Catcher in the Rye
JD Salinger
“Breakdown on Fifth Avenue”
 Salinger started this story as a short
story and later turned it into a novel
 Chapter 25
Fifth Avenue
Point of View
 1st Person (naïve)
 Direct Address
 “If you really want to hear about it…”
 Flashback
 Holden tells about the day he left Pencey
Prep just before Christmas break
 Digression
 Reference to D.B. in Hollywood
Setting
 The novel is framed by the first and last
chapters which are set somewhere in
California during the 1950s
 Agerstown, Pennsylvania
 Pencey Prep Boarding School
 Various places in NYC
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Grand Central Station
Greenwich Village
Radio City Music Hall
Central Park
“Oh, the places you’ll go…”
“Oh, the places you’ll go…”
Plot
 Quest (journey) motif
 Actual journey
 Metaphorical journey
Structure
Picaresque (rogue) Framework
 Escapades of the hero
bookends
 Holden and his misadventures
 Realistic
 NYC is accurately represented
 NYC is a metaphor for the commercial world
which is devoid of feelings
 Satiric
 Holden’s loss of human connectedness
 He cannot connect to Jane because the “phone
didn’t answer”
Salinger’s Technique and Style
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First Person Narration
Flashback
Holden’s memory of situations
Sarcasm
Humor
Conflicts
 External
 Internal
 Man vs Man
 Man vs Society
 Man vs Nature
 Man vs Himself
Ultimate Conflict
Holden’s external conflicts meet his internal conflict
Protagonist and Antagonist
 Holden Caulfield
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16 years old
Troubled
Values:
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Honesty
Friendship
Compliments
Neatness
Down to earth people
Manners
Respect
Usefulness
Getting things we really
need
Does Not Value:
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Money
Superficiality
Fakeness
 Holden Caulfield
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Holden is unable to fit
into society and is at
odds with
 Different Characters
 Social Situations
 Educational
Environments
 Technology
 the World in general
Chapters 1-3
 Holden/expelled/Pencey Prep
 now 17/16 when action takes place
 D.B./Hollywood/prostitute
 Fencing Team/foils/subway
 Spencer/history essay/crud/sarcastic/ cover
up lack of knowledge/Spencer reads/to
shock Holden
 English/passed
 NYC/red hunting cap
 Ackley/roommate/annoying/lonely/dirty/
intrusive
Chapters 4-6
 Stradlater/ladies’ man/thinks highly
of himself/player
 Jane Gallagher/Holden/Stradlater
 Stradlater/favor/Holden agrees
 Allie/Holden/death/composition/baseball glove/poems
 Holden/fight Stradlater/Jane/
protection
Chapters 7-11
Holden/decision/NCY
Holden/train/Ernie Morrow/lie
Penn Station/call
Holden/cabbie/ducks
Hotel/perversions
Faith Cavendish/companionship
Phoebe/Holden’s relationship
Phoebe/Allie’s relationship
 “She killed Allie, too” (68).
 Holden/3 girls/movie stars
 Jane/kiss/stepfather
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Chapters 12-14
 Ernie’s/depression/Ernie’s piano playing/people clap
 Holden/cabbie/ducks/fish
 Holden/fear/change
 Holden/drunk/Lillian Simmons
 Holden/”yellow”/virgin/Sunny/talk/
operation
 Human companionship
 Adult situations
 Holden/religion/parents
 Maurice/$5.00/cries/Holden insults Maurice
 Holden/the movies
 Reality
 Holden/suicide/”rubbernecking”
Chapters 15-16
 Sally/phony
 Holden/parent’s finances
 Holden/nuns/Dick Slagle/suitcases
 Compassion/respect
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Money “making you blue”
Holden/walking/kid singing
Phoebe/Little Shirley Beans
Jane/phone/Mom
Museum of Natural History
Chapters 17-18
 Sally/good looking/Holden phony/run
away/”pain in the ass”/yelling (doesn’t
know it)
 “break down”
 Phone calls/Jane/Carl Luce/Wicker Bar
 3 people in phone book (Jane, dad’s work,
teacher)
 Movies/crying woman
 Atomic bomb/war
Chapters 19-23
 Wicker Bar/Luce (Whooten School)/sex/psychiatrist
 Adult situations
 Phone/Sally Hayes/hangs up
 Central Park/ducks/Phoebe’s record/ Allie’s
funeral/Holden’s death/ Holden’s hand
 “All you have to do is say something nobody
understands and they’ll do practically anything you
want them to” (158).
 Holden/home/DB’s room/Phoebe and record
 Phoebe/Holden like?/why?
 James Castle/Elkton/suicide/Mr. Antolini
 Holden/catcher in the rye/innocence
 Holden/Phoebe dancing/money/red hunting cap
Chapters 24-26
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Mr. Antolini/”headed for a fall”/pat on the head
Kinsella/oral expression/digression
Grand Central Station/psychological and physical
symptoms/street/Allie “Don’t let me disappear.”
Holden/deaf-mute
Holden/Phoebe’s school/”FUs”/his tombstone
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Can’t get rid of all the “FUs” in the world
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Permanent (round and round, same song)
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”Don’t tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing
everybody.”
Phoebe/suitcase/red hunting cap
Play Benedict Arnold
Carrousel/Phoebe
Holden/rest home
Comin thro’ the Rye
by Robert Burns
Chorus
O, Jenny’s a’weet, poor body,
Jenny’s seldom dry:
She draigl’t a’ her petticoatie,
Coming thro’ the rye!
I
Coming thro’ the rye, poor body.
Coming thro’ the rye,
She draigl’t a’ her petticoatie,
Coming thro’ the rye!
II
Gin a body meet a body
Coming thro’ the rye.
Gin a body kiss a body,
Need a body cry?
III
Gin a body meet a body
Coming thro’ the glen.
Gin a body kiss a body,
Need a warld ken?
Chorus
O, Jenny’s a’weet, poor body,
Jenny’s seldom dry:
She draigl’t a’ her petticoatie,
Coming thro’ the rye!