Catcher in the Rye
By J. D. Salinger
Prepared by E. Gözde Girgin
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INDEX:
The Plot
The Characters
The Themes
The Motifs
The Symbols
The Author
Evaluation
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Objectives:
To read a popular
American novel by J.
D. Salinger and
evaluate the novel in
terms of :
To analyze the material in
depth and answer
discussion questions.
The Plot
The Characters
The Themes
The Motifs and
Symbols.
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The Plot:
Holden Caulfield, the narrator of The
Catcher in the Rye, begins with the novel
with an authoritative statement that he
does not intend for the novel to serve as
his life story. Currently in psychiatric care,
this teenager recalls what happened to him
last Christmas, the story which forms the
narrative basis for the novel.
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Plot 2.
Holden returns to his dormitory where he
finds Robert Ackley
*Holden tells about how Allie died of
leukemia several years before and how he
broke all of the windows in his garage out
of anger the night that he died.
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Plot 3.
Holden decides to leave Pencey He leaves
Pencey to return to New York City, where
he will stay in a hotel before actually going
home.
While he is walking he feels depressed
when he hears children singing the song "If
a body catch a body coming through the
rye." When Holden sees Sally immediately
wants to marry her, even though he does
not like Sally.
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Plot 4.
He tells Phoebe, whom he knows for some
time that he would like to be "a catcher in
the rye," and he imagines himself standing
at the edge of a cliff as children play
around him. He would catch them before
they ran too close to the cliff.
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Plot 5.
When his parents come home, Holden sneaks out
to stay with Mr. Antolini, his former English
teacher at Elkton Hills. Mr. Antolini tells Holden
that he is headed for a serious fall and that he is
the type who may die nobly for a highly unworthy
cause.
Holden falls asleep on the couch, and when he
awakens he finds Mr. Antolini with his hand on
Holden's head. Holden immediately interprets this
as a homosexual advance, and decides to leave.
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Plot 6.
Holden spends the night at Grand Central Station,
then sends a note to Phoebe at school, telling her
to meet him for lunch. He becomes increasingly
distraught and delusional, believing that he will die
every time he crosses the street and falling
unconscious after suffering from diarrhea.
When he meets Phoebe, she tells him that she
wants to go with him and becomes angry when he
refuses. He buys Phoebe a ticket for the carousel
at the nearby zoo, and as he watches her, he
begins to cry.
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Plot 7.
Holden ends his story here. He refuses to
tell what happened next and how he got
sick, and tells how people are concerned
about whether or not he will apply himself
next year. He ends the story by telling
that he misses Stradlater and Ackley and
even Maurice.
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The Characters:
Holden Caulfield
Phoebe
Allie Caulfield
Mr. Spencer
Mr. Antolini
Ackley
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HOLDEN
The protogonist of the novel and the narrator.
He reveals himself to be self-destructive and dangerously cynical.
Phobe
Mr. Spencer
Mr. Antolini
Robert Ackley
Holden's nine year old younger sister
Holden's history teacher at Pencey,
he discusses Holden's expulsion with him
Holden's former English teacher
Mr. Antolini allows Holden to stay with him
A boorish, obnoxious student at Pencey
He is social y inept
Dr. Thurmer
Allie Caufield
The headmaster of Pencey,
Dr. Thurmer gives Holden advice that "life is a game"
Holden's younger brother
he died from leukemia.
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The Symbols:
1)The “Catcher in
the Rye”
Catcher in the Rye
1) In Chapter 22, when Phoebe
asks Holden what he wants
to do with his life, he
replies with his image, from
the song, of a “catcher in
the rye.” Holden imagines a
field of rye perched high
on a cliff, full of children
romping and playing. He
says he would like to
protect the children from
falling off the edge of the
cliff by “catching” them if
they were on the verge of
tumbling over.
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Symbols 2.
2)Holden’s Red
Hunting Hat
Catcher in the Rye
The red hunting hat is
inseparable from our
image of Holden, with
good reason: it is a
symbol of his
uniqueness and
individuality. The hat
is outlandish, and it
shows that Holden
desires to be
different from
everyone around him.
