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The Catcher in the Rye
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The Catcher in the Rye (1951) (edit title/settings)

by J. D. Salinger (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

Ever since it was first published in 1951, this novel has been the coming-of-age story against which all others are judged. Read and cherished by generations, the story of Holden Caulfield is one of America's literary treasures.

The Catcher in the Rye is a timeless tale of a teenager... read more

Summary edit see section history

Teenager, Holden Caulfield, is having trouble with yet another boarding school, Pency. The book starts off with a school football game, one that everyone but Holden attends. Holden is starting to get sick of the school and the people in it, often criticizing people such as the President and... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

Teenager, Holden Caulfield, is having trouble with yet another boarding school, Pency. The book starts off with a school football game, one that everyone but Holden attends. Holden is starting to get sick of the school and the people in it, often criticizing people such as the President and many other students. He is trying to find something good that he can remember about Pency and finally leave. After meeting his history teacher, and going meeting with his roommates, Stradler and Ackley, Holden finally leaves Pency in the middle of the night, bound for New York. He however is not on his way home, as this is one of the many schools that Holden has been kicked out of, so his parents are anything but happy. Through the entire novel Holden comes across many people, all of them seing to be "phonies" -except for a special few.

Holden arrives in New York City and checks into a hotel where he has a few encounters. First off he went to the bar and danced with these three thirty-year-old women. After they had to leave and Holden was alone he eventually went back to the elevator where the elevator man got him a prostitute, he ended up not using the services and sent her away and payed her for her time. However, the manager (the elevator man) said Holden was paying less then he said, but Holden says he paid the price, so he beat Holden up taking the money he says was due. Holden ends up spending two days in the city, often drunk, lonely, and depressed. He meets up with an old friend and has a date with an off-and-on girlfriend, but both experiences leave him more depressed than before.

Finally, Holden sneaks back into his parents' house to visit his sister Phoebe, with who he can always talk. After this Holden feels a better, and goes to the apartment of his old teacher. Holden leaves midnight when he finds his teacher petting his head in a way that creeps him out. Holden gets depressed again and spends his afternoon wandering around.Holden writes his little sister a letter describing how he'll move out west and delivers it to his sisters school. His plan doesn't work however when his sister tries to go with him and fights with him. Holden ends up staying in the town and the book ends with him and his sister on a merry-go -round.

Characters edit see section history

  • Holden Caulfield: Holden is a mentally unstable, messed up, teenage boy. He hates phonies and is always depressed.
  • Stradlater: Stradlater is Holden's bossy roommate. He uses Holden for his own selfish purposes and is unapologetic.
  • Sally Hayes: A very beautiful girl Holden mentions several times. She wants him to come to her house and help trim the Christmas tree on Christmas eve, and wrote Holden a letter asking him to while he was at Pencey. He goes on a date with her at one point in the book.
  • Phoebe Caulfield: Holden's kid sister, who is very smart for her age.
  • Maurice: An elevator man who works at the hotel where Holden is staying.
  • Sunny: A young prostitute that visits Holden's hotel room.
  • Mr. Antolini: Holden's English teacher from his prep school. He tries to give Holden advice on how to live. He acts as a father figure a little bit and helps to mentor Holden.
  • Mr. Spencer: Holden's History teacher from his prep school. He lectures Holden on how important education is. Heis fond of Holden and wishes him well.
  • Robert Ackley: The boy that lived in the room next door to Holden at the Pencey school. He is described as "pimply." He and Holden seem to be friends of some sort but Holden spends a good deal of time complaining about him.
  • Jane Gallagher: Jane is a girl that Holden knows from home. She goes on a date with his roommate, Stradlater. Holden never actually sees Jane through the course of the book but he speaks of her frequently.
  • D.B. Caulfield: Holden's older brother, who is working in Hollywood.
  • Allie Caulfield: Holden's younger brother who died of leukemia.
  • Mrs. Schmidt: Janitor's wife who is around 65 years old.
  • Ed Banky: Basketball coach at Pencey.
  • Dick Slagle: Holden's old roommate from Elkton Hills. His favourite word being 'bourgeois'.
Show all 15 characters
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Quotes edit see section history

