Published July 16, 1951

J.D. Salinger 1919-2010
Born New York,NY
Educated @ Valley Forge,NYU,&Columbia

SALINGER

• Influential American writer of 20th century
• Catcher in the Rye set a new course for literature in post WWII America
• Served in military during Normandy Invasion
• Suffered nervous breakdown after war

CATCHER IN THE RYE

• Sold more than 65 million copies
• David Chapman the man who shot John Lennon had a copy of Catcher and stated the answers for the shooting were in the book
• 1953 he left NY and became a recluse because of book's fame
• Main character's quest is to find something pure in an otherwise phony world

HOLDEN CAULFIELD

• an unreliable narrator
• Mentally troubled
• Apathy toward his future
• Discontent
• Can not connect with others
• Extremely judgmental
• Thinks everyone is a phony meaning people are superficial "teachers act like teachers"
• Caul part of last name is the term for a membrane that covers the head of fetus during birth, symbolizes blindness and childhood.
• "Hold-on Caul-field (holding on to innocence is blindness)

PHOEBE CAULFIELD

• Holden's younger sister by six years
• Recognizes Holden doesn't want to grow up is something wrong with him
• Reliable guide for narrator
• She causes reader to not trust narrator all the more
• Her character challenges his over simplified view of the world
• She recognizes she is more mature and independent than he by end of book

MR. ANTOLINI

• Holden's teacher
• He doesn't act conventionally so he's not a phony to Holden
• Symbolic for education as means to develop ones uniqueness
• He is not a homosexual as Holden believes

SYMBOLS

• Holden's red hunting hat-isolation vs companionship,uniqueness vs self-consciousness
• The title-Robert Burns poem "Comin' Thro' the Rye"
• Museum of Natural History-the world he wants to live in: never changing,simple, and understandable.
• Duck in Central Park-they migrate but return, change that's not permanent,they survive in rough environment

SETTING

• 1948 or 1949
• Over a course of three days- Saturday to Monday
• Reader does math to determine the year from chapter 2 & 5
• It's 1940s post WWII
• Holden is a product of the war-a post war loss of innocence due to atom bomb
• Feelings of isolation,disillusionment,growing conformity,and consumption

GEOGRAPHY

• Percy Preparatory School with a bunch of phonies
• NYC with a bunch of phonies
• Bar to bar and hotel to hotel
• Holden thinks people will change when the setting does but people are all the same no matter the place

Entry 2 Tone ____
The tone of chapter one is cynical. Find an example and write a paragraph with an embedded quote discussing the tone.

Entry 3 Ch 2 __
Look up the magazine Atlantic Monthly. Who is the magazine geared toward and what does the allusion have to do with the teacher Holden visits?

Entry_ Idiomatic __
Identify the error and write it correctly.
1. Glass walls and dividers can also be used to replace solid walls as a means through distributing natural light more freely.

Entry__ Chapter 22 __

• Holden wants to be "the catcher in the rye" so he can:
• prevent children from falling off the cliff
• retain his innocence and be a child forever
• protect Phoebe from the adult life
• prevent children from becoming adults

Entry14 Emily Dickinson 1-25-19