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Born in NYC, Jan 1 st 1919.
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J.D. went to New York University and Columbia
University.
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His career was interrupted by WW2 and he returned
from service in 1946
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He wrote for the “New Yorker”
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Published 35 short stories including some in the
“Saturday evening post” and “Colliers” between 1940
and 1948
•Catcher in The Rye starts out in Agerstown,
Pennsylvania, at Pencey prep High school.
•But the setting changes throughout the book as
Holden travels throughout Newyork.
•It takes place in the 1950’s
•Holden Caulfield is the main character of the story. He’s also
the narrator of the novel. He’s a 16 year old junior and he’s
getting expelled from Pencey Prep due to academic failure.
Holden is his own person and doesn’t care what other people
think about him.
•Ackley is Holden’s next door neighbor at Pencey and he
barges into Holden’s room a lot and he doesn’t get Holden’s
hints that he wants him to leave.
•Stradlater is Holden’s room mate at Pencey, he’s handsome,
popular and gets all the ladies. He appears like a stud but he
really has bad hygiene and doesn’t take care of himself.
•Jane Gallagher is a girl that Holden spent a lot of time with
one summer in Maine on vacation.
•Phoebe Caulfield is Holden’s 10 year old sister who he loves a
lot. She is one of the few people that understand Holden even
though she is so young.
•D.B. Caulfield Is Holden’s older brother who he admires
•Sally Hayes is an attractive girl that Holden dated for a while
but Holden thinks shes dumb.
•Mr. spencer is Holden’s history teacher at Pencey and he tries
to help Holden with his academic struggle.
•Mr. Antolini is Holden’s former English teacher at Elkton Hills
school. Teaches at NYU and takes Holden in for a few days.
•Maurice Is the elevator operator that lends Holden a prostitute
•Sunny is the prostitute
•Written in English
•Written in the late 1940’s – early 1950’s in New York
•Published in July of 1951 by a company called Little,
Brown and Company.
•The tone of the story is often disgusted and bitter
because of the way people act.
The book starts out with Holden at Pencey Prep in Agerstown
Pennsylvania, a school he doesn’t like at all. He’s actually soon
getting kicked out for academic failure. Its Saturday and he
isn’t suppose to go home until Wednesday and if his parents
find out that he is getting kicked out he will be in big trouble!
So for a few days he has to find a place to stay. But before he
leaves his room mate, Stradlater goes on a date with his old
friend Jane Gallagher and Holden and Stradlater get into a
fight. He then gets interrupted by Ackley who is his next door
neighbor. Ackley is an ugly guy who has a terrible sense of
hygiene. He gets onto Holden’s nerves a lot. So that night
Holden decides to leave Pencey Prep. He goes out to a few bars
that night and he finally stays the night at a hotel in New York.
Holden stays at a hotel and its around 1 am and the elavator
operator asks him if he wants a girl for the night. Holden says why
not and the elevator clerk says it’ll be 5 bucks. So about 15 minutes
later this girl knocks on his door named sunny. They don’t end up
doing anything that night because Holden just didn’t feel like it so
he payed her 5 bucks and she left. Later that night while he’s trying
to sleep the elavator operator and sunny knock on the door asking
for their money. Claiming that it was suppose to be 10 dollars.
Holden and the guy get into a fight and they steal 5 more dollars
from him and they leave. The next day Holden finally realizes that
he hates the adult life and he decides to try and run away from it.
He goes home to see Phoebe, his sister and she loans him her
Christmas money that she has been saving up so he can get away.
Mr. Antolini takes him in for a few days and lets him stay at his
place to re-cooperate. Holden realized that he didn’t want other
kids to fall off the cliff of childhood into the word of adulthood. He
wanted to be the catcher in the rye field that caught the kids before
they fell off the cliff. Metaphorically speaking.
I thought the book was a good book over all. The only part
I didn’t like was the ending because it didn’t really tell
what Holden’s future was going to hold for him. But I
would definitely recommend the book to other people
that are looking for a book that they want to get hooked
on because a lot of the time I didn’t want to put the book
down.
www.gradesaver.com/author/j-salinger/