The Catcher in the Rye

The Catcher in the Rye,first published in 1951 by J.D. Salinger, is a novel about Holden Caulfield's struggle with his own identity, his inability to overcome the emotional trauma in his life, and his lacking the ability to accept reality as it is.

Courtneycain14 11:02, 9 November 2011 (MST)





Plot Summary
Holden calls up his old girlfriend, Sally Hayes, to invite her to see a musical. Sally very excitedly agrees, and they meet for the play. After the play Holden and Sally go skating, and while drinking coffee Holden impulsively invites Sally to run away with him, but she declines. Her response deflates Holden's mood, which prompts a remark: "You give me a royal pain in the ass, if you want to know the truth", he tells her, regretting it immediately. Sally storms off as Holden follows, pleading with her to accept his apology. Finally, Holden gives up and leaves her there. Holden spends a total of three days in the city, and this time is characterized largely by drunkenness and loneliness. At one point he ends up at a museum, where he contrasts his life with the statues of Eskimos on display. For as long as he can remember, the statues have been unchanging. These concerns may have stemmed largely from the death of his brother, Allie. Eventually, he sneaks into his parents' apartment while they are away, to visit his younger sister, Phoebe, who is the only person with whom he seems to be able to communicate. Phoebe views Holden as a hero, and she is naively unaware that Holden's view of her is virtually identical. Holden shares a fantasy he has been thinking about (based on a mishearing of Robert Burns' Comin' Through the Rye): he pictures himself as the sole guardian of numerous children running and playing in a huge rye field on the edge of a cliff. His job is to catch the children if they wander close to the brink; to be a "catcher in the rye." Because of this misinterpretation, Holden believes that to be a "catcher in the rye" means to save children from losing their innocence.

After leaving his parents' apartment, Holden drops by to see a former and much admired English teacher, Mr. Antolini, in the middle of the night, and is offered advice on life and a place to sleep. Mr. Antolini tells Holden that it is the mark of the mature man to live humbly for a cause, rather than die nobly for it. This is at odds with Holden's ideas of becoming a "catcher in the rye," a heroic figure who symbolically saves children from "falling off a crazy cliff" and being exposed to the evils of adulthood. During the speech on life, Mr. Antolini has a number of "highballs," referring to a cocktail served in a highball glass. Holden is upset when he wakes up in the night to find Mr. Antolini patting his head in a way that he regards as "flitty." There is much speculation on whether Mr. Antolini was making a sexual advance on Holden, and it is left up to the reader to decide. Holden leaves and spends his last afternoon wandering the city. He later wonders if his interpretation of Mr. Antolini's actions was actually correct.

Holden makes the decision that he will head out west, and when he mentions these plans to his little sister, she decides she wants to go with him. Holden declines her offer and refuses to have her accompany him. This upsets Phoebe, so Holden does her a favor and decides not to leave after all. Holden tries to reverse her saddened mood by taking her to the Central Park Zoo. He realizes his mistake as she rides the carousel that lies within the zoo. At the conclusion of the novel, Holden decides not to mention much about the present day, finding it inconsequential. He alludes to "getting sick" and living in a mental hospital, and mentions that he'll be attending another school in September; he relates how he has been asked whether he will apply himself properly to study this time around and questions whether such a question has any meaning before the fact. Holden says that he has surprisingly found himself missing two of his former classmates, Stradlater and Ackley, and even Maurice, the elevator operator/pimp; and warns the reader that telling others about their experiences will lead them to miss the people who shared them, whoever they are: “Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.”

Tristan.Schneider 11:11, 2 November 2011 (MDT)

The Catcher in the Rye is a story of a young man’s struggle with his own identity, his inability to overcome the emotional trauma in his life, and his lacking the ability to accept reality as it is. To avoid suffering he withdraws into denial and is so obsessed with “innocence” that he finds out that as he gets older it means a loss of this innocence. Throughout the book he struggles with his inability to accept the harsh reality of the real world, and he decides to avoid being in close relationships so he doesn’t end up being hurt or rejected. At the beginning of the book, Holden Caulfield, talks about his failed attempts to make it through the many prep schools he’s been in throughout the years. You’re also made aware that he is recovering from a mental breakdown. After Holden is expelled from Prency Prep he then decides to leave the city and return to New York, where he once again meets with dissatisfaction in his encounter with the prostitute. When he was feeling lost and wandering from a lack of direction, he decides to sneak into his parents’ house to visit his sister, Phoebe. She seems to be the only person that he feels comfortable around and the only one that accepts him for who he is. Holden then visits his favorite teacher, Mr. Antolini, getting him up in the middle of the night for advice and comfort. Mr. Antolini’s advice is completely opposite to Holden’s view of himself becoming a “hero” who becomes a “catcher in the rye” who saves children from “falling off a crazy cliff. Also, he becomes upset with his drinking and leaves to go wander the city again. In this part of the book Holden is confused as to whether or not Mr. Antolini was making a sexual advance towards him. With no particular direction, Holden decides to go out West, but before he leaves, he takes his sister to the park. This is a significant event in his life because he focuses on the gold ring on the carousel and realizes that by grasping the gold ring, one can find happiness. His attempts to have relationships with Jane and Sarah prove his lack of coping skills. His brother’s death, Allie, serves as a reminder of his fear of death and separation from loved ones so he alienates himself from getting close to others, labeling them as phonies instead of actually trying to become attached. However, he is unable to do so and continues to be an outcast who cannot comply with the behaviors of society. Throughout the entire book Holden tries to accept other people’s point-of-view, he looks for relationships that will turn him into a normal person, and to allow himself to avoid being so narrow-minded and to be open to other people’s opinion, but at the end of the book he proves to be the same person he was at the beginning.

