The Catcher in the Rye

J.D Salinger

The Plot

Themes

Motifs

Holden Caulfield

“I was sixteen then, and I'm seventeen now, and sometimes I act like I'm about thirteen.  Sometimes I act a lot older than I am – I really do – but people never notice it.

People never notice anything. ”

D.B

"doesn't do a damn thing to help with my writing“

(with reference to war)

Phoebe

"Daddy'll kill you"

Allie

 ”He's dead now. He got leukemia and died when we were up in Maine, on July 18, 1946. You'd have liked him.”

Jane Gallagher

“Jane was different”

Mr. Antolini

 "I'm simply sitting here, admiring." 

Mr. Spencer

"Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules."

1960 a teacher was fired for assigning the novel in class

 Between 1961 and 1982, The Catcher in the Rye was the most censored book in high schools and libraries in the United States

 1981 it was both the most censored book and the second most taught book in public schools in the United State

In 2009 Salinger successfully sued to stop the U.S. publication of a novel that presents Holden Caulfield as an old man.

Controversy

“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.“

Holden Caulfield