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The Catcher and the Rye By: J.D. Salinger



Jerome David Salinger (1919- )
J.D.Salinger was born in New York City in 1919,he lived there all of his life.He started writing when he was a teen and when he graduated he started getting published in well known magazines like //Collier’s, Esquire//, and //The Saturday Evening Post//. He served in World War 2 from 1942 to 1945 and he continued to write short stories about his war experiences.When he was 31 years old he got his only publication of his novel //The Catcher and the Rye//.This book quickly earned the title of the perfect american coming of age novel. When Salinger was 36 he married Claire Douglas who at the time was a Radcliff student. Together they had two children, Margaret(born December 10 1955) and Matt(born February 10 1960). Claire left Salinger in September of 1966 and the divorce was finalized in October of 1967. In 1972 he had a relationship with Joyce Maynard a writer for Seventeen for a year. She dropped out of school for him and he refused to take her back. In 1986 Ian Hamilton was going to publish an biography and J.D. was going to sue if it was published but in 1988 it was published and the letters in it were paraphased. In 1999 Joyce Maynard put up the letters she got from him when she was in a relationship with him 25 years after this had all happened. Salinger prefers to stay out of the public eye and continues to write but not publish his works.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._D._Salinger http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/refarticle.aspx?refid=761562092

Summary

 * The Catcher and the Rye is about a boy named Holden Caulfield who is 16. He gets kicked out of boarding school for failing all his classes.The story is happening between the end of the fall term of the school he got kicked out of and Christmas vacation.Holden got notice of being expelled from Pencey Prep, his fourth school. He cannot go home to Manhattan, New York to be with his family until Wednesday, so he decides to go on adventures until he can go home. His roomate Stradlater goes on a date with Jane Gallager one of him childhood friends and he got annoyed so he left early. So he goes to New York City and spends his time going to clubs and bars. He also spent the time getting together with his old friends from the other schools he went to. Holden decided to go home and see his sister Phoebe but she gets mad at him for quitting. Holden left the house with confusion and he trys to figure out what he should do with his life and how he could get Phoebe to forgive him. "'It's funny. Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody'" (Salinger 214).

I think this book is outstanding because it is about a 16 year old boy who is dealing with many things in his life. The book teaches us life lessons because Holden goes through getting expelled and having his friends just leave. It also shows that he is getting older and is learning how to be an adult. It relates to teens because of the dialogue. The wording Salinger used with the language really helpful because most teens do talk like the way Holden did in the book which makes us understand in a different way.This book is a good read and the slang keeps you interested in reading it.This book shows what a teenager is going through when he just got kicked out of school and was put into the real world and had to deal with real life situations. The Catcher and the Rye is symbolic because it is a song that Holden is sings and a song that means a lot to him. I think another thing that was symbolic was his red hat. It made him different and unique and expressed his individualty. "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 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"(Salinger 146).
 * Why Is It Outstanding?**

**Do I Recommend This Book?**
I recommend this book because it is entertaing to read. It keeps you interested by all the little adventures that Holden has. Having the slang and swearing really related to teens now so it kept me interested. