CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background of Study
The writer chooses the novel The Catcher in the Rye (1951) written by
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Jerome David Salinger in writing this paper. Salinger was born January 1 1919 in
New York City. He has published his works, which consists of one novel and
thirteen short stories written in the period of 1948-59. Salinger dedicated his life
entirely to writing after brief periods at New York and Columbia universities. He
was also associated with "The New Yorker" magazine, which published almost all of
his stories. Some of his greatest works are "For Esme - With Love and
Squalor"(1950); "A Perfect Day for Bananafish"(1948); and "The Catcher in the
Rye" (1951), the best known controversial novel for its liberal use of vulgarity,
expose of sexuality and teenage anxiety. "Nine Stories"(1953), a selection of
Salinger's best work, added to his reputation followed by "Franny and Zooey"
(1961); "Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters" and "Seymour: An Introduction"
(1963).
The reason why the writer chooses this novel for it is worth analyzing
because it illustrates the reality of our life with its conflicts and obstacles that we
may encounter on a daily basis. Apparently, the complex problems whether it is
internal or external, both will affect someone's mental and behavior. In this story,
the main character's problems occur internally yet supported by several external
factors as well. Holden feels depressed for he wanted to protect the innocence
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childhood from the "phoniness" of the adult world that he is about to enter. The other
reason which makes this novel more interesting is because the novel has ever been
banned by public libraries, schools, and bookstores due to its profanity, blasphemy,
expose of sexuality, and rejection of traditional American values. However, it also
has become a common part of high school
and college curriculum all over the
English-speaking world, especially in United States.
The Catcher in the Rye tells about a restless adolescent facing a lot of
difficulties in the adult world. Holden Caulfield, as the main character in this novel,
shares his experiences during his expulsion from Pencey Prep College from a mental
facility where he is being psychoanalyzed. He feels frustrated and decides to leave
his school to go to New York in order to escape from the problems he faces. The
story also reveals how he manages to undergo particularly difficult phases during his
journey. The primary causes of his distressed feelings were the death of his brother
Allie and the suicide of one of his schoolmates. Those things lead him to become an
extremely judgmental and cynical person. Criticizing and philosophizing about
almost everything and everybody has become his habit, such as withering people
who are boring, insecure, and above all people who are "phony". He uses many
different ways to block himself from the hypocrisy and viciousness of the world
around him. Even he is often desiring and fantasizing of committing suicide or
killing other people whenever he faces a difficulty in his life.
Holden suffers from mental illness that makes him lose consciousness. It
becomes worse as he feels paranoid and delusional. He suffers great depression for
he assumes he will not survive much longer. Surprisingly, watching his sister Phoebe
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on the carousel happens to be the turning point in his life. He finds himself
completely broken down both physically and emotionally only by seeing Phoebe and
her simple childish, both fear and pleasure. He then realizes he needs to be cured for
there can be no "catcher" to protect children's innocence. He decides to turn himself
in a mental institution for being psychoanalyzed.
1.2. Problem Formulations
The formulations of problem in this paper are:
1. How do the supporting characters contribute to the main character's depression
illness within the novel?
2. What are the causes and effects of depression illness that are showed by the main
character Holden Caulfield?
3. How does Holden face the depression and go through his life as the sufferer of this
mental illness?
4. Is the literary work connected with the author's past life experience?
1.3. Scope and Limitation
The scope for this paper is the novel, The Catcher in the Rye and the
limitations are focused on the characters that play vital role within the novel and
main character's disturbed behavior because of depression illness. The analysis will
be limited to the study of the character itself; causes and effects of depression and it
will be supported by the analysis of sociological environment. Moreover, this study
will also covered the biographical approach of the novel as it will elaborate more in
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how the work connected with the author's past life experiences. The theories that
will be used are the elements of fiction theory particularly on the characters, theory
of depression as a part of theory psychoanalysis criticism and sociological theory,
also theory of biographical criticism.
1.4. Goals and Functions
The goals of this study are:
I. To show how the supporting characters contribute to the main character's
depression illness within the novel.
2. To show the causes and effects of depression illness that are showed by
Holden in the novel The Catcher in the Rye.
3. To show the way of Holden's recovery to be released from the illness.
4. To show how the literary work connected with the author's past life
experiences.
The functions of this study are:
I. To facilitate the future students m analyzing the literary work from the
biographical approach
2. To help the upcoming students in identifying the characters that are
considered have crucial and essential role within the novel.
3. To help the upcoming students in understanding more about depression
theory as a part in psychoanalysis criticism, mostly the symptoms, causes,
and effects from this mental illness.
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4. To illustrate the readers that this mental illness or depression has the
devastating effect for its sufferer. They must get support from other people,
especially from the family and society to recover from this sickness.
1.5. Research Methods
The methods of research use for the preparation of this thesis are in a form of
a library and online research. Selected information from textbooks and online
articles related to analysis are used. Such textbooks are taken from the book
collections ofBina Nusantara University Library.
The writer began with reading the novel several times until she gets the idea.
The next steps formulated the problems and analyzed them. The writer made an
observation and gathered the information about the mental illness using the theory of
depression and socio-psychological before composing the thesis. Then all the
theories were linked to the main character in the novel in order to analyze the
symptoms, causes, and effects which occurred in the character of the story.
Moreover, the writer also used biographical approach criticism in analyzing this
literary work which reflected the author's life. Finally, the writer drew a conclusion
on how actually the depression affected the main character as revealed in the novel
through the analysis in chapter three.