
Beyond direct (or thinly veiled)
references, Salinger’s Caulfield has
inspired a slew of “disaffected
teen” or “coming of age” movies
from 1955’s Rebel Without a Cause
to 2009’s Adventureland.
Connections to The
Catcher in the Rye in
popular culture.
SATIRE
Catcher is perennially an
object of satire.
The Onion
One of The Onion's most enduringly humorous
pieces was a 2005 homage to Caulfield: it
centered on a 38-year-old man who decides to
conclude his lifelong quest to "find himself."
From the piece: "The search initially showed
great promise, with Speth's early discovery of
his uncle's old Doors records and a copy of The
Catcher in the Rye. Over the next two decades,
however, the 'leads just petered out.' Although
Speth searched in a wide variety of places—
including the I Ching, a tantric-sex manual, and
a course in chakrology—he uncovered
nothing."
Connections to The
Catcher in the Rye in
popular culture.
Holden Worship.
Holden Caulfield Blog
Movies inspired by Catcher
Cartoon synopsis( Fisher-Price style)
Walking in Holden's footsteps in NYC
Connections to The
Catcher in the Rye in
popular culture.
HISTORICAL
CONTEXT
1950s Youth Culture