The Catcher in the Rye

J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, published in 1951, is widely heralded as one of the best novels of the twentieth century. The coming-of-age novel captures the alienation that teenagers experienced in the years following World War II, and its popularity as an assigned text in American schools has led to its enduring relevance in American literature (and notoriety, as it frequently faced challenges or censorship from concerned parents).

Plot Summary

The novel is told in first-person, subjective point of view by Holden Caulfield, a teenager who is narrating the events of the novel from an unspecified institution. Holden’s family has sent him there, though he soon goes to live with his brother, D.B., in Hollywood. Holden says he wants to tell the story of how he arrived in his present situation, which he does in a discursive, inward manner that focuses on his internal struggles with depression at the world around him, particularly in light of the death of his brother Allie.

Holden’s story begins as he is being expelled from his school, Pencey Preparatory Academy, after failing most of his classes; he has also caused the fencing team to forfeit their match after leaving the equipment on the subway in New York. He is due to go home for Christmas vacation in a few days, but after an eventful night punctuated by a depressing meeting with his teacher Mr. Spencer and a physical confrontation with his roommate Ward Stradlater over Stradlater going on a date with Holden’s old friend Jane Gallagher, he decides to take the money he has and head into New York City.

On his arrival in New York, Holden has a series of picaresque adventures over the next few days as he thinks about Jane Gallagher, his younger sister Phoebe, and his dead brother Allie. On his first night, he checks into a hotel, the Edmont, and dances in the lobby’s nightclub with three young tourists; from there, he heads to another club, where he runs into a woman who knows his brother, then he heads back to the Edmont in a funk. The elevator operator offers to send him a prostitute, which he agrees to. When the prostitute, Sunny, arrives, he no longer wants to go through with it, and even though he agrees to pay her anyway, she says he is cheating her out of five dollars, which leads to a confrontation with the elevator operator in which Holden is beaten up.

The next day, he makes a date with Sally Hayes, an old fling, and spends the morning in and around Central Park. He has breakfast at a lunch counter, where he talks to two nuns, and he buys a record for Phoebe that he has been wanting to get her; he accidentally breaks it before having the opportunity. Holden’s date with Sally goes horribly, as he becomes agitated while trying to convince her to run away with him, and she leaves. Holden goes to the movies alone, then he meets his old friend Carl Luce at a bar. Carl is annoyed by Holden, thinking he should grow up, and Holden is left alone at the bar, where he gets very drunk. Low on money and thoroughly depressed, Holden decides to sneak home and visit Phoebe.

He sneaks into his family’s apartment successfully; Phoebe is thrilled to see him, but she becomes upset when she realizes he’s been kicked out of school. Holden’s parents come home from a party, so he sneaks out and goes to see an old teacher, Mr. Antolini. Mr. Antolini offers him a place to stay and gives him an inspiring speech about Holden’s future, but Holden wakes to Antolini stroking his hair. Holden panics and leaves, ultimately spending the night in Grand Central Station.

In the morning, he leaves a note at Phoebe’s school that he’s leaving, and they should meet at lunch. When they meet, she’s packed a suitcase to go with him and becomes angry again when he says she can’t come. They walk together to the zoo, and Holden buys Phoebe tickets to ride the carousel. Watching her ride the carousel as it starts pouring rain, he feels a moment of happiness, and his story ends there. Holden concludes his narration by saying that all he wants to tell about, and he says he’s not sure if he’s going to be any different when he leaves the institution.

Given Holden’s unique voice and his yearning for childlike innocence, Catcher in the Rye became a manifesto for misfits in modern history. It was associated with several shootings, including the murder of John Lennon by Mark David Chapman. Chapman was arrested with a copy of the book, and he would go on to quote it when addressing the court. He so identified with Holden that he wanted to change his name to Holden Caulfield. Critics have theorized that Chapman, like Holden, was concerned with preserving innocence in murdering Lennon.

J.D. Salinger refused film rights for the novel, but several films have used the characters and concepts of Catcher in the Rye. Salinger initially said that he might sign off on a stage adaptation only if he could play Holden, but the production never came to fruition, and Salinger died a recluse in 2010.