getlitwithliterature-blog

[getlitwithliterature-blog]

Do you want to journey through the adventures of an angsty teenager whose favorite adjective is phony? Let’s talk about Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger. But before we do, how about some basic information about the author?

J.D. Salinger hasn’t written very many books; at least 8 books that we have record of! His most notable novel is the one we will be discussing today, however he is also known for works such as Franny and Zooey and Nine Stories, a collection of...nine...short...stories :) Also, J.D. Salinger was born in 1919 and only recently passed away in 2010! I’m getting carried away. Let’s begin our discussion. 

The book takes place sometime in the 1950′s. The narrator is a teenager named Holden Caulfield-yes, the angsty one whose favorite word is phony. We’ll get to that in a little bit. Holden is undergoing some sort of treatment in a location close to Hollywood, which is where is friend D.B. lives. About halfway down the first page, he says, “I’ll just tell you about this madman stuff that happened to me around last Christmas just before I got pretty run-down and had to come out here and take it easy” (1). Note the word choices the author made. Words and phrases that can be comprehended easily are choices authors make for the story to be more accessible to a broader audience. Let’s continue. 

The bulk of the story is told through flashbacks as Holden is in treatment. The events that Holden talks about in the body of the book takes place between the end of the fall semester at school and Christmas. Holden is 16 years old.

So, it’s the end of classes at Pencey Prep and we are now following Holden on a Saturday. We learn that this is Holden’s fourth school! He did so poorly in the other three that they kicked him out. Pencey Prep was his last resort. But, he isn’t doing so well at Pencey Prep either. Holden failed four out of the five classes that he was taking. From the school, Holden has received a letter stating he will be expelled due to his poor grades. It’s Saturday and he isn’t due to go home to Manhattan until Wednesday. He decides to go on a little journey to his History teacher’s house. He goes to his house and they talk a little. Holden says his goodbyes, since he isn’t going to see Spencer, the history teacher, anymore. Spencer, being the good teacher that he is, reprimands Holden for his terrible academics. Holden becomes annoyed and leaves, because that’s what a spoiled teenager does! Anyway...

We are now back in the dorm room that Holden shares with another boy named Stradlater. He is very unclean and this further annoys Holden. He is also annoyed by his unhygienic and unclean neighbor Ackley. Wow. Doesn’t take much for Holden, does it? We learn a little about Stradlater. He spends most of his time in the evenings going on dates with a girl named Jane Gallagher. Holden used to date Jane and we get the sense that he still has strong feelings for her. A love triangle a brewin’? How can we tell that Holden still has strong feelings for Jane? Well, when Stradlater returns home from his date one evening, Holden begins asking him if he tried to have sex with Jane. Stradlater, being Stradlater, teases Holden and makes him believe they had sex but doesn’t give him a straight forward answer. Remember, it doesn’t take much to make Holden angry. He attacks Stradlater. Stradlater pins Holden down and punches him, bloodying his nose. Holden decides he doesn’t want to wait until Wednesday to go back home for the holidays. He wants to go back to Manhattan three days early, stay in a hotel, and not tell his parents that he’s back. What a sneaky little angsty teen Holden is. 

Holden’s on the train heading back to Manhattan when he meets the mother of one of the students at Pencey Prep. Holden isn’t fond of this kid...is he fond of anyone, really? He thinks the woman’s son is a bastard, possibly a phony. However, Holden tells fake stories to this lady about how wonderful and well-respected her son is at Pencey Prep. The poor woman buys it! Holden gets off of the train and makes his way to a phone booth. There are several people Holden wants to call, but ends up not calling any of them. He hails a cab, gets into the car, and begins to ask the driver where the ducks go when the lagoon freezes. This annoys the driver. Boy, does everybody in this town have below-average patience?! He asks the cabbie to drop him off at Edmont Hotel, where he will be staying until Wednesday. 

From his hotel room, Holden can see other guests in their rooms from the adjacent wing of the hotel. One guest, a man, is seen putting on silk stockings, high heels, a bra, and a dress. In another room a man and a woman are seen spitting drinks in each other’s faces and laughing hysterically. Being an angsty AND horny teen, Holden is both annoyed and aroused by this sight. He phones a woman named Faith Cavendish. He has never spoken to her before, but has her number from a friend at Princeton. He remembers her being a stripper, so he decides to try and get her to have sex with him. She says that she can meet him the following day, but Holden is impatient and wants. sex. now! So he hangs up the phone without making an arraignment. 

Holden goes down to the Lavender Room, where they refuse him service because, you know, he’s underage! He begins to flirt with three women, all of them in their thirties. Holden thinks they’re from out of town and only want to see celebrities for the entire time that they are here. Why is this important? It feeds into Holden’s personality. He doesn’t like anybody, thinks everybody is a phony or a bastard, gets annoyed very quickly, and now we learn that Holden kind of thinks he’s better than everybody else. He dances with the women and thinks that he is “half in love” with the blonde one because of the way she dances. The women leave the Lavender Room and leave Holden to pay for their entire tab! Wrong place, wrong time, my dude!

While in the lobby of the hotel, he begins to think about Jane.