Catcher in the Rye
Reading and Discussion Notes
J (Jerome) D (David) Salinger
• Born in NYC in 1919
– Son of a wealthy importer—child of privilege, just like Holden
• Shuttled between various prep schools until he was finally sent to
military school
• Attended a number of colleges but never graduated
– While at Columbia University, he took a class in creative writing;
rekindled his interest in a writing career
– First short story published in 1940
– Published Catcher in 1951: only novel he ever wrote
– Continued to write short stories for the next 10 years, but withdrew
from public life completely in 1965
Catcher in the Rye—social impact
• Novel is a coming-of-age story
• Articulated the feelings of youth struggling
against the conformist adult society of the
1950’s and 1960’s
• Use of slang, profanity, and because he
discussed adolescent sexuality in a
complex and open way led to controversy
and censorship
Plot Overview
• SETTING
– 1950’s
• Starts at Pencey Prep School in Penn.
• Moves to NYC
– December—a week before Christmas Break: book spans a three day
period in Holden’s life
• Frame Story
– Outside framework: Holden is in a “rest home”/rehab like facility
in Ch. 1 and 26
– Inside framework: Story of 3 days that led up to Holden’s stay in
the rest home
• Style: stream on consciousness—we are hearing Holden’s story from his point
of view, as he remembers the events and his free association of ideas
Plot Overview
• Narrator
– Holden Caulfield—16years old
• Flunked out of Pencey and numerous other prep
schools
• Comes from affluent family
• Has older brother, DB; sister, Phoebe; younger
brother, Allie, died a few years prior of leukemia
• Story is told from Holden’s perspective looking back
on the past
– Where is he now?
Plot Overview
• Ch. 1-8: Leaving Pencey
– Holden failed 4 out of 5 subjects and is not
invited back after Christmas Break
– Says goodbye to his favorite teacher, Mr.
Spencer
• Admonishes Holden that he must learn to “play the
game”
– Game of Life—How does Holden see life as a game? Is it a
fair game? Who has the advantage?
– Encounters his roommate (Stradlater) and
neighbor (Ackley); both are slobs and phonies
Plot Overview
• Ch. 1-8: Leaving Pencey
– Favor for Stradlater—who went on a date with
Holden’s friend, Jane Gallagher—lets reader
know about the death of Allie and Holden’s
reaction to it
• Importance of Jane Gallagher? Who is she to
Holden? What’s the deal with her kings in the back
row?
– When Stradlater returns from date, he and
Holden fight about Jane
– Holden packs up and leaves Pencey after fight
• Heads to Manhattan to relax in a hotel for 3 days
before returning to his parents’ apartment
• On the train—incident with Mrs. Morrow
Symbols and Motifs so far…
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Ducks in Central Park
The red hunting hat
Holden’s gray hair
Jane’s kings in the back row
Phonies
Title Origins
• Based on a poem by Scottish poet, Robert Burns
– O Jenny is all wet, poor body,
Jenny is seldom dry:
She draggled all her petticoats,
Coming through the rye!
– Coming through the rye, poor body,
Coming through the rye,
She draggled all her petticoats,
Coming through the rye!
– Should a body meet a body
Coming through the rye,
Should a body kiss a body,
Need a body cry?
– Should a body meet a body
Coming through the glen,
Should a body kiss a body,
Need the world know?
– Should a body meet a body
Coming through the grain,
Should a body kiss a body,
The thing is a body's own.
Title Origins
• What does the poem mean? What is Jenny doing in the rye?
– She has had a sexual encounter and is wrestling with feelings of
guilt, shame, and excitement
• What, then, does it mean to be the “catcher” in the rye? What would
the “catcher” do?
– Literally: to stop or catch people before they have sex in the
fields
– Metaphorically: Protect people from losing their “innocence”
• How does this relate to Holden? How does he feel about sex?
Romantic love?
