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The Catcher in the Rye

by J. D. Salinger

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Places Discussed

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*New York City

*New York City. Primary setting for most of Salinger’s writings. Salinger knew the city well; while he grants New York the “big-city” aura for which it is famous, he also paints a picture of the city’s darker side. Instead of having Holden attend fancy cocktail parties, Salinger has him staying at the seedy Edmont Hotel and sleeping in Grand Central Station. According to Salinger, New York is a place that brings out the worst in people.

*Upper East Side

*Upper East Side. Manhattan neighborhood in which Holden’s family lives. While his parents are away, he visits with his sister Phoebe in the family apartment. For Holden, Phoebe is the only person who is not a phony, and Salinger paints a portrait of her as pure innocence. Everything in her room is neat and orderly, including her schoolbooks. The whole apartment suggests normalcy and structure, the two things Holden needs more than anything else.

Edmont Hotel

Edmont Hotel. Rundown hotel in which Holden stays. The building represents the uglier side of New York City, and its ugliness is reinforced in a scene involving a prostitute named Sunny and one in which Holden makes unsuccessful sexual advances toward two women at a nightclub.

*Rockefeller Center

*Rockefeller Center. New York City landmark with a public ice skating rink to which Holden takes Sally Hayes on a date. While ice-skating should be a happy endeavor, Holden cannot get over the feeling that there are phonies all around them. Holden’s feelings are so overwhelming that they begin to spill over into his relationships with others, including Sally.

Pencey Prep

Pencey Prep. Residential military school in Agerstown, Pennsylvania, that Holden attends. Salinger based the school on Valley Forge Military Academy, his old military school in Pennsylvania. Although these students are in military school, Salinger shows them to be like other children; for example, Ackley’s room is as much a mess as Ackley himself. Nevertheless, Holden is impelled to rebel against the school’s attempts at military discipline.

Taxicabs

Taxicabs. On his way to the Edmont Hotel, Holden asks the cabdriver what happens to the ducks in the wintertime. On his way to Ernie’s nightclub, he asks another cabdriver the same question. This suggests that, like the ducks, Holden feels the urge to leave in the wintertime but does not know where to go for safety and shelter.

*Museum of Natural History

*Museum of Natural History. New York science museum that Holden visits while searching for Phoebe. There he experiences one of the few places in which he feels truly happy. What he finds there are walls covered with graffiti; no matter how desperately he wishes to hold on to the innocence of childhood, the sight of the graffiti reminds him that he cannot.

Sutton Place

Sutton Place. Home of Mr. Antolini, a former teacher, that Holden tries to crash after leaving his parent’s apartment. Even here he sees the dark side of life, as he interprets Antolini’s behavior as a sexual advance. Even here in the home of a trusted friend, he finds no escape from the predators of the world. He flees to Grand Central Station, convinced that he is the only person who understands what the world is really like.

Wicker Bar

Wicker Bar. Posh setting in which Holden meets one of his former schoolmates, Carl Luce, to discuss Eastern philosophy. Holden tries to behave like one of the phonies he despises and eventually finds himself drinking alone, disgusted with himself for his posturing. The bar and the people in it are posh and well-to-do, something Holden is not, and his attempt to fit in fails.

*Central Park

*Central Park. Large public park in central Manhattan in which Holden wanders around, looking for Phoebe, before meeting Luce. The children playing happily at the park are, for Holden, a picture of innocence.

*California

*California. The novel is framed by a narrative that begins and ends with Holden speaking to a psychiatrist somewhere in California. Before leaving New York, Holden says good-bye to his sister, telling her that he plans to head westward.

Setting

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The plot of this novel unfolds shortly after the conclusion of World War II and is relatively straightforward. Holden Caulfield, having been expelled from Pencey, a private prep school, begins his departure as the novel opens. While preparing to leave, Holden sarcastically criticizes his classmates' rudeness and the "phony" behavior of both students and adults. He struggles to convey his sense of alienation to teachers or counselors, often diverting conversations by fabricating stories, especially ones he believes they want to hear.

Holden takes a train back to New York, once again lying to adults to conceal the true reason for his absence from Pencey. Upon arriving in New York, where his parents are not expecting him, he checks into a hotel and starts his series of wanderings.

Literary Techniques

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The widespread appeal of "The Catcher in the Rye" hinges on both its storyline and its use of language. It follows one of the most classic plots: the quest. Since "The Odyssey," Western literature has illustrated the journeys of questers. Fleeing from Pencey Prep to New York City, Holden Caulfield meets various characters in his pursuit of human connection and understanding. Although the mythical creatures and adventures of ancient quests are replaced with realistic elements here, Holden's journey is no less harrowing than Odysseus's. Thanks to Phoebe, Holden ultimately returns home. Has he gained any wisdom? Was the quest significant? He has certainly learned that he cannot be "the catcher in the rye." Additionally, the fact that he is sharing his journey with a psychiatrist indicates that he is processing and taking control of his experiences. Perhaps this understanding even fosters affection; after all, he misses everyone he talks about, including old Maurice.