  • “It’s not bad when the sun is out, but the sun only comes out when it feels like coming out.”
    Holden Caulfield
  • “The man falling isn’t permitted to feel or hear himself hit bottom. He just keeps falling & falling. The whole arrangements designed for men who, at some time or other in their lives, were looking for something their own environment couldn’t supply them with. So they gave up looking. They gave it up before they ever really even got started.”
    Mr. Antolini
  • “Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.”
    Holden Caulfield
  • “The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one”
    Mr. Antolini quoting psychoanalyst Wilhelm Stekel
  • “I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes.”
    Holden Caulfield
  • “If you was a fish, Mother Nature'd take care of you, wouldn't she? Right? You don't think them fish die when it gets to be winter, do ya?”
    Horwitz
  • “It's partly true, too, but it isn't all true. People always think something's all true.”
    Holden Caulfield
  • “I don't know exactly what I mean by that, but I mean it.”
    Holden Caulfield
  • “People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants flowers when you're dead? Nobody.”
    Holden Caulfield
  • “You know what the trouble with me is? I can never get really sexy--I mean really sexy--with a girl I don't like a lot. I mean I have to like her a lot. If I don't, I sort of lose my goddam desire for her and all. Boy, it really screws up my sex life something awful. My sex life stinks."”
    Holden Caulfield
  • “I don't care if it's a sad good-by or a bad good-by, but when I leave a place I like to know I'm leaving it. If you don't, you feel even worse.”
    Holden Caulfield
  • “I'm quite illiterate, but I read a lot.”
    Holden Caulfield
  • “What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it.”
    Holden Caulfield
  • “Goddam money. It always ends up making you blue as hell.”
    Holden Caulfield
  • “Certain things they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone.”
    Holden Caulfield
  • “I mean how do you know what you're going to do till you do it? The answer is, you don't. I think I am, but how do I know?”
    Holden Caulfield
  • “That guy Morrow was about as sensitive as a goddam toilet seat”
    Holden Caulfield
  • “It was that kind of a crazy afternoon, terrifically cold, and no sun out or anything, and you felt like you were disappearing every time you crossed a road.”
    Holden Caulfield
  • “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'd 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. I know it's crazy”
    Holden Caulfield
  • ““It was one of the worst schools I ever went to. It was full of phonies. And mean guys. You never saw many mean guys in your life.””
    Holden Caulfield
  • “"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. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them."”
    Holden Caulfield
  • “Besides, I'm not going to tell you my whole goddam autobiography or anything.”
    Holden Caulfield
  • “They advertise in about a thousand magazines, always showing some hot-shot guy on a horse jumping over a fence. Like as if all you ever did at Pencey was play polo all the time. I never even once saw a horse anywhere near the place.”
    Holden Caulfield
  • “"Since 1888 we have been molding boys into splendid, clear-thinking young men." They don't do any damn more molding at Pencey than they do at any other school. And I didn't know anybody there that was splendid and clear-thinking and all. Maybe two guys. If that many. And they probably came to Pencey that way.”
    Holden Caulfield
  • “All morons hate it when you call them a moron”
  • “Ask her if she still keeps all her kings in the back row.”
    Holden Caulfield
  • “Anyway, I'm sort of glad they've got the atomic bomb invented. If there's ever another war, I'm going to sit right the hell on top of it. I'll volunteer for it, I swear to God I will.”
  • “I mean <lawyers> are all right if they go around saving innocent guys' lives all the time, and like that, but you don’t do that kind of stuff if you’re a lawyer. All you do is make a lot of dough, <...> and look like a hot-shot. And besides. Even if you did go around saving guys’ lives and all, how would you know if you did it because you really wanted to save guys’ lives, or because you did it because what you really wanted to do was be a terrific lawyer. <...> How would you know you weren’t being a phony? The trouble is, you wouldn’t.”
    Holden Caulfield
  • “I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It's awful.”
    Holden Caulfield
  • “...It was a very stupid thing to do, I'll admit, but I hardly didn't even know I was doing it, and you didn't know Allie.”
    Holden Caulfield
  • “I can be quite sarcastic when I’m in the mood.”
    Holden Caulfield
Show all 31 quotes from this book

