The Catcher in the Rye

The Catcher in the Rye is a 1951 American coming-of-age novel by American author J. D. Salinger. It was partially published in serial form in 1945–1946 before being novelized in 1951.

Originally intended for adults, it is often read by adolescents for its themes of angst and alienation, and as a critique of superficiality in society.^[4][5] The novel also deals with themes of innocence, identity, belonging, loss, connection, sex, and depression. The main character, Holden Caulfield, has become an icon for teenage rebellion.^[6] Caulfield, nearly of age, gives his opinion on a wide variety of topics as he narrates his recent life events.

The Catcher in the Rye has been translated widely.^[7] About one million copies are sold each year, with total sales of more than 65 million books.^[8] The novel was included on Time's 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923,^[9] and it was named by Modern Library and its readers as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.^[10][11][12] In 2003, it was listed at number 15 on the BBC's survey "The Big Read".

Plot

Holden Caulfield recalls the events of a long weekend, shortly before the previous year's Christmas. The story begins in 1949, at Pencey Preparatory Academy, an elite boarding school in the fictional town of Agerstown, Pennsylvania, where he has been expelled after failing all his classes, except English.

Later, Holden agrees to write an English composition for his roommate, Ward Stradlater, who is heading out on a date. He is distressed when he learns that Stradlater's date is Jane Gallagher, with whom Holden has been infatuated. When Stradlater returns, hours later, he fails to appreciate the deeply personal composition Holden has written for him about the baseball glove of Holden's late brother, Allie, who died from leukemia years earlier, and refuses to say whether he had sex with Jane.

Enraged, Holden punches and insults him, but Stradlater easily wins the fight. Fed up with the "phonies" at Pencey Prep, Holden decides to catch a train to New York, planning to stay away from his home until Wednesday, when his parents will have received notification of his expulsion.

Throughout the night, Holden has unpleasant encounters with a prostitute named Sunny, and her pimp, Maurice, who ends up in a physical altercation with Holden; a familiar date, Sally Hayes, whom Holden invites to run away with him but is rejected; and an old classmate Carl Luce, whom Holden unrelentingly questions about his sex life. Holden eventually gets drunk, awkwardly flirts with several adults, calls Sally again, and runs out of money.

Nostalgic to see his younger sister Phoebe, Holden sneaks into his parents' apartment while they are out and wakes her. Though happy to see him, Phoebe quickly guesses he has been expelled and chastises him for his general aimlessness and disdain. When she asks if he cares about anything, Holden shares a fantasy (based on a mishearing of Robert Burns' "Comin' Thro' the Rye"), in which he imagines himself saving children running through a field of rye by catching them before they fall off a nearby cliff. Phoebe points out that the actual poem says, "when a body meet a body, comin' through the rye". Holden breaks down in tears, and his sister tries to console him.

As his parents return home, he slips out and visits his former English teacher, Mr. Antolini, who expresses concern that Holden is headed for "a terrible fall". Mr. Antolini advises him to begin applying himself and provides him with a place to sleep. Holden awakens to find Mr. Antolini patting his head, which he interprets as a sexual advance. He leaves and spends the rest of the night in a train-waiting room at Grand Central Terminal, sinking deeper into despair.

In the morning, having lost hope of ever finding meaningful connection in the city, he decides to head out West to live as a deaf-mute gas station attendant in a log cabin. He arranges to see Phoebe at lunchtime to explain his plan and say goodbye. When they meet up at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she arrives with a suitcase and asks to go with him. Holden refuses, which upsets Phoebe. He tries to cheer her by allowing her to skip school at the Central Park Zoo, but she remains angry. They eventually reach the carousel, where they reconcile after he buys her a ticket. The sight of her riding the carousel fills him with happiness.

He alludes to encountering his parents that night, "getting sick", and being sent to a sanatorium in California near his older brother, D. B. He also mentions that he is considering attending another academy in September. The novel ends with Holden stating that he is reluctant to say more because talk of school has made him miss his former classmates.

History

J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye was published on this date in 1951. It is Salinger’s only novel. It’s one of the most banned books in American history. It’s also one of the most frequently taught in high schools, even though Salinger didn’t intend the book for teenage readers. Holden Caulfield, the book’s protagonist, is a prep school boy from New York City, and he addresses the reader directly. The novel begins, “If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.”

Salinger had thought about Holden Caulfield for years. He carried six Caulfield stories with him when he went off to fight in World War II. The stories were with Salinger on the beach at Normandy and in Nazi concentration camps. They were with him in the hours he spent with Ernest Hemingway in Paris. By the time Salinger began to assemble the novel The Catcher in the Rye, he had nine stories about Holden and his family.

When he finished the manuscript, Salinger sent it to publisher Robert Giroux at Harcourt, Brace. Giroux was impressed with the book, and was pleased to be its editor, but he never thought it would be a best-seller. Giroux sent the book to his boss, Eugene Reynal. Reynal didn’t really get it, and sent it to a textbook editor for his opinion, since it was about a prep-school boy. The textbook editor didn’t like it, so Harcourt, Brace would not publish it. Rival house Little, Brown picked it up right away, and Robert Giroux quit his job and went to work for Farrar, Strauss instead. Reviewers called the book “brilliant,” “funny,” and “meaningful.” Salinger couldn’t cope with the amount of publicity and celebrity the book gave him. He moved to a hilltop home in New Hampshire and lived the rest of his life in seclusion. Many directors approached Salinger over the years, hoping to obtain the movie rights, and Salinger turned them all down.