When "The Catcher in the Rye" was released in 1951, its "obscene" language drew significant attention. In today's more permissive era, we can better appreciate the brilliance of its language. Holden's speech resonates as authentic to nearly all readers. He employs the vocabulary, slang, rhythms, and repetitiveness of a 1950s American teenager, refined by Salinger to add depth, humor, and meaning. The question arises: how can such a realistic portrayal of teenage speech be such an effective medium for communication? While creating the illusion of genuine speech, Salinger contrasts Holden's sensitivity with an era marked by conformity.

Literary Qualities

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If The Catcher in the Rye were solely about the awkwardness of a young adult coming of age, it would still hold significance. However, Holden's frequent references to his favorite authors and books, his often humorous and deliberately unsophisticated critiques of these works, and the novel's carefully crafted ironic mimicry of several significant literary traditions, contribute to its status as a major piece of American literature, studied in depth by scholars and critics.

From the novel's opening ironic sentence contrasting Holden with Charles Dickens's David Copperfield, Salinger signals to the reader that the story has a far more sophisticated literary foundation than the narrator's youthful voice suggests. Throughout the book, Holden mentions renowned writers like Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Isak Dinesen, Gustave Flaubert, Thomas Hardy, and William Shakespeare. These writers' works, often used as school texts, convey themes that elucidate Holden Caulfield's sense of alienation. Hemingway's novel A Farewell to Arms (1929) reflects an earlier American wartime generation disillusioned by the folly of an adult society responsible for the loss of millions of lives in World War I.

"I keep picturing all these kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all...And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff."
Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby (1925) depicts a young romantic American who becomes involved in bootlegging during the Prohibition era of the 1920s. Fitzgerald's protagonist, Jay Gatsby, may serve as a model for Holden, representing the perfectionist-idealist who dares to challenge societal norms and attempts to transcend the vulgar reality he is born into.

The Shakespearean references in the novel are equally revealing. Romeo and Juliet, like Holden, defy adult conventions and challenge the hatreds of adults for the sake of romantic love. Hamlet is a deeply troubled young man who faces moral dilemmas and exhibits strange behavior that, like Holden's, leads others to perceive him as abnormal, even mad.

Holden never explicitly mentions the book most pertinent to his situation, Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn (1884). Like Huck, Holden is a kind of runaway who observes the cruelty, folly, and deceptions of an adult society that exploits others. Both characters violate conventional moral taboos, such as those against cursing, to uphold more nuanced and abstract moral principles like decency, respect for the spiritual aspects of humanity, aesthetic beauty, and childlike innocence. Huck Finn rejects the conventional religion of his time, which condones human slavery. Similarly, Holden expresses a form of religious sensibility, yearning for the biblical Eden where human consciousness has not fallen. Unlike Huck Finn, Holden Caulfield, in twentieth-century America, has no frontier to escape to from a hypocritical modern world of concrete and steel.

Literary Precedents

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Given that The Catcher in the Rye explores timeless themes in American fiction, such as the individual's conflict with society and the battle against Time, it has been likened to many of its significant predecessors. Holden has been compared to various figures, including Jay Gatsby, who is attuned to life's rich possibilities but ensnared in a materialistic and insincere society; Henry David Thoreau, who is drawn to a simpler life in nature; and even Captain Ahab, who is on a quest for the Absolute. These comparisons indicate that The Catcher in the Rye is firmly rooted in the tradition of American literature.

One notable literary predecessor is Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), which The Catcher in the Rye can be seen as a modern update of. Both narratives are recounted by their adolescent protagonists in vivid, colloquial language. Both young men are loving, sensitive, perceptive, and troubled. They each escape from their restrictive and phony environments in search of a more genuine existence. Throughout their journeys, they encounter various strangers, many of whom pose threats. Each boy's story serves as a powerful critique of a loveless society, and ultimately, both return home. However, the contrasts between the two novels are just as significant as their similarities, highlighting the changes in America over the sixty-seven years between their publications. Huck is more accepting of reality, while Holden is more alienated. Huck finds freedom and cheerfulness drifting down the Mississippi River; Holden feels trapped in a modern wasteland. Huck can venture into the still-existing Territory, whereas Holden recounts his story to a psychiatrist in California. Written in the aftermath of two world wars and the Great Depression, The Catcher in the Rye offers a darker perspective of the world.

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