The Catcher in The Rye - Class 2

J. D.
Salinger
LET 1901 – Text and Context II

Márcia Lobianco Vicente Amorim
Technical information
• Full title - The Catcher in the Rye
• Author - J. D. Salinger
• Type of work - Novel
• Genre - Bildungsroman (coming-of-age novel)
• Time and place written - Late 1940s - early 1950s, New York
• Date of first publication - July 1951; parts of the novel appeared as
short stories in Collier’s, December 1945, and in The New Yorker,
December 1946
• Publisher - Little, Brown and Company
Literary Elements
• Narrator - Holden Caulfield, narrating from a psychiatric facility a few months after
the events of the novel.
• Point of view - Holden Caulfield narrates in the first person, describing what he
himself sees and experiences, providing his own commentary on the events and
people he describes.
• Tone - Holden’s tone varies between disgust, cynicism, bitterness, and nostalgic
longing, all expressed in a colloquial style.
• Tense - Past
• Setting (time) - A long weekend in the late 1940s or early 1950s
• Setting (place) - Holden begins his story in Pennsylvania, at his former school,
Pencey Prep. He then recounts his adventures in New York City.
• Protagonist - Holden Caulfield
Literary Elements
• MAJOR CONFLICT - The major conflict is within Holden’s psyche. Part of him wants to
connect with other people on an adult level (and, more specifically, to have a
sexual encounter), while part of him wants to reject the adult world as “phony,”
and to retreat into his own memories of childhood.
• RISING ACTION - Holden’s many attempts to connect with other people over the
course of the novel bring his conflicting impulses—to interact with other people as
an adult, or to retreat from them as a child—into direct conflict.
• CLIMAX - Possible climaxes include Holden’s encounter with Sunny, when it
becomes clear that he is unable to handle a sexual encounter; the end of his date
with Sally, when he tries to get her to run away with him; and his departure from
Mr. Antolini’s apartment, when he begins to question his characteristic mode of
judging other people.
Literary Elements
• FALLING ACTION - Holden’s interactions with Phoebe, culminating in his tears of joy
at watching Phoebe on the carousel (at the novel’s end he has retreated into
childhood, away from the threats of adult intimacy and sexuality).
• THEMES - Alienation as a form of self-protection; the painfulness of growing up; the
phoniness of the adult world.
• MOTIFS - Relationships, intimacy and sexuality; loneliness; lying and deception
• SYMBOLS – The “Catcher in the Rye”; Holden’s red hunting hat; the Museum of
Natural History; the ducks in the Central Park lagoon.
• FORESHADOWING - At the begining of the novel, Holden hints that he has been
hospitalized for a nervous breakdown, the story of which is revealed over the
course of the novel.
Symbols
1. Holden’s Red Hunting Hat:
• The red hunting hat is one of the most recognizable symbols from twentieth-century
American literature. It is inseparable from our image of Holden, with good reason: it is a
symbol of his uniqueness and individuality. The hat is outlandish, and it shows that Holden
desires to be different from everyone around him. At the same time, he is very self-
conscious about the hat—he always mentions when he is wearing it, and he often doesn’t
wear it if he is going to be around people he knows. The presence of the hat, therefore,
mirrors the central conflict in the book: Holden’s need for isolation versus his need for
companionship.
• It is worth noting that the hat’s color, red, is the same as that of Allie’s and Phoebe’s hair.
Perhaps Holden associates it with the innocence and purity he believes these characters
represent and wears it as a way to connect to them. He never explicitly comments on the
hat’s significance other than to mention its unusual appearance.
Symbols
2. The Museum of Natural History:
Holden tells us the symbolic meaning of the museum’s displays: they appeal to him
because they are frozen and unchanging. He also mentions that he is troubled by
the fact that he has changed every time he returns to them. The museum represents
the world Holden wishes he could live in: it’s the world of his “catcher in the rye”
fantasy, a world where nothing ever changes, where everything is simple,
understandable, and infinite. Holden is terrified by the unpredictable challenges of
the world—he hates conflict, he is confused by Allie’s senseless death, and he fears
interaction with other people.
Symbols
3. The Ducks in the Central Park Lagoon
• Holden’s curiosity about where the ducks go during the winter reveals a genuine, more
youthful side to his character. For most of the book, he sounds like a grumpy old man who
is angry at the world, but his search for the ducks represents the curiosity of youth and a
joyful willingness to encounter the mysteries of the world. It is a memorable moment,
because Holden clearly lacks such willingness in other aspects of his life.
• The ducks and their pond are symbolic in several ways. Their mysterious perseverance in
the face of an inhospitable environment resonates with Holden’s understanding of his own
situation. In addition, the ducks prove that some vanishings are only temporary.
Traumatized and made acutely aware of the fragility of life by his brother Allie’s death,
Holden is terrified by the idea of change and disappearance. The ducks vanish every
winter, but they return every spring, thus symbolizing change that isn’t permanent, but
cyclical. Finally, the pond itself becomes a minor metaphor for the world as Holden sees it,
because it is “partly frozen and partly not frozen.” The pond is in transition between two
states, just as Holden is in transition between childhood and adulthood.
Other Symbols in the Novel
Other Symbols in the Novel

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J. D.

LET 1901 – Text and Context II

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