The Catcher In The Rye

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The Catcher In The Rye J.D. Salinger
Presented By -Joormana Brahma -Digvijay
Singh -Koride Sarita -P Bhargavi -Siddharth
Gupta -Titiksha Dikshit
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About the Author

• J.D. Salinger, the legendary author, youth hero
  and fugitive from fame whose "The Catcher in the
  Rye" shocked and inspired the world, was born in
  New York City on 1st Jan, 1919.
• After brief periods of enrollment at both NYU and
  Columbia University, Salinger devoted himself
  entirely to writing, and by 1940 he had published
  several short stories in periodicals.
• Although his career as a writer was interrupted
  by World War II, after returning from service in
  the U.S. Army in 1946 Salinger resumed a writing
  career primarily for The New Yorker magazine.

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Salinger received major critical and popular
recognition with The Catcher in the Rye (1951),
the story of Holden Caulfield, a rebellious
boarding school student who attempts to run away
from the adult world that he finds "phony." In
many ways reminiscent of Mark Twain's Adventures
of Huckleberry Finn, Salinger's novel finds great
sympathy for its wayward child protagonist.
After the publication and massive success of
the book, Salinger became increasingly reclusive
and refused to give interviews or be
photographed. He died on January 27th 2010, aged
91. "There is a marvelous peace in not
publishing," J.D. Salinger told The New York
Times in 1974. "Publishing is a terrible invasion
of my privacy. I like to write. I love to write.
But I write just for myself and my own pleasure."
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About the book

• The Catcher in the Rye is a 1951 novel.
  Originally published for adults, it has since
  become popular for its themes of teenage
  confusion, angst, sexuality, alienation, and
  rebellion.
• The Catcher in the Rye is famous as the most
  censored, banned and challenged book between 1966
  and 1975 for being "obscene," with an "excess of
  vulgar language, sexual scenes, and things
  concerning moral issues.
• It has been translated into almost all of the
  world's major languages. Around 250,000 copies
  are sold each year, with total sales of more than
  sixty-five million.
• The novel was included on a 2005 Time Magazine
  list of the 100 best English-language novels
  written since 1923,and it was named by Modern
  Library and its readers as one of the 100 best
  English-language novels of the 20th century.

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Plot Synopsis
The novel's plot is simple, detailing
seventeen-year-old Holden's experiences in New
York City following his expulsion, and departure,
from an elite prep school. The book is more
notable for the iconic persona and testimonial
voice of its first-person narrator, Holden
Caulfield. He serves as an insightful but
unreliable narrator who expounds on the
importance of loyalty, the "phoniness" of
adulthood, and his own duplicity. In a 1953
interview with a high-school newspaper, Salinger
admitted that the novel was "sort of"
autobiographical, explaining that "My boyhood was
very much the same as that of the boy in the
book ... It was a great relief telling people
about it."
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Who Is The Catcher in the Rye? "Anyway, I keep
picturing all these little kids playing some game
in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of
little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I
mean - except me. And 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.
I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd
really like to be. I know it's crazy."
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Holden Caulfield

• Holden is by far the most complex character in
  the book (arguable the only complex character).
• He serves three major purposes in the novel.
  Firstly, he stands as a critic of society, taking
  a stance against phoniness, hypocrisy, obscenity,
  and passiveness.
• Secondly, he is an adolescent, caught between the
  worlds of childhood and adulthood. In this
  position, he demonstrates the need for maturity
  as well as the need for honesty and integrity.
• With relation to the plot of the novel, Holden
  stands as a sort of anti-hero. He gives himself
  the impossible task of fighting society's
  phoniness, and in the end commits to that task
  wholeheartedly.

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Other Significant Characters
Phoebe Holden's younger sister, Phoebe serves
both as a representation of the virtues of
childhood (honesty, openness) as well as an
advisor to him. D.B. Caulfield Holden's older
brother, D.B. can be seen as an adult corrupted
by society. A talented writer, D.B. was seduced
by the wealth of Hollywood into writing cheap and
corny screenplays. Mr. Antolini A former English
teacher of Holden's and possible homosexual, Mr.
Antolini serves, alongside Phoebe, as an advisor
to Holden. It is his wisdom which guides Holden
to a more realistic goal (that of fighting
falseness rather than the end of childhood) in
the end.
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Themes

• The journey of one individual, Holden Caulfield,
  into self-discovery.
• Managed to capture the conflicts and identity
  crises which many young adults his age are caught
  in.
• The novel is intended also as a piece of social
  criticism, calling for integrity and human
  interaction in a mechanized society.
• Deepest-running theme of the book is Holden's
  stance against phoniness. It is no coincidence
  that Holden's journeys take him through a
  cross-section of American society the school,
  bars, city streets, family, etc. Salinger aims
  to show how widespread this phoniness has become.
• Constant criticism detaches him from society and
  also results in some self-loathing.