The book starts from the point of view from the old narrator’s, not given exactly where, but hints lead the reader to believe he is being taken care of in a mental institution. As the narrator goes on his writing of a young boy named Holden at the age of sixteen, the day the classes ended at his preppy high school in Pennsylvania. It is made clear that as Holden goes through his school day he isn’t the ideal student. He is pointed out that he has failed four of his five classes and will be kicked out. Not long after he gets annoyed and finds himself in a fight with his friend over a girl whom he admires. The idea of running away to home in Manhattan a few days earlier strikes him and he takes it. On the train ride in to the city he meets a mother of a fellow student whom he detests and lies to her. Holden doesn’t tell his parents he is coming home early, as he books a hotel room at the Edmont Hotel after having annoyed the cab driver with a witty question of ducks. After observing the people in rooms near him, Holden tries to make a sexual date with a women named Faith who he heard of from a friend, which soon failed. Holden later finds himself at the bar with three older women with whom he tries to romance as he dances with him. He is ditched by all three women and left to pay for their drinks. Throughout the night Holden goes to a sleazy jazz club and tries to arrange another prostitute for him. When a women named Sunny tries to seduce him for five dollars, he counteracts her actions and attempts to get her to leave without any sexual relations from him. After being hit in the stomach and stolen from Sunny, Holden falls asleep. The next day he calls a very pretty girl who he used to date and plans for them to meet up and watch a play on Broadway. That morning he goes through central park in search of his little sister and has no luck. On the evening he has with his old girlfriend they watch the play and go ice skating. Throughout their trip ice skating Holden tries to explain to her what exactly he has been going through with school and life. After offending her with a crude remark, she leaves him in a fit. Holden then called Luce, an old school advisor, to whom he met up with for drinks. While Holden offends Luce of homosexual slurs and such their plans are cut short as Luce leaves. In a drunken stupor Holden sneaks into his old apartment where he finds Phoebe, his little sister. He tells her of his actions of being kicked out of school. Holden meets with his old English teacher short after, and ends up falling asleep on his couch utterly confused of what he’s going to do. He leaves Phoebe a note explain his plans of running away, as they meet at the museum. He cant bare to leave his little sister as he watches her on the carousel. Holden ends his adventure by coming home “sick” and tells of his plans of attending another school in the fall.

((User:Colten.hoot))7:46, 19 April 2012 (MST)

Courtneycain14 10:55, 9 November 2011 (MST)

This book is about a guy’s life and some events that occurred over a long weekend. His name is Holden Caulfield and the story first takes place in Pennsylvania at his school, Pencey Prep. He struggles to pass school because he never puts forth the effort. He has previously been kicked out of other schools and has now been given the ax at Pencey as well. He hates the school any way but he doesn’t want to tell his parents because he knows they will be sore about it. He has a roommate, Stradlater, who he’s not a big fan of. He also lives next to Ackley, who drives him crazy as well. After getting fed up with Pencey, he packs his bag early and leaves. Since he isn’t supposed to be home for Christmas break yet, he went to the station and took a train to the city. He checks in at Edmont Hotel and relaxes in his room for a while until he gets bored and goes downstairs to the Lavender room but since he’s under aged he can’t persuade the waiter to give him a drink. He flirts and dances with three girls who are kind of ugly and in there thirties. He talks about how he got to know Jane Gallagher. He hints around how he has feelings for her. He then takes a cab to Ernie’s Jazz club but gets annoyed when he talks to DB’s ex girlfriend, Lillian, and leaves. He walks all the way back to the hotel and when he gets there, the elevator operator, Maurice, offers to send a girl up to his room. He accepts but when she gets there, he decides he doesn’t want to have sex with Sunny but agrees to still pay her five dollars. Maurice comes back to his room and they end up fighting because he wanted ten dollars. They finally took the rest of the money and he went to bed. When he wakes up the next morning, he buzzes Sally Hayes and invites her to go on a date with him to the movies. He then goes to get breakfast and meats two nuns in which he gives them ten dollars for charity. He goes to the park to look for Phoebe, his sister but doesn’t find her. Then he takes a cab to Baltimore Hotel to meet Sally. They go to the movie but then he gets aggravated because Sally kept talking to a guy she had already met. They go to leave but Sally comes up with the idea to go ice skating and they both go but are lousy skaters. He then asks her to run away with him but she acts as though it’s a crazy idea. He calls her a pain in the ass and she cries and there date comes to an end. He then goes to radio city to have a drink with Luce. He gets drunk and walks around Central park. After he becomes sober, he sneaks into his parent’s apartment and wakes up his sister Phoebe to talk to her. She find out he got kicked out of Pencey and gets mad but soon forgives him. He leaves to go stay the night at Mr. Antolini’s house where he gets advice from him. He falls asleep on the couch but is woken up by Mr. Antolini petting his head and freaks out and leaves. Then he falls asleep on a bench in Grand Central station. Then he gets the idea he wants to move west but wants to say by to Phoebe first. He writes her a note and brings it to her school for her to meet him at the museum on her lunch break. She shows up with a suit case and begs to go with him but he is mean and says no. Then he agrees to not leave and she skips school to go to the zoo with him. Then she rides the carousel and Holden becomes happy for once. He decides to stay and he later plans to start at a new school and plan his future to be better. Leah Crawford 19:59, 9 November 2011 (MST)

