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**  J.D. Salinger:   ** He was born in Manhattan on New Year’s Day, 1919 Died: January 27th, 2010. He was born into a Jewish family and his father sold kosher cheese for a living, he had one older sister named Doris. Salinger attended various private schools in Westside Manhattan, but spent his high school years at the prestigious McBurney School. He was later kicked out due to his grades and attended the Valley Forge Military Academy. After graduation, he attended New York University for a semester, Ursinus College for two non-sequential semesters and then finally Columbia University, where he received a degree in English. He submitted various short stories to the New Yorker, and is famous for his story //Slight Rebellion off Madison// which included the tale of Holden Caulfield. He also wrote the novel //Franny and Zooey// shortly after. Salinger continued his story of Holden Caulfield in his most famous novel, //The Catcher in the Rye” (source: [] )// **  Literary Period:    ** 1940’s-1950’s, in New York City, USA **  Setting:    ** The story begins at Pencey Preparatory, and then continues to take place in Manhattan and other districts of New York City. The novel describes the days between the end of the fall school term and Christmas break. Specifically, Holden visits famous places such as: Broadway, Ernie’s, The Rockefeller Center, The Natural Museum of History and Princeton University **  Main Characters:   ** ** Holden Caulfield ** : He is the main character and the narrator of the novel. He is 16 and was just recently expelled from Pencey Preparatory School. He is incredibly intelligent, sensitive, and cynical. Yet, his grades don’t reflect it. He is depressed and sees the hypocrisy and “phoniness” of the world. He is obsessed with analyzing those around him and in the process loses sight of how to communicate with normal people. While he is very judgmental of others, he is also harsh on himself. He can see the various flaws within him, and he is repulsed by them. ** Phoebe Caulfield ** : She is Holden’s younger sister, and his favorite person. While she is only 10 years old, she is incredibly mature and often points out that Holden is the only one holding him back. Holden adores her and often thinks of her when he is depressed. ** Mr. Antolini ** : When Holden is in NYC and is contemplating running away for good, he visits Mr. Antolini, who was his former English teacher. Antolini tells Holden that education isn’t conformity but actually a way for him to express his opinions. Holden misinterprets Antolini’s kindness for a homosexual pass and immediately leaves the apartment. ** Jane Gallagher: ** A girl with whom Holden spent a lot of time one summer, when their families stayed in neighboring summer houses in Maine. She isn’t ever actually present during the story but Holden refers to her several times because he admires her intelligence and beauty. In a way she is the one girl he can never stop thinking of. **  Plot:   ** Essentially, //The Catcher in the Rye// tells the story of Holden Caulfield who is 16 years old and recently was expelled from his preparatory school, Pencey. Holden is expelled from Pencey due to his failing grades. After his expulsion he visits his old professor, Spencer to say goodbye and ask for advice. He then returns to his dorm to say bye to his roommates and collect his things. He decides that instead of going home right away, and to avoid being lectured, he spends the following week at a hotel in the Lower East Side. Once he is in the city he basically just chats with whoever will listen. He enjoys the company of three older woman, and drinks with them throughout the night. Later that night he is approached by his hotels’ bellhop who asks whether Holden would like to “catch some tail”. Holden accepts the offer but when the prostitute comes to his room all he wants to do is talk. For the next few days he roams the city by himself and goes on various dates with Sally Hayes. He basically just expresses his thoughts on humanity and his past, without actually thinking about his future. He ends up sneaking into his apartment to talk to his sister Phoebe. He tells her that he was expelled and that he plans on running away for good. She insists on following him, and eventually changes his mind. The story ends with Holden returning home and saying that he is “cautiously optimistic” for his future. **  Themes:   ** ** Cynicism as a form of self-protection: ** Holden is constantly criticizing those around him. He points out the “phonies”, “liars” and “hypocrites” in people, and yet he still feels love for them. This suggests that he doesn’t really believe his claims. Instead, he is alienating himself from those around him because he is afraid of being hurt. He never wants to love or become close to people because rejection is his ultimate fear. Instead, he hides behind a mask of pessimism. ** Growing up: ** Essentially, this novel is the tale of Holden Caulfield changing from a boy to a young adult. He questions sex, love, family, education and humanity in general. He criticizes those around him but he fights the idea that perhaps he is guilty of those same criticisms. He fights maturity because he confuses it with conformity. By doing this he is only harming himself, and prolonging the eventual process. ** “Phoniness”: ** Undoubtedly the central theme of the story is pointing out the hypocrisy and phoniness in social events and people. Holden points out every single unnecessary act and largely blames the media for corrupting society. **  Literary Devices:   ** **  Personification:   ** “The cars zoomed by, brakes screeched all over the place, his parents paid no attention to him, and he kept on walking next to the curb and singing…” pg. 150   **   Flashback:   ** “Bobby Fallon used to live quite near us in Maine—this is, years ago. Anyway, what happened was, one day Bobby and I were going over to Lake Sedebego on our bikes. We were going to take our lunches and all, and our BB guns—we were kids and all, and we thought we could shoot something with our BB guns. Anyway, Allie heard us…” pg. 129   **   Personal Thoughts:   ** I had previously read this book in either 6th or 7th grade. I chose to read it again because I forgot basically the entire plot, and because it is such a staple of pop culture. After re-reading it, I would still say that while it is a classic coming-of-age novel, it is highly overrated. Salinger focuses too heavily on Holden’s cynicism. After a while it loses its humor and just becomes routine. Instead, Salinger needed to develop Holden more, have him change throughout the course of the story. Another thing, I didn’t really like that the story took place within a few days, it made the story lose excitement. Although I do believe that by having such a short time period, one was able to see better into Holden's thoughts. Even though, in my opinion, //The Catcher in the Rye// was overrated, I still believe that it should be read by everyone at least once during their high-school career. Holden faced issues that are common to teenagers, and even though he may have incredibly blunt and sometime profane thoughts, they need to be heard. The most important lesson that I learned while reading this book was that while many people are hypocritical and have many faults, so do I. Society is corrupt and often many mannerisms are unnecessary and pure fluff, but that doesn’t mean that people are evil. Instead of focusing on the negatives, it is necessary to focus on the solution. Pessimism never solved anything.
 * The Catcher in the Rye  **