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Symbols
The Ducks "I was wondering where the ducks went
when the lagoon got all icy and frozen over,"
notes Holden in the second chapter of the novel.
The question is really one for himself, and
mirrors a concern of Mr. Antolini's where does a
person go when his environment can no longer
support him? Holden finishes the novel with an
implied commitment to changing his environment
rather than fleeing it, a decision much nobler
than the one the ducks chose.
The Hunting Hat Holden's attachment to the
hunting hat can be seen in his early description
of it "This is a people-shooting hat. I shoot
people in this hat." Perhaps the "hunting" Holden
does is one not of killing people, but of
criticizing them. When he gives the hat to
Phoebe, it may be symbolic that Holden has chosen
not to separate himself from society any longer.
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Writing Style

• The Catcher in the Rye is written in a subjective
  style from the point of view of its protagonist,
  Holden Caulfield, following his exact thought
  process (a writing style known as stream of
  consciousness). There is flow in the seemingly
  disjointed ideas and episodes about experiences.
• The events of this book are not organized
  haphazardly, and in many instances Salinger
  displays his brilliance in the juxtaposition of
  two events in order to display contradictions and
  foils.
• Holden's criticism of society is brutally honest
  his profanity is atrocious, and he levels his
  knife against everything from religion to
  homosexuality without flinching.
• Finally, Salinger knows when to break the
  heaviness of his subject matter with humor.

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Why Autobiographical?
J.D Salinger gives his personal vision of the
world successfully through his persona Holden
Caulfield in the Catcher in the Rye.  Caulfield
struggles with the background of New York to
portray Salingers theme you must live the
world as it is, not as you would like it to be. 
when comparing Salinger's real life experiences
to the events of the book, it is arguable most of
the book is autobiographical Much like J.D.
Salinger, Holden Caulfield is a very quiet,
reclusive character who was also expelled from
several schools and berated by his teachers for
his poor performance, Salinger also struggled to
keep his grades up, and one professor even called
him, "the worst English student in the history of
the college." I'm always saying "Glad to've met
you" to somebody I'm not at all glad I met. If
you want to stay alive, you have to say that
stuff, though.
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• Hatred of war "Anyway, I'm sort of glad they've
  got the atomic bomb invented. If there's ever
  another war, I'm going to sit right the hell on
  top of it. I'll volunteer for it, I swear to God
  I will."
• Many failed attempts to find a meaningful,
  lasting relationship with a woman. I was half in
  love with her by the time we sat down. That's the
  thing about girls. Every time they do something
  pretty, even if they're not much to look at, or
  even if they're sort of stupid, you fall half in
  love with them, and then you never know where the
  hell you are. Girls. Jesus Christ. They can drive
  you crazy. They really can.
• Similar mindset. "It's funny. All you have to do
  is say something nobody understands and they'll
  do practically anything you want them to."
• The final, and one of the most interesting points
  that proves Salinger and Holden are similar is
  how they remark that, now that they've told
  people their story, they wish they hadn't. At the
  end of, "Catcher in the Rye," Holden says this
  about his story"If you want to know the truth, I
  don't know what I think about it. I'm sorry I
  told so many people about itDon't ever tell
  anybody anything."

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• Criticism
• Goodman wrote "Holden was not quite so sensitive
  and perceptive as he, and his creator, thought he
  was"
• The Catcher in the Rye is too depressive to be
  of any redeeming value to the reader Stern, The
  New York Times.
• The story was emotional without being
  sentimental, dramatic without being melodramatic,
  and honest without simply being obscene Paul
  Engle, Chicago Tribune

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• "a beautifully deft, professional performer who
  gives us a chance to catch quick, half-amused,
  half-frightened glimpses of ourselves and our
  contemporaries, as he confronts us with his
  brilliant mirror images"
• When we are honest we can see within ourselves
  suppressed elements of the forces operating
  within Holden Caulfield.

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Thank You!