Characters
Holden Caulfield -  The protagonist and narrator of the novel, Holden is a sixteen-year-old junior who has just been expelled for academic failure from a school called Pencey Prep. Although he is intelligent and sensitive, Holden narrates in a cynical and jaded voice. He finds the hypocrisy and ugliness of the world around him almost unbearable, and through his cynicism he tries to protect himself from the pain and disappointment of the adult world. However, the criticisms that Holden aims at people around him are also aimed at himself. He is uncomfortable with his own weaknesses, and at times displays as much phoniness, meanness, and superficiality as anyone else in the book. As the novel opens, Holden stands poised on the cliff separating childhood from adulthood. His inability to successfully negotiate the chasm leaves him on the verge of emotional collapse.

Ackley - Holden’s next-door neighbor in his dorm at Pencey Prep. Ackley is a pimply, insecure boy with terrible dental hygiene. He often barges into Holden’s room and acts completely oblivious to Holden’s hints that he should leave. Holden believes that Ackley makes up elaborate lies about his sexual experience.

Jane Gallagher -  A girl with whom Holden spent a lot of time one summer, when their families stayed in neighboring summer houses in Maine. Jane never actually appears in The Catcher in the Rye, but she is extremely important to Holden, because she is one of the few girls whom he both respects and finds attractive. Phoebe Caulfield - Phoebe is Holden’s ten-year-old sister, whom he loves dearly. Although she is six years younger than Holden, she listens to what he says and understands him more than most other people do. Phoebe is intelligent, neat, and a wonderful dancer, and her childish innocence is one of Holden’s only consistent sources of happiness throughout the novel. At times, she exhibits great maturity and even chastises Holden for his immaturity. Like Mr. Antolini, Phoebe seems to recognize that Holden is his own worst enemy.

Allie Caulfield - Holden’s younger brother. Allie dies of leukemia three years before the start of the novel. Allie was a brilliant, friendly, red-headed boy—according to Holden, he was the smartest of the Caulfields. Holden is tormented by Allie’s death and carries around a baseball glove on which Allie used to write poems in green ink. D. B. Caulfield - Holden’s older brother. D. B. wrote a volume of short stories that Holden admires very much, but Holden feels that D. B. prostitutes his talents by writing for Hollywood movies.

Sally Hayes -  A very attractive girl whom Holden has known and dated for a long time. Though Sally is well read, Holden claims that she is “stupid,” although it is difficult to tell whether this judgment is based in reality or merely in Holden’s ambivalence about being sexually attracted to her. She is certainly more conventional than Holden in her tastes and manners. Mr. Spencer - Holden’s history teacher at Pencey Prep, who unsuccessfully tries to shake Holden out of his academic apathy. Carl Luce - A student at Columbia who was Holden’s student advisor at the Whooton School. Luce is three years older than Holden and has a great deal of sexual experience. At Whooton, he was a source of knowledge about sex for the younger boys, and Holden tries to get him to talk about sex at their meeting.

Mr. Antolini -  Holden’s former English teacher at the Elkton Hills School. Mr. Antolini now teaches at New York University. He is young, clever, sympathetic, and likable, and Holden respects him. Holden sometimes finds him a bit too clever, but he looks to him for guidance. Like many characters in the novel, he drinks heavily.

Tristan.Schneider 11:16, 2 November 2011 (MDT)

Holden Caulder- a sixteen year old who got expelled from school because of his academic failure. Ackley- Holden's next door neighbor in the school dorm. Stradlater- Holden's roommate Jane Gallagher- Holden's friend that he spent a lot of time with one summer in Maine Phoebe Caulfield- Holden's little sister Allie Caulfield- Holdnen's little brother D.B. Caulfield- Holden's older brother

Themes
The first theme is that even the biggest failures can succeed. In the end, Holden finally finds his way and knows where he is in his life. If you shoot for what you want, anybody can achieve their goals.

The second theme is to never give up. Holden stops trying in school and such. But if you keep pushing through and try to the best of your ability, giving up is not an option. People may achieve great things.

