J.D.

Salinger “The Catcher in the Rye”

GENRE:
Realism uses slang, dialect, class distinctions, and real-world locations to present an
accurate picture of a specific time and place. Salinger uses several recognizable locations,
for example Central Park and the Natural History Museum, to ground his novel in the
familiar and make it feel realistic and possible.
Bildungsroman: describes the protagonist attempting to transition from childhood to
adulthood. Holden encounters many adults, almost all of whom he rejects as “phonies.”
Holden must create his own model of how to be a moral person in the adult world.
Written in the first
Literary Satire: contains elements that critique the genre, making it a literary satire as
person, with Holden
well. By referencing Dickens’s book on the first page, Holden alerts us that he is aware of
acting as both protagonist
our expectations for his story, and does not intend to fulfil them.
and narrator, signalling
we are getting his limited,
STYLE: The voice is characterized by Holden’s colloquial and frank use of language. His biased view of events.
use of slang and profanity draws attention to itself, suggesting he is trying to create an Salinger uses dialogue to
impression of himself as tough and rebellious. Holden’s language also indicates his bring the reader outside
immaturity. He also tends to engage in hyperbole and generalization. another Holden’s head and give an
characteristic of Holden’s voice is the pervasive use of filler phrases and qualifiers: “sort alternate perspective on
of”, “I mean it”, “really”. the action. The second-
All of the characters have particular ways of speaking. Characters from lower-class person address also
backgrounds speak with heavy regional accents and have poor grammar. Characters with draws attention to
upper-class backgrounds similar to Holden typically speak in complete, sophisticated Holden’s unreliability as a
sentences and use few curse words or filler phrases. narrator.

Alienation as a form of self-protection. Holden’s alienation is his way of protecting himself, his cynical sense of
superiority serves as a type of self-protection. We can see that Holden’s alienation is the cause of most of his pain.
He desperately needs human contact and love, but his protective wall of bitterness prevents him from looking for
such interaction

The painfulness of growing-up. His central goal is to resist the process of maturity. He is frightened because he
is guilty of the sins he criticizes in others, he can’t understand everything around him, but he refuses to
acknowledge this fear. Instead of acknowledging that adulthood scares and mystifies him, Holden invents a
fantasy that adulthood is a world of superficiality and hypocrisy (“phoniness”), while childhood is a world of
THEMES

innocence, curiosity, and honesty. He imagines childhood as an idyllic field of rye in which children romp and
play; adulthood, for the children of this world, is equivalent to death—a fatal fall over the edge of a cliff.

Women and Sex. In The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger uses Holden Caulfield’s thoughts about women and sex
to illustrate the young man’s naivety. More specifically, Holden’s romantic and sexual expectations reveal his
tendency to idealize certain unrealistic notions. he cuts himself off from emotional and romantic intimacy because
he has cultivated unrealistic expectations for both the people he respects and the way he views his life.
Accordingly, he finds himself alone and unable to sensibly envision not only his love life, but also his future.

Gender perspective. Men in the 1950s were expected to be heteronormative; women were divided into the
mother/angel paradigm or the femme fatal (fallen woman) or the perfect housewife/mother. Holden classifies
women into these two categories. Some critics think that Holden rejects any father-son intimacy, as he rejects his
own family.

The Catcher in the Rye The song “Comin’ Thro’ the Rye” asks if it is wrong for two people to have a romantic
encounter out in the fields, away from the public eye, even if they don’t plan to have a commitment to one another.
Holden wants to catch children before they fall out of innocence into knowledge of the adult world, including
knowledge of sex

Red Hunting Hat it is a symbol of his uniqueness and individuality The presence of the hat, therefore, mirrors
the central conflict in the book: Holden’s need for isolation versus his need for companionship
SYMBOLS

The ducks in the Central Park Lagoon. Traumatized and made acutely aware of the fragility of life by his brother
Allie’s death, Holden is terrified by the idea of change and disappearance. The ducks vanish every winter, but they
return every spring, thus symbolizing change that isn’t permanent, but cyclical. Finally, the pond itself becomes
a minor metaphor for the world as Holden sees it, because it is “partly frozen and partly not frozen.” The pond is
in transition between two states, just as Holden is in transition between childhood and adulthood.

The Museum of Natural History. The museum represents the world Holden wishes he could live in: it’s the world
of his “catcher in the rye” fantasy, a world where nothing ever changes, where everything is simple,
understandable, and infinite. Holden is terrified by the unpredictable challenges of the world—he hates conflict,
he is confused by Allie’s senseless death, and he fears interaction with other people