– He wants to protect innocent people (children, Jane) from being taken advantage
of
• How does this relate to the little boy who Holden hears singing the
poem while he walks along the sidewalk with his parents?
– Kid is on the curb, about to fall into the dangerous city street…parents are not
watching, but Holden is.
Plot Overview
• Ch. 9-22: NYC
– Stays at Edmont Hotel
• Watches others in their hotel rooms
• Calls hooker/stripper Faith Cavendish
– Refuses to meet him so late
• Goes to bar: Lavender Room
– Can’t get served drinks
– Hits on 3 older women
» They use him to buy them drinks and then leave
Plot Overview
• Ch. 9-22: NYC
– After leaving the bar, Holden thinks about Jane
• Met on vacation in Maine
– Played checkers, went to movies, kissed once
– Leaves hotel to go to Jazz Bar: Ernie’s
• For the third time in the novel, he wonders where the ducks in
Central Park go in the winter
– Back at the hotel, the elevator man (Maurice) offers to
get Holden a hooker
• When Sunny comes to his room, he decides he just wants to
talk, then he pays her and asks her to leave
• Maurice shows up demanding more money; Holden refuses and
gets beat up by Maurice
Plot Overview
• Ch. 9-22: NYC
– NYC Day 2
• Calls former girlfriend Sally Hayes—makes a date for the
afternoon
• Calls Jane Gallagher—not home
• Goes to Central Park to try and find his sister
• Calls Carl Luce, student advisor from Whooton
– Meet at a bar, where Holden proceeds to act extremely immature
and offends Luce, who leaves
– Holden stays at bar and gets drunk
• Drunk, he heads first to Central Park to see the ducks, then
home to his parents’ apartment to see Phoebe
Plot Overview
• Ch. 9-22: NYC
– Admits to Phoebe he’s kicked out
– Tells her he wants to be a “catcher in the rye”
• Based on a Robert Burns poem
– Person who rescues little kids from a cliff
– Phoebe corrects him and tells him that he’s got the poem all
wrong
» Holden’s version “IF A BODY CATCH A BODY”
» Phoebe’s correction “IF A BODY MEET A BODY”
Plot Overview
• Ch. 23-end
– Leaves parents’ apartment to see former English teacher Mr.
Antolini
• Falls asleep on his couch
• Wakes up to Antolini stroking his forehead
– Holden thinks he is trying to molest him, so he leaves
– NYC Day 3: Goes to Phoebe’s school
• Leaves her a note that he is running away and to meet him at the
museum at lunch
• Phoebe comes with her suitcase—she wants to go with him
• He refuses, takes her to ride the carousel, which makes him very happy
– What is significant about the carousel ride—What does Holden say that
might show evidence that he is maturing just a bit?
– Story ends with Holden saying that he doesn’t want to tell about
going home or where he is; says he is starting new school in fall—
WILL HE BE SUCCESSFUL THIS TIME?
Themes
• Alienation to protect ourselves
– Holden alienates himself from everyone as a result of
Allie’s death
• If you don’t care about anyone or anything, then nothing can
hurt you
• Painfulness of Growing up
– This book isn’t really about anything happening; it is
about Holden growing up and maturing
• Holden tries to resist growing up as much as possible
• Phoniness of the Adult World
– All adults are phonies and they can’t see their phoniness
• Phony: superficial, hypocrite, shallow
Symbols
• The “Catcher in the Rye”
– Based on poem by Robert Burns
• Childhood=field of rye
• Catcher rescues the children from the cliff
• Cliff=adulthood
• Red Hunting Hat
– Symbol of his uniqueness and individuality
• Hat is red—same color as Phoebe and Allie’s hair
Symbols
• Museum of Natural History
– Everything is frozen and unchanging
• Holden would like to freeze his life—he is confused
by the adult world and would like to stay a kid
• Ducks
– Symbolize Holden’s still youthful curiosity
– Symbolize that sometimes things/people leave,
but they do come back (unlike Allie)