The last theme is to treat others with respect. Holden didn’t always act the way to others like he should have. He was disrespectful and it often leads to him being hurt by another person. So one must learn to treat others well.

Leah Crawford 20:03, 9 November 2011 (MST)

1.	One theme in this book is that growing up can be painful and that it can be hard to see people lose their innocence. You seem to never want to have to mature and grow up and when you do it can be very hard.

2.	Another theme in The Catcher in the Rye is that people in the adult world can be very fake. You can see how superficial people in the book can be but you have to learn to stay true to yourself and not become like those people.

3.	The last theme is that you should never give up. Holden gave up in school and other things but if you continue to try you will eventually succeed no matter how long it takes. Courtneycain14 20:48, 9 November 2011 (MST)

-Innocents is only innocent until known better of: Meaning that you are only younge until you grow up and see the real world around. That you cant just ignore what goes on around you, you have to mature to move forward.

-To stay still in time is the impossible: thorough out life you progress as a person, learning from mistakes and maturing. This theme represents the truth of the matter, that you have to move on in order to live life.

-To save someone you must first save yourself: You can never truly help anyone else before you are safe yourself. Holden often contemplates wanting to help others but doesn’t exactly know how. Its because he himself needs help, yet he is in a position as to where he cant fix himself, or others, just yet. ((colten.hoot))

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.

As the novel progresses, we begin to perceive that Holden’s alienation is his way of protecting himself. Just as he wears his hunting hat (see “Symbols,” below) to advertise his uniqueness, he uses his isolation as proof that he is better than everyone else around him and therefore above interacting with them. The truth is that interactions with other people usually confuse and overwhelm him, and his cynical sense of superiority serves as a type of self-protection. Thus, Holden’s alienation is the source of what little stability he has in his life.

As readers, we can see that Holden’s alienation is the cause of most of his pain. He never addresses his own emotions directly, nor does he attempt to discover the source of his troubles. He desperately needs human contact and love, but his protective wall of bitterness prevents him from looking for such interaction. Alienation is both the source of Holden’s strength and the source of his problems. For example, his loneliness propels him into his date with Sally Hayes, but his need for isolation causes him to insult her and drive her away. Similarly, he longs for the meaningful connection he once had with Jane Gallagher, but he is too frightened to make any real effort to contact her. He depends upon his alienation, but it destroys him. 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. As his thoughts about the Museum of Natural History demonstrate, Holden fears change and is overwhelmed by complexity. He wants everything to be easily understandable and eternally fixed, like the statues of Eskimos and Indians in the museum. He is frightened because he is guilty of the sins he criticizes in others, and because he can’t understand everything around him. But he refuses to acknowledge this fear, expressing it only in a few instances—for example, when he talks about sex and admits that “[s]ex is something I just don’t understand. I swear to God I don’t” (Chapter 9).

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 innocence, curiosity, and honesty. Nothing reveals his image of these two worlds better than his fantasy about the catcher in the rye: 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. His created understandings of childhood and adulthood allow Holden to cut himself off from the world by covering himself with a protective armor of cynicism. But as the book progresses, Holden’s experiences, particularly his encounters with Mr. Antolini and Phoebe, reveal the shallowness of his conceptions. 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. In Chapter 22, just before he reveals his fantasy of the catcher in the rye, Holden explains that adults are inevitably phonies, and, what’s worse, they can’t see their own phoniness. 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.

Though oversimplified, Holden’s observations are not entirely inaccurate. He can be a highly insightful narrator, and he is very aware of superficial behavior in those around him. Throughout the novel he encounters many characters who do seem affected, pretentious, or superficial—Sally Hayes, Carl Luce, Maurice and Sunny, and even Mr. Spencer stand out as examples. Some characters, like Maurice and Sunny, are genuinely harmful. But although Holden expends so much energy searching for phoniness in others, he never directly observes his own phoniness. His deceptions are generally pointless and cruel and he notes that he is a compulsive liar. For example, on the train to New York, he perpetrates a mean-spirited and needless prank on Mrs. Morrow. He’d like us to believe that he is a paragon of virtue in a world of phoniness, but that simply isn’t the case. Although he’d like to believe that the world is a simple place, and that virtue and innocence rest on one side of the fence while superficiality and phoniness rest on the other, Holden is his own counterevidence. The world is not as simple as he’d like—and needs—it to be; even he cannot adhere to the same black-and-white standards with which he judges other people. "

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. As his thoughts about the Museum of Natural History demonstrate, Holden fears change and is overwhelmed by complexity. He wants everything to be easily understandable and eternally fixed, like the statues of Eskimos and Indians in the museum. He is frightened because he is guilty of the sins he criticizes in others, and because he can’t understand everything around him. But he refuses to acknowledge this fear, expressing it only in a few instances—for example, when he talks about sex and admits that “[s]ex is something I just don’t understand. I swear to God I don’t” (Chapter 9).

