J.D. Salinger, The Catcher In The Rye, publisher Penguin Books Ltd, Middlesex, England, 34th edition, 1981 (first edition 1951)

“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.”

The Catcher In The Rye is about Holden Caulfield, a teenage boy who has been kicked out of school for the fourth time. It begins at Pencey, a boarding school in Pennsylvania, when Holden has just found out he has been suspended. It’s just before the Christmas holiday, and he is supposed to go home on Wednesday, but when he gets into a fight with his roommate Stradlater, he leaves Pencey right away. But he can’t go home, because the school hasn’t informed his parents yet. So he takes the train to New York, where his parents live, but decides to stay in a hotel until the beginning of the Christmas Holiday. That same night he goes to Ernie’s, a nightclub where he has been before with his older brother D.B. The owner of the club, called Ernie, plays the piano very well. But Holden thinks it is such a waste to play in front of people: “If I was a piano player I'd play in the goddam closet.” He dances with a blond girl all night, but she’s only interested in celebrities. When he gets back to the hotel, the elevator-boy, Maurice, offers him the services of a prostitute in his room. A couple of minutes later Sunny arrives. Holden is very excited, because he thinks he can lose his virginity that night. But when Sunny takes her sweater of, he realizes that he doesn’t feel ‘sexy’ enough. So he pays her and sends her away. But a few minutes later Sunny and old Maurice come back and beat him up for not paying enough. Holden starts to cry and pays the ten dollars they wanted.

The next morning, Holden calls his ex-girlfriend Sally Hayes, and they go to see a theatre show. Holden doesn’t enjoy it. After the show they go ice-skating. Later, in a bar, Sally runs into an old friend, and they start up a conversation. The friend irritates Holden. When they are finally alone again, Holden suggests that they can go away together, so the two of them can live in the woods, get a job and get married. Sally doesn’t want to, and Holden calls her “a pain in the ass”, so she leaves. He feels very lonely.

Then he meets an old school friend, called Carl Luce. But they get into an argument so Carl leaves. Holden gets very drunk and goes into Central Park wondering where the ducks are. “I live in New York, and I was thinking about the lagoon in Central Park, down near Central Park South. I was wondering if it would be frozen over when I got home, and if it was, where did the ducks go? I was wondering where the ducks went when the lagoon got all icy and frozen over. I wondered if some guy came in a truck and took them away to a zoo or something. Or if they just flew away.”

When he regains his senses he decides to visit his sister Phoebe, so he sneaks into his parents’ house. Holden finds the integrity he is looking for through his sister.

Instead of going back to the hotel, Holden decides to go see his former English teacher Mr Antolini, and asks if he can spend the night there. Mr and Mrs Antolini are very warm and welcoming. Holden tells Mr. Antolini his story, and he trusts Mr. Antolini completely. But in the middle of the night Holden wakes up and finds Mr. Antolini’s hand on his head. He is very scared and thinks Mr. Antolini is a homosexual. He leaves the house as quickly as possible.

After spending the rest of the night at Central Station, Holden decides to run away. He tells little sister Phoebe about his plans, but Phoebe insists of going with him. Holden doesn’t want her to, so they get into an argument. Then Holden changes his plans and takes her to the zoo instead.

The end of the book was a bit vague, but I believe that Holden becomes ill and is diagnosed with tubercolosis. He is sent to a sanatorium for psychological treatment, and he recovers. He realises he hasn’t loved his family and friends enough and he feels happy at last. “I sort of miss everybody. Even old Stradlater and Ackley, for instance. I think I even miss that goddam Maurice. It’s funny.”


● The main character is Holden Caulfield, a sixteen year-old boy who has many issues. He is very cynical and critical about the world and society. He finds the world ugly and the people hypocritical. Through being cynical he tries to protect himself from the difficult world of grown-ups. He has this desire to protect children from adulthood, he wants them to never grow up. He says that children are pure and innocent and less hypocritical than adults. “Grand. There's a word I really hate. It's phony. I could puke every time I hear it.”

● Another important character is his little sister
Phoebe Caulfield. Phoebe is ten years old, and Holden describes her as the smartest kid ever. She isn’t blind for Holden’s cynicism and she can tell the difference between a good and a bad movie. During Holden’s days in New York Phoebe tries to save him from a lonely and unhappy life. Holden about Phoebe: "She writes books all the time. Only, she doesn't finish them. They're all about some kid named Hazel Weatherfield - only Phoebe spells it Hazle.

