The Catcher in the Rye

J. D. Salinger, THE CATCHER IN THE RYE,

published in 1951

1. THE AUTHOR

- born on 1st January 1919 in New York City

- 1934-36 Valley Forge Military Academy

- 1938 travels in Europe

- some short story writing courses

- 1940 his first short story "The young Folks" was published

- 1943 publishing of the short story "The Varioni Brothers"

- 1948-50 publishings of the short stories "A Perfect Day for Bananafish", "Uncle Wiggily in Conneticut", "Just before the War with the Eskimos", "The Laughing Man" and "For Esmé - with Love and Squalor"

- 1951 publishing of "The Catcher in the Rye"

- 17th February 1955 marriage with Claire Douglas

- 10th December 1955 birth of a daughter

- 13th February 1960 son Matthew is born

- 1961 publishing of "Franny and Zooey"

- 1967 divorce

- 1997 publishing of "Hapworth 16, 1924" in form of a book

2. PERSONS

- Holden Caulfield, the main character

- Ackley, living next door

- Stradlater, his roommate

- Jane Gallagher, a good old friend

- Carl Luce, a former class-mate

- Phoebe, his sister

- Sally Hayes, an old girlfriend

- Mr. Spencer, his history teacher

- Mr. Antolini, his former English teacher

3.CONTENTS

- Holden Caulfield is in a sanatorium in California

- he begins to tell his story

- Holden's roommate Stradlater implores him to write an essay for him

- he writes it about the Baseball glove of his dead brother Allie

- Stradlater becomes angry about about the glove story

- it comes to a scuffle between the two boys and Holden loses

- as a result of it Holden leaves the boarding-school

- he goes to New York and stays at a cheap motel

- at the hotel bar he has fun with three girls

- afterwards Holden meets the lift-boy Maurice who offers him a prostitute

- but suddenly he loses all of his desire and only talks to the girl and pays his price

- in the night the lift boy and the prostitute knock at his door and want another five dollars

- Holden doesn't want to pay and so Maurice knocks him down

- on the next morning Caulfield calls Sally Hayes and arranges a date with her

- after the show Holden asks her to go with him to the West

- she gets angry and goes home

- in the evening Caulfield meets Carl Luce in a bar

- but Holden gets on his nerves and so Carl leaves

- afterwards Holden gets drunk and goes to the Central Park, where he becomes homesick for his sister and decides to go home

- he sneaks into the house while his parents are out

- Holden wakes his sister and is happy to be able to talk to her

- Phoebe finds out why he came home so early

- than he tells her the whole story and calls his former English teacher, Mr. Antolini, to stay there for the next days

- after a misunderstanding Holden packs his suitcase and sleeps in an Underground station

- the next day he meets his sister with her suitcase

- after she has told him that she wants to go with him to the West he decides to go home

- his parents send him to a sanatorium to get well and there he writes his report

4. STRUCTURE

- 26 chapters

- period of three days

- first and last chapter build the frame

- first day covers eight chapters

- second day covers eleven chapters

- third day covers only five chapters

5. POINT OF VIEW

- first person as protagonist

=> the reader can identify with Holden

- thoughts and wishes of the narrator are expressed in a monologue with himself

- general observations are woven into the story

6. STYLISTIC DEVICES VOCABULARY

a) language - dormitory = Internat

- youth language - mummies = Mumien

- modern language trends from the 50-ies - to scuffle = sich raufen

- many abusive words - to skip school = Schule schwänzen

b) symbols - visor = Mützenschirm

-> reflect the feelings and thoughts of Holden

- his red cap

- ducks

- mummies

- Allie's Baseball-glove

c) theme of the story is still "up-to-date"

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