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 innocence, curiosity, and honesty. Nothing reveals his image of these two worlds better than his fantasy about the catcher in the rye: 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. His created understandings of childhood and adulthood allow Holden to cut himself off from the world by covering himself with a protective armor of cynicism. But as the book progresses, Holden’s experiences, particularly his encounters with Mr. Antolini and Phoebe, reveal the shallowness of his conceptions. 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. In Chapter 22, just before he reveals his fantasy of the catcher in the rye, Holden explains that adults are inevitably phonies, and, what’s worse, they can’t see their own phoniness. 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.

Though oversimplified, Holden’s observations are not entirely inaccurate. He can be a highly insightful narrator, and he is very aware of superficial behavior in those around him. Throughout the novel he encounters many characters who do seem affected, pretentious, or superficial—Sally Hayes, Carl Luce, Maurice and Sunny, and even Mr. Spencer stand out as examples. Some characters, like Maurice and Sunny, are genuinely harmful. But although Holden expends so much energy searching for phoniness in others, he never directly observes his own phoniness. His deceptions are generally pointless and cruel and he notes that he is a compulsive liar. For example, on the train to New York, he perpetrates a mean-spirited and needless prank on Mrs. Morrow. He’d like us to believe that he is a paragon of virtue in a world of phoniness, but that simply isn’t the case. Although he’d like to believe that the world is a simple place, and that virtue and innocence rest on one side of the fence while superficiality and phoniness rest on the other, Holden is his own counterevidence. The world is not as simple as he’d like—and needs—it to be; even he cannot adhere to the same black-and-white standards with which he judges other people.

Tristan.Schneider 23:10, 2 November 2011 (MDT)

Symbols
The “Catcher in the Rye”

As the source of the book’s title, this symbol merits close inspection. It first appears in Chapter 16, when a kid Holden admires for walking in the street rather than on the sidewalk is singing the Robert Burns song “Comin’ Thro’ the Rye.” 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. As Phoebe points out, Holden has misheard the lyric. He thinks the line is “If a body catch a body comin’ through the rye,” but the actual lyric is “If a body meet a body, coming through 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. It is highly ironic that the word “meet” refers to an encounter that leads to recreational sex, because the word that Holden substitutes—“catch”—takes on the exact opposite meaning in his mind. Holden wants to catch children before they fall out of innocence into knowledge of the adult world, including knowledge of sex.

Holden’s Red Hunting Hat

The red hunting hat is one of the most recognizable symbols from twentieth-century American literature. It 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. At the same time, he is very self-conscious about the hat—he always mentions when he is wearing it, and he often doesn’t wear it if he is going to be around people he knows. The presence of the hat, therefore, mirrors the central conflict in the book: Holden’s need for isolation versus his need for companionship.

It is worth noting that the hat’s color, red, is the same as that of Allie’s and Phoebe’s hair. Perhaps Holden associates it with the innocence and purity he believes these characters represent and wears it as a way to connect to them. He never explicitly comments on the hat’s significance other than to mention its unusual appearance.

The Museum of Natural History

Holden tells us the symbolic meaning of the museum’s displays: they appeal to him because they are frozen and unchanging. He also mentions that he is troubled by the fact that he has changed every time he returns to them. 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.

The Ducks in the Central Park Lagoon

Holden’s curiosity about where the ducks go during the winter reveals a genuine, more youthful side to his character. For most of the book, he sounds like a grumpy old man who is angry at the world, but his search for the ducks represents the curiosity of youth and a joyful willingness to encounter the mysteries of the world. It is a memorable moment, because Holden clearly lacks such willingness in other aspects of his life.

The ducks and their pond are symbolic in several ways. Their mysterious perseverance in the face of an inhospitable environment resonates with Holden’s understanding of his own situation. In addition, the ducks prove that some vanishings are only temporary. 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.

HannahConley13 16:09, 7 November 2011 (MST)

Leah Crawford 20:07, 9 November 2011 (MST)
 * Allie’s baseball glove represents something deep inside Holden. Allie died and Holden really seems to treasure it. It has some of Allie’s poems written all over it and it really seems to be important to Holden because he has only shown a couple of people.
 * The ducks in the pond is a symbol of Holden’s weird curiosity of why they fly south. It shows how he thinks and it also shows his age a bit.
 * The Museum of Natural History is a symbol of a place he enjoyed as a child. It brought back many memories and it also talked about how every time anybody came back there they had changed and was different.

1.	Allie’s baseball mitt symbolizes how Holden cannot accept death and losing someone. It also has some of Allie’s poems on it and it shows how important it really was to Holden since he only showed a few people.

2.	The red hunting hat being worn backwards symbolizes the “catcher” image and Holden’s attempt to overcome his insecurity in that he doesn’t feel that he fits in with the real world.

3.	The Museum of Natural History symbolizes things that are unchanging and how Holden wishes that life could be frozen like the displays in the museum. It also shows that Holden is troubled that he continues to change every time he returns.

Courtneycain14 20:59, 9 November 2011 (MST)

Red Hat: it represents his individuality. He can sometimes be embarrassed of it, meaning he questions himself sometimes, but also admires it because it is different and stands out amongst aa crowd. It doesn’t bother him what others think of it, only unless he is close to the people. It also is a sign of the 1950’s time era of clothes.