Setting & Locations edit see section history

  • New York City: The majority of the story takes place in the city of New York.
  • Museum of Natural History: Holden displays a certain fascination with the Museum, mostly because it never changes
  • Hollywood: Where Holden's brother, D.B., works writing movies
  • Whooton: Holden's old prep school, which he got kicked out of
  • Central Park: The real Central Park in New York is where Holden spends quite a bit of time. His sister and he have enjoyed some of their childhood there.
  • The Museum of Art: A Museum very close to Phoebe's current, and Holden's previous elementry school.
  • Pencey Prep, Agerstown, PA: The boarding school Holden is being kicked out of
  • Thomsen Hill: The spot from where he sees his boarding school's football game, in the starting scene.
  • The Pond: Holden often wonders where the ducks go once the pond is frozen over.

First Sentence edit see section history

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.

Table of Contents edit see section history

Chapters 1 - 26

Glossary edit see section history

  • Pimpy-looking: Resembling a man who is an agent for a prostitute or prostitutes and lives off their earnings.
  • Quaker: A member of the Society of Friends, a Christian denomination founded in England (circa 1650) by George Fox; the Friends have no formal creed, rites, liturgy, or priesthood, and reject violence in human relations, including war. The term "Quaker" was originally derisive, aimed at the Friends because of Fox's admonition to "quake" at the word of the Lord.
  • Rubbernecks: People who stretch their necks or turn their heads to gaze about in curiosity.
  • Flit/Flitty: Homosexual
  • Sexy: Thinking of sex, not of attractiveness.
  • Halitosis: The condition of having bad breath

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

  • Falling: In Holden's story, there are many times when falling comes into play. The truth of human existence is falling. People fall physically, but people also fall mentally or emotionally. In The Cather in the Rye, Holden goes through a fall. After the death of Allie, he has been on the edge for a long time in a deppressed state. By the end of the book he takes a fall. He realizes he needs to get help because he is mentally crushed and physically sick. Another time that is often compared to Holden's fall is the fall of James Castle. James commits suicide by jumping out a window. He was being bullied and to stand up for his cause he leapt to his death. He went through an emotional fall. Mr. Antolini seems to recognize that this fate is possibly Holden's if Holden doesn't get help. While Holden talked to Pheobe, he expresses his longing to be a catcher in the rye. He wants to catch children from running off of this imaginary cliff loosing their innocence. He does not want them to have to go through the same pain and reality of mortality that he has and fall. He wants to save them.The last major instance where falling is acknowledged is at the carosel scene. He realizes that he cannot stop the children from litterally falling while reaching for the gold coins or from falling mentally when they experiment and are curious about the world. He cannot save every child from the world. He must let them fall and learn from their mistakes.
  • Bildungsroman: A coming-of-age novel dealing with the main character's development or spiritual education. He is searching for identity as he travels out on his own. He wishes to find happiness or at least escape from the past. In this journey, he matures and is cleansed of his immaturity and realizes he has to fall to get back up.

Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 15 of 93 in Newsweek's Top 100 Books: The Meta-List. (authoritative list)
This is book 18 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (December 2011). (authoritative list)
This is book 17 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (June 2010). (authoritative list)
This is book 17 of 194 in Shelfari Most Popular (December 2010). (authoritative list)
This is book 17 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (June 2011). (authoritative list)
This book is in The Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge. (community list)
This is book 15 of 82 in BBC "Big Read" Top 100 Novels. (authoritative list)
This is book 10 of 100 in ALA's Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 1990-1999. (authoritative list)
This is book 39 of 145 in Whitcoulls Top 100 (2011). (authoritative list)
This is book 64 of 93 in Modern Library's 100 Best Novels: The Board's List. (authoritative list)
This is book 19 of 98 in Modern Library's 100 Best Novels: Reader's List. (authoritative list)
This is book 529 of 1286 in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. (authoritative list)
This is book 15 of 200 in BBC 'Big Read' Top 200 Novels, 2003. (authoritative list)
This book is in TIME Magazine Top 100 English-Language Novels. (community list)
This is book 6 of 97 in Waterstone's Top 100 Books of the 20th Century. (authoritative list)
This is book 18 of 95 in Telegraph Top 100 Books, 2008. (authoritative list)
This is book 94 of 91 in The Novel 100: A Ranking of the Greatest Novels of All Time, 2004. (authoritative list)
This is book 9 of 213 in Best English-Language Fiction of the 20th Century. (authoritative list)
This is book 19 of 100 in ALA's Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009. (authoritative list)
This is book 793 of 985 in 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up. (authoritative list)
This book is in Best Books of All Time. (community list)
This is book 86 of 30 in Top selling 100 books 1998-2010 (Guardian). (authoritative list)
This is book 3 of 11 in The Bibliophile Club - Selected Reads of 2010. (community list)
This is book 201003 of 31 in The Bibliophile Club - Monthly Selected Reads. (community list)
This book is in 100 Fantabulous Book Challenge. (community list)
This is book 7 of 95 in The Art of Manliness' Essential Man’s Library. (authoritative list)
This is book 88 of 99 in Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century. (authoritative list)
This is book 60 of 100 in 20th Century's Greatest Hits: 100 English-Language Books of Fiction. (authoritative list)
This is book 11 of 11 in Publishers Weekly Bestselling Novels In 1952. (authoritative list)
This is book 89 of 121 in Whitcoulls Top 100 (2012). (authoritative list)
This book is in Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read. (authoritative list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. J. D. Salinger (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Little, Brown
Country: USA
Publication Date: 1951
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 192

Awards edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: PS3537.A426
  • Dewey: 813.54

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Young Adults

This book may contain some vulgar contents for young children. Describes an encounter with a prostitute, but no sex happens. Many profanities (mostly damn and goddamn but occasional f--- as well)

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

  • Secondary Solutions: Common Core and NCTE/IRA Standards-Aligned Literature Guide for teaching The Catcher in the Rye

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
  • Black Swan Green
  • Nine Stories
  • Franny and Zooey
  • How to Fail
  • The Virgin Suicides
  • God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian
  • A Separate Peace
  • One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
  • The Natural
  • The Winter of Our Discontent
  • The Bell Jar
  • The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history

   
  • Masterwork Studies Series: The Catcher in the Rye (paperback) (Twayne's Masterwork Studies)
  • J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye
  • A Reader's Companion to J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye
  • J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye
  • Max Notes J. D. Salinger's the Catcher in the Rye (Max Notes Series)
  • GradeSaver (TM) ClassicNotes: The Catcher in the Rye Study Guide
  • The Catcher in the Rye Literature Guide
  • The Catcher in the Rye Study Guide (Spark Notes)
  • CliffsNotes on Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye
  • Dream Catcher

Books Influenced by This Book edit see section history

   
  • Women Playwrights: The Best Plays of 2000
  • The New Sufferings of Young W.: A Novel
  • The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Books That Cite This Book edit see section history

   
  • The Ninth Orphan
  • Dream Catcher
  • American Cultural Studies: An Introduction to American Culture
  • Religious Education and the Brain: A Practical Resource for Understanding How We Learn About God
  • The Predicament of the Prosperous (Biblical Perspectives on Current Issues)
  • Slow Motion
  • Leadership for the Schoolhouse: How Is It Different? Why Is It Important?
  • Literature and Film as Modern Mythology:
  • Grand Central Gateway to a Million Lives [HC,1999]
  • Reconstructing the Beats
  • Every Book Its Reader: The Power of the Printed Word to Stir the World
  • Essential Criminology
  • Runaways: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped Today's Practices And Policies
  • Orson Welles (Life & Times)
  • Sexual Pedagogies: Sex Education in Britain, Australia, and America, 1879-2000
  • The Way Hollywood Tells It: Story and Style in Modern Movies
  • New York: Capital of Photography
  • Standing for Christ in a Modern Babylon
  • The Ferrari in the Bedroom
  • Pandora's Handbag (Five Star Fiction S.)
  • The Language Police
  • Grasping for the Wind
  • Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Literature
  • The Organization of Information

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