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The Themes:
Alienation as a Form
of Self-Protection
The Painfulness of
Growing Up
The Phoniness of the
Adult World
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Alienation as a Form of Self-Protection
Throughout the novel, Holden seems to be excluded
from and victimized by the world around him. As he
says to Mr. Spencer, he feels trapped on “the other
side” of life, and he continually attempts to find his
way in a world in which he feels he doesn’t belong.
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The Painfulness of Growing Up
According to most analyses, The Catcher in the Rye is
a bildungsroman, a novel about a young character’s
growth into maturity. While it is appropriate to
discuss the novel in such terms, Holden Caulfield is
an unusual protagonist for a bildungsroman because
his central goal is to resist the process of maturity
itself.
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The Phoniness of the Adult World
“Phoniness,” which is probably the most famous
phrase from The Catcher in the Rye, is one of
Holden’s favorite concepts. It is his catch-all for
describing the superficiality, hypocrisy, pretension,
and shallowness that he encounters in the world
around him.
Phoniness, for Holden, stands as an emblem of
everything that’s wrong in the world around him and
provides an excuse for him to withdraw into his
cynical isolation.
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Motifs
Loneliness
Relationships,
Intimacy, and
Sexuality
Lying and Deception
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Loneliness:
Holden’s loneliness, a more concrete manifestation
of his alienation problem, is a driving force
throughout the book. Most of the novel describes his
almost manic quest for companionship as he flits
from one meaningless encounter to another.
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Relationships, Intimacy, and Sexuality:
Relationships, intimacy, and sexuality are also
recurring motifs relating to the larger theme of
alienation. Both physical and emotional relationships
offer Holden opportunity to break out of his isolated
shell. They also represent what he fears most about
the adult world: complexity, unpredictability, and
potential for conflict and change.
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Lying and Deception:
Lying and deception are the most obvious and hurtful
elements of the larger category of phoniness.
Holden’s definition of phoniness relies mostly on a
kind of self-deception: he seems to reserve the most
scorn for people who think that they are something
they are not or who refuse to acknowledge their own
weaknesses. But lying to others is also a kind of
phoniness. Of course, Holden himself is guilty of both
these crimes. His random and repeated lying
highlights his own self-deception
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The Author:
Born in New York City on the
first day of 1919, J.D.
Salinger is the son of a Jewish
father and a Christian mother.
After brief periods of
enrollment at both NYU and
Columbia University, Salinger
devoted himself entirely to
writing, and by 1940 he had
published several short
stories in periodicals.
Although his career as a
writer was interrupted by
World War II, after
returning Salinger resumed a
writing career primarily for
The New Yorker magazine.
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The Author 2.
Salinger received major critical
and popular recognition with The
Catcher in the Rye (1951), the
story of Holden Caulfield
Salinger followed The Catcher in
the Rye with Nine Stories (1953),
a selection of his best literary
work, and Franny and Zooey in
1961
Since 1953, Salinger has resided
in Cornish, New Hampshire, and
claims that he continues to write..
Salinger refuses to give
interviews. Personal information
about him is limited.
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Evaluation:
1. Holden narrates the story of The
Catcher in the Rye while he is recovering
from his breakdown. Do you think the
promise of recovery that Holden
experiences as he watches the carousel at
the end of the novel has been fulfilled?
Specifically, has Holden gained a more
mature perspective on the events that he
narrates?
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Evaluation 2.
2. Think about Holden’s vision of the
nature of childhood and adulthood. Are the
two realms as separate as Holden believes
them to be? Where does he fit in?
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Evaluation 3.
3. Holden often behaves like a prophet or a
saint, pointing out the phoniness and
wickedness in the world around him. Is
Holden as perfect as he wants to be? Are
there instances where he is phony and full
of hypocrisy?
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References:
www.sparknotes.com
www.gradesavior.com
Salinger,J.D, Catcher in the Rye.
United States, 1951.
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Thank You
E. Gözde Girgin
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