The Museum of Natural History: it represents his mental state of mind, of always wanting to remain the same and not change. It is a symbol of him not exactly wanting to mature, but to stay still like everything in the past; never changing.

The Ducks in the park: He often asks of where they might go during the winter, revealing a more playful like characteristic about him. It represents the innocence that is barred underneath the outer struggles he more often faces. ((colten.hoot))

Significant Quotes
1. “Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules.” “Yes, sir. I know it is. I know it.” Game, my ass. Some game. If you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then it’s a game, all right—I’ll admit that. But if you get on the other side, where there aren’t any hot-shots, then what’s a game about it? Nothing. No game.

This quotation is from Holden’s conversation with Spencer in Chapter 2. His former teacher is needling him about his failures at Pencey; at this point, he lectures Holden about the importance of playing by the rules. The conversation succinctly illuminates key aspects of Holden’s character. We see his silent contempt for adults, which is evidenced by the silent ridiculing and cursing of Spencer that Holden hides beneath his nodding, compliant veneer. We also see how alienated he feels. He clearly identifies with those on the “other side” of the game, and he feels alone and victimized, as though the world is against him. At this point in the novel, Holden’s sense of disadvantage and corresponding bitterness seem somewhat strange, given his circumstances: he’s clearly a bright boy from a privileged New York family. As the book progresses, however, we learn that Holden has built a cynical psychological armor around himself to protect himself from the complexities of the world.

2. [Ackley] took another look at my hat. . . “Up home we wear a hat like that to shoot deer in, for Chrissake,” he said. “That’s a deer shooting hat.” “Like hell it is.” I took it off and looked at it. I sort of closed one eye, like I was taking aim at it. “This is a people shooting hat,” I said. “I shoot people in this hat.”

This brief passage occurs in Chapter 3, after Holden has returned to his dorm room and is being pestered by Ackley. Of all the places in the novel where Holden discusses his hat, the most famous and recognizable symbol in the book, this is probably the most enlightening. It is obvious from the start that Holden uses the hat as a mark of individuality and independence. Here, we see how deeply his desire for independence is connected to his feeling of alienation, to the bitterness he has for the rest of the world. Of course, Holden will not really shoot people in this hat, but it remains a symbol of his scorn for convention. Holden nevertheless does “shoot people” in his own way: when he is in this cynical frame of mind, he expends all of his mental energy denigrating the people around him. He desires independence because he feels that the world is an inhospitable, ugly place that, he feels, deserves only contempt.

3. The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody’d move. . . . Nobody’d be different. The only thing that would be different would be you.

This passage, in which Holden explains why he loves the Museum of Natural History, is located in Chapter 16. Killing time before his date with Sally, Holden decides to walk from Central Park to the Museum of Natural History. Along the way, he remembers in detail his school trips to the museum. Holden has already demonstrated that he fears and does not know how to deal with conflict, confusion, and change. The museum presents him with a vision of life he can understand: it is frozen, silent, and always the same. Holden can think about and judge the Eskimo in the display case, but the Eskimo will never judge him back. It troubles him that he has changed each time he returns, while the museum’s displays remain completely the same. They represent the simple, idealistic, manageable vision of life that Holden wishes he could live.

It is significant that in the final sentence Holden uses the second-person pronoun “you” instead of the first-person “me.” It seems to be an attempt to distance himself from the inevitable process of change. But the impossibility of such a fantasy is the tragedy of Holden’s situation: rather than face the challenges around him, he retreats to a fantasy world of his own making. When he actually gets to the museum, he decides not to go in; that would require disturbing his fragile imaginative construction by making it encounter the real world. He wants life to remain frozen like the display cases in the museum.

4. . . . I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. 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.

This, the passage in which Holden reveals the source of the book’s title, is perhaps the most famous in the book. It occurs in Chapter 22, after Holden has slipped quietly back into his apartment and is speaking with Phoebe. They talk, argue, and then reconcile, and Phoebe asks Holden what he wants to do with his life. Holden responds with this image, which reveals his fantasy of idealistic childhood and of his role as the protector of innocence. His response makes sense, given what we already know about Holden: he prefers to retreat into his own imaginary view of the world rather than deal with the complexities of the world around him. He has a cynical, oversimplified view of other people, and a large part of his fantasy world is based on the idea that children are simple and innocent while adults are superficial and hypocritical. The fact that he is having this conversation with Phoebe, a child who is anything but simple and innocent, reveals the oversimplification of his worldview. Holden himself realizes this to a degree when he acknowledges that his idea is “crazy,” yet he cannot come up with anything more pragmatic; he has trouble seeing the world in any other way. His catcher in the rye fantasy reflects his innocence, his belief in pure, uncorrupted youth, and his desire to protect that spirit; on the other hand, it represents his extreme disconnection from reality and his naïve view of the world.

