The Catcher in the Rye

Jerome David (J.D.) Salinger was born on New Years Day 1919, in New York City. Born into a wealthy family Salinger grew up in a fashionable neighborhood in Manhattan. He attended a number of colleges, but did not graduate from any. However, he always excelled in his creative writing classes. Salinger joined the army and fought in Europe. While fighting he kept on writing, and upon his return to the United States he published many of his writings, and his only full-length novel, The Catcher in the Rye. Other novels by J.D. Salinger include Franny and Zooey, Raise High the Roofbeams, Carpenters and Seymour, An Introduction, Nine Stories, I’m Crazy, and many more.

The setting of the novel starts out at the private boys school Pencey Prep, which to Holden is a very discomforting place to live. To Holden, this school represents “phoniness”, and brings up nothing but “phony”, cruel people. He feels as if the school is misleading, and over-exaggerates the school into sounding like something it is not. Once the setting moves on, Holden travels to a more livelier, less hostile place, New York City, between the 1940’s and 1950’s. In the novel, Holden does not give a very detailed or good description of any place he has been in, but he does however thoroughly describe the places he loves, and feels the beauty. He often described the showcases at the museum of Natural History, or the carousal in Central Park. Everything that Holden described happened to him and affected him happened over a two-day period, years before this story is told.

Holden Caulfield is narrator of the novel The Catcher in the Rye. He tells the story from a mental institute in Southern California. Holden is trying to tell the reader about the events that took place over a 2-day period the previous December. He begins his story by recalling failing out of his elite prep school, Pencey Prep, and often adds in the other many schools he has failed out of. After he was told of failing out of Pencey Prep, Holden decided to set off for New York, and take a “vacation” before going back home. During his “vacation”, Holden explains symptoms of impulsive spending, depression, social inactivity, and sexuality problems, prior to his eventual nervous collapse.

Holden is very sensitive, and often feels the impulse to help and protect others. Not so much the strong and the bold, but the innocent and the weak, especially children. He is drawn to people who represent innocence, and are unique. Holden has trouble growing up, and he wish’s he could stay a child forever, with no worries, since growing up removes him and others from innocence. He is also quite intelligent, but fails out of schools because of his lack of motivation. Holden feels as if school is just another part of the “phony” world around him in which he wants no part of. Holden is also very confused when it comes to sexuality, and religion that adds to his nervous breakdown.

Phoebe is Holden’s ten-year-old sister, and best friend. Holden feels that Phoebe is the most trustworthy link in his family, and that he can tell her just about anything. Phoebe is very pretty, smart, and mature for her age. However, he often forgets that she is only ten-years-old, asking her to sneak out or do something that would be inappropriate for her age. She often gives Holden much advice and is helpful to him. She has red hair, and is “roller skate skinny”. Her favorite movie is The 39 Steps, and has memorized it word by word. Elephants also fascinate Phoebe. Although she can see right through Holden, she does not understand his darker thoughts. When she finds out Holden’s true passion in life, all she can say is “Daddy’s going to kill you”. However, Phoebe helps Holden realize that kids and people need to grow up. To do that, they need to take chances, and to “grab the gold ring”. She also helped Holden realize that in order to grow up they need freedom, not someone guiding them along step by step, but to let go, even though they may fall.

Allie was Holden’s close friend growing up. He and Allie had some kind of connection, almost telepathically, sensing each other wherever they were. Although Allie has been dead for three years now, Holden often thought of him, and spoke to him when he felt overwhelmed. Allie died of leukemia on July 18, 1946 at the age of eleven. Holden often spoke of Allie as the “most intelligent” and “nicest” person in the family. Although Allie was a ghost and mystic presence throughout the novel he represented hope, death, and innocence. He gave hope to Holden by leaving him his old baseball glove, in which he wrote poems all over it. This was very inspirational to Holden. Allie represented death, by dying in 1946 leaving Holden with great pain, hurt, and sorrow. He also he represented innocence in his short, yet good life.

Jane Gallagher was the girl Holden had always remembered and had feelings for. He often thought about her, especially after his roommate (Stradlater) took her on a date. He remembered her as the sweet girl he used to play checkers with, hold hands with, and comfort when she was distressed. Holden Also admires Phoebe, his sister and most trusted friend. He often confides in Phoebe, and shares his dreams with her. Holden often spoke about Jane and Phoebe and loved them for their innocence. As the novel The Catcher in the Rye’s title indicates, the dominating theme of this book is the protection of innocence, especially young children. “What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff—I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all.” Holden saw innocence as the moral asset to life.

“Phony”, which is probably the most used phrase and word from the novel The Great Expectations plays a large part in the plot itself. “Phony” in Holden’s terms is an explanation for everything that is wrong in the world around him, and just another excuse to withdraw himself from it. Holden is so judgmental, that he spends most of his time looking for “phoniness” in others, and does not see the “phoniness” within himself. He admits that he is a compulsive liar and is often sneaking around pretending to be older than he really is. Holden wants us to believe that almost the whole world is phony and most people are trying to be something their not, except for him.

Death is a constant theme throughout the novel The Catcher in the Rye. Holden often mourns over the death of his late brother Allie. When Holden feels alone, or hurt, he often speaks to Allie. Holden frequently wishes that Allie could be alive again, living life with him, and is haunted by the thought of Allie in the graveyard surrounded by dead people and tombstones. Holden also wishes that life could just freeze, and everything could just stay as beautiful as it is. He also associates death with growing up, which causes him to reject life, growing up, and he tries to fight the biological clock. Holden loved the museum of Natural History. He thought, “The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody'd move …. Nobody'd be different.” He loved this museum because nothing changed, almost like the clocked stopped, helping to enable him from change, and death.

Our world today doesn’t often touch on such a sensitive subject such as loners, and loneliness. People nowadays are often disclosed from groups, and cliques because of their ethnicity, background, or looks. In the novel The Catcher in the Rye Holden describes his loneliness as if others do not except just because of his views on the world, or he is lonely because he wants to protect himself from being hurt. Being a loner, or loser often relates to other problems and disorders, such as nervous breakdowns, depression, and suicide. Also if the person decides to take their loneliness into someone else’s hands it can turn to homicide. This is such a sensitive subject cause many people do not want to believe that they make others or make themselves feel this way.

The novel The Catcher in the Rye, however, I don’t think I fully understood it. The story jumped around a lot, from one subject to the other, and if it weren’t so pessimistic, it would have been much better. Although the upside to the book is it is different from many books I read. I enjoyed how it only focused on one character, and traced him as the story progressed, and I could see how he had changed. But over all I quite enjoyed this novel, and I wouldn’t have chosen a different one.

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