Old Hazle Weatherfield is a girl detective. She's supposed to be an orphan, but her old man keeps showing up. Her old man's always a tall attractive gentleman about 20 years of age. That kills me. Old Phoebe. I swear to God you'd like her."

● Holden’s older brother D.B. Caulfield is a character who never appears in the story, but Holden tells a lot about him. D.B lives in Hollywood and writes screenplays. Holden hates films and he regrets that D.B. prostitutes himself for the film company. But he thinks his brother a good writer though.

● Allie Caulfield was Holden’s younger brother: he died of cancer when Holden was thirteen years old. Allie was very lived by Holden. Holden tells that, when Allie died, he broke all the windows in their garage with his hand, and now his hand has permanent injuries.● Robert Ackley occupies in the room next to Holden at Pencey Prep. Ackley, as Holden calls him, isn’t very populair at Pencey. Holden thinks that’s because of his annoying personality and his poor personal hygene. Although Holden finds him irritating, he does feel some sympathy for Ackley ocasionally.

“You could also hear old Ackley snoring. Right through the goddam shower curtains you could hear him. he has sinus trouble and he couldn't breathe too hot when he was asleep. That guy had just about everything. Sinus trouble, pimples, lousy teeth, halitosis, crumby fingernails. You had to feel a little sorry for that crazy sonuvabitch.”

● Ward Stradlater is Holden’s handsome and popular roommate at Pencey Prep. Stradlater is one of the few boys at Pencey that is sexually active and he is completely selfish. When he goes on a date with Holden’s childhood friend Jane Gallagher, Holden freaks out and they get into a fight. When Holden loses the fight, he decides to leave Pencey earlier.

● Jane Gallagher, Holden’s childhood friend, who goes on a date with Stradlater, doesn’t appear in the novel, but Holden tells about her quite often. He thinks of her as one of the few girls he had truly felt intimate with, although not physically. He plans on calling her several times but he never does, because “it doesn’t feel right”.

The book is written in the 50’s, during Christmas time. It takes place in New York, and it’s very cold and snowy. The weather and the place are important because a lot of things happen at certain places in New York and at certain times, for example: Holden wouldn't go ice-skating in the summer. And also the entire way Holden thinks - it's totally different compared to how I see things.

The story is told in chronological order, but there are some flashbacks in it. When Holden tells about Jane Gallagher and Allie, that of course is in de past, because Allie is dead and he is no longer in contact with Jane.

I thought the ending was a bit vague. Because he mentions something about being sick and living in a mental hospital, but he decides not to tell us about that. So I would consider it to be an open ending.

The story is written in the 1st person, as if Holden has written the story himself. It would definitely be very different if it had been written by someone else, it wouldn’t be as funny as it is now, because of Holdens special view on things.

The Catcher in the Rye is about the painfulness of growing up, and about the hypocritical adult world. Loneliness, relationships, intimacy, and sexuality are very important themes as well. Throughout the whole book Holden struggles with all of those things.

“The Catcher in the Rye” refers to Holden’s dream about a rye-field, where children can play careless. But next to the field is a deep ravine. ‘The catcher in the rye’ captures the children from falling in the ravine. “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 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.”

Every incident in the book seems real. And so seems Holden. It is very well written and recognizable.

I think that if Holden were real, I’d like him. His cynism would annoy me, but I would appreciate his sincerity. Holden hasn’t influenced me, but I find his ideas about the world interesting.

The use of language was, like I said before, very abusive, but funny. And a lot slang is written, for example “wuddaya doin” in stead of “what are you doing”, and “wuddayacallit” in stead of “what do you call it".

I enjoyed the book very much. Growing up is something I deal with all the time, so I recognized a lot of things. Holden is very extreme, in everything he does. I’m not like that, but Holden is an exaggeration. He swears a lot, which is something I don’t do (that much). “Goddam money.  It always ends up making you blue as hell”.

But in general I enjoyed reading it, and I think Holden has a good sense of humour.

“Then I started horsing around a little bit. Sometimes I horse around quite a lot, just to keep from getting bored. What I did was, I pulled the old peak of my hunting hat around to the front, then pulled it way down over my eyes. That way, I couldn't see a goddam thing. 'I think I'm going blind,' I said in this very hoarse voice. 'Mother darling, everything's getting so dark in here.'

'You're nuts, I swear to God,' Ackley said.

'Mother darling, give me your hand. Why won't you give me your hand?'

For Chrissake, grow up.'”