5. “I have a feeling that you’re riding for some kind of terrible, terrible fall. . . . The whole arrangement’s designed for men who, at some time or other in their lives, were looking for something their own environment couldn’t supply them with. . . . So they gave up looking.”

The conversation in which Mr. Antolini speaks these words takes place in Chapter 24. Holden has just left his parents’ apartment, following his conversation with Phoebe, and he is reaching a point of critical instability, having just burst into tears when Phoebe lent him her Christmas money. He goes to Mr. Antolini’s because he feels he can trust and confide in him—it seems to be his final chance to save himself. But Holden’s interaction with Mr. Antolini is the event that precipitates his full-blown breakdown. It completely unsettles him, and leaves him feeling confused and unsure. While most of Holden’s confusion stems from what he interprets as a homosexual come-on from Mr. Antolini, some of it stems from the conversation they have. Both the conversation and Mr. Antolini’s head-rubbing serve a similar purpose: they upset Holden’s view of the way things are or the way he believes they ought to be.

Mr. Antolini’s words here resonate with the desires Holden has just expressed to Phoebe: like the catcher in the rye that Holden envisions, Mr. Antolini is trying to catch Holden in the midst of a “fall.” But the fall Mr. Antolini describes is very different from the one Holden had imagined. Holden pictured an idyllic world of childhood innocence from which children would fall into a dangerous world; Mr. Antolini describes Holden in an apathetic free fall—giving up, disengaging himself from the world, falling in a void removed from life around him. In both cases, we sense that although Holden envisions himself as the protector rather than the one to be protected, he is the one who really needs to be caught. Mr. Antolini guesses that Holden feels disconnected from his environment, and, as we have already seen, his assessment is accurate. Holden has isolated himself in an attempt to be his own savior, but Mr. Antolini’s image of falling presents a more accurate image of what awaits Holden on the other side of the “cliff.” It thus reveals the weaknesses of Holden’s romantic outlook.

HannahConley13 16:14, 7 November 2011 (MST)

1.	“Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.” P.214 This quote means that if you start telling people things then you’ll become attached to them and when they aren’t around anymore you’ll begin to miss them.

2.	“I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. 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.” P.173 This is all Holden wants to do. He gets this idea from a song that calms him down. It is really just a happy thought and it explains the reason for the title of the book.

3. “The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody’d move. . . .Nobody’d be different. The only thing that would be different would be you.” P.121 This is yet another example of how Holden wishes that life could stay frozen like those in the display cases. It also shows that you are always changing whether you realize it or not, even though other things in life stay the same.

4.	“Life’s a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules.” P.8 This quote is saying that if you don’t play life by the right rules than your life won’t be a success. However, if you don’t choose to play by those rules you’ll fail. Holden seems to think that this only applies to those people who are so called “hot-shots”.

5.	I have a feeling that you’re riding from some kind of terrible, terrible fall. . . . The whole arrangement’s designed for men who, at some time or another in their lives, were looking for something their own environment couldn’t supplu them with. . . so they gave up looking” P.186 In this quote Mr. Antolini is saying that he believes Holden is just giving up and distancing himself from the world which we know is a correct assumption.

Courtneycain14 20:56, 9 November 2011 (MST)

1.	“Life is a game everyone plays according to the rules.” -Spencer (Ch. 2, page 23)

This is where Holden’s former teacher Spencer is trying to explain to him of how life is lived by following the rules. This is where the readers first get a true feel for who Holden is; a bright boy who is a bit of a rebel as he is witty in his disagreement with Spencer. This is where we really get to sense what Holden is feeling as he is being challenged by an adult.

2.	“This is my shooting hat,” I say, “I shoot people with this hat.” –Holden (Ch. 3)

This sentence shows the foreshadow to how Holden is characterized and is an individual by his hat. It also shows us how with the individualism that he gets from his hats portrays how he wants to be unique to the world, revealing his desire to be independent. 3.	“The best thing though, in that museum, is that nothing ever changed. Everything just stayed the same. Nothing ever moved…the only thing that would be different was you.” –Holden (chapter 16.)

The quote shows Holden’s characteristics as being unable to cope with change or handle a conflict. He shows how he is uneasy at the realization of how each time he comes here is has changed tremendously, and how that deeply bothers him. It shows of the simple life Holden urns for at the museum, never changing and never becoming difficult. 4.	“I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all.” –Holden (chapter 22.)

In this quote from Holden, he is telling his little sister of what he wishes he were able to be. His confession to just simply help others like the catcher in the rye. By admitting this, it reveals Holden’s pure imagination as he thinks like a child of being able to do nothing but good. This quote truly does let the reader understand that Holden has creativity inside him, as he sees the world around him in a different light; like a child

5.	“ I have a feeling that your riding with some terrible fall…” –Mr. Antolini (Ch. 24) In this quote from Holden, he is telling his little sister of what he wishes he were able to be. His confession to just simply help others like the catcher in the rye. By admitting this, it reveals Holden’s pure imagination as he thinks like a child of being able to do nothing but good. This quote truly does let the reader understand that Holden has creativity inside him, as he sees the world around him in a different light; like a child. This quote is from his old teacher who he speaks to after he cries to his little sister. When Mr. Antolini remarks this, he is referring to the mental instability of Holden’s actions.In the mists of their conversation, Holden has a full blown break down, unaware of what he is to do with himself. This portrays Holden in his weakest sense. (Colten.hoot)

Setting
The novel is told around the late 1940’s, early 1950’s.The story first takes place in Pennsylvania at Pencey high. It then moves to New York City. It also takes place at places like Grand Central station, his parents apartment, The Museum, Central Park, his old school, Mr. Antolini’s house, The Lavender Room, Ernie’s Jazz Club, a taxi cab, Edmont hotel, Baltimore. Leah Crawford 20:25, 9 November 2011 (MST)

Most of this story takes place in New York City during post war America. Holden’s journey begins just a week before his Christmas break.

Courtneycain14 20:56, 9 November 2011 (MST)

The story isn’t exactly set in one specific place, but details lead the reader to conclude it’s around the 1950’s and the narrator is in a mental institution. Throughout the beginning of the narrators tale, the book starts near late fall and early Christmas.

(Colten.hoot)

Historical Information About The Setting
Things were very different in the early 1950’s. It was a little after the end of World War II. Technology was not to the extremes as it is today. Most people had type writers and phones were only hooked to a cord. Prices were also very different, a loaf of bread only cost about .14 cents. And a carton of milk costs the same price. Also New York was a big city and things were more expensive there than smaller cities. Leah Crawford 20:32, 9 November 2011 (MST)

Historical information about this book is more related to the time period, in 1951, than the actual physical setting. Society during this time was still recovering from and overcoming the impacts of World War II, inflations brought on by the Great Depression, the changing job market availability with women returning to the home rather than the work force due to the war, and the changing of American politics to a more conservative one than it had been previously and it was looking for more prosperity than it had seen over the past few years. The society was also being impacted by the threat posed by the Soviet Union and the atomic bomb combined with the atmosphere of “repression.”

Courtneycain14 20:50, 9 November 2011 (MST)

Author's Style
He uses many cuss words and talks as a teenager would. He’s very straight forward and uses some words to emphasize how the character feels. Everything is explained in great detail and sometimes losses the train of thought. It can get confusing because the subjects change a lot and in the middle of other subjects. Leah Crawford 20:24, 9 November 2011 (MST)

The author is very straight forward, uses many cuss words, and talks as teenager would. Also, everything is explained in great detail and he sometimes he loses his train of thought. It can be confusing because the subjects change a lot and in the middle of other subjects. The author doesn’t use very much dialog either. Courtneycain14 21:07, 9 November 2011 (MST)

Jerome’s style of writing is offensive with his use of profanities and such. He is very crude as he writes in great detail. Although the diction used could seem quit offensive, Jerome’s writing style is admired in many ways. He writes what he thinks is best for the book and the story, despite whom it may offend. (Coltren.hoot)

Bibliographic Information in the author
JD Salinger was raised in Manhattan. His real name was Jerome David Salinger. He was born on January 1, 1919 in New York City, New York. He served in the army during World War II. He was one of the first American soldiers to enter a concentration camp. He rarely published anything after 1959. He did write some short stories, including “A Perfect Day for Bananafish”. The main character in Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield, first appeared in the short story, “Slight Rebellion off Madison.” He recently died in Cornish, New Hampshire on January 27th, 2010 at age 91. Leah Crawford 20:18, 9 November 2011 (MST)

J.D. Salinger was born on January 1, 1919 in New York City and was one of the most popular as well as controversial authors between 1940-1965. He was from a middle-class family and his parents considered his education very important. His early interests began in drama and music and continued throughout his life. After a few unsuccessful attempts at short story writing, James began publishing articles in magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Saturday Evening Post, and The New Yorker. His transition into writing novels instead of short stories was a slow and disappointing one until he published The Catcher in the Rye which he received both positive and negative feedback. This novel along with many of his other short stories resulted in his career expansion. Salinger was more recognized than ever by The Catcher in the Rye in 1951. He was uncomfortable, however, with the publicity that came along with his work and became somewhat reluctant to be in public and retreated to a more private lifestyle. J.D. Salinger died at his home in New Hampshire in 2010 at the age of 91.

Courtneycain14 21:05, 9 November 2011 (MST)

Born in New York in the year 1919, Mr. Salinger was a bit of a challenged young man. Despite his good upbringing his family gave him, he tended to be a bit of a rebel in school as he switched from one school to the next. His parents soon sent him to a military school for boys in 1934. He didn’t take to school much, all except for one subject; English. After he returned from World War Two, he got his first book published, The Catcher in the Rye. Throughout the 50’s and half way through the 60’s he wrote and became published frequently. His writers were either loved or hated by the readers. Many thought the book(s) were to ‘adolescent’ to be taken serious. Jerome continued to write, although he secluded himself from the public around 1965. He passed away in 2010, leaving us to wonder how many more of his writings has he left unfinished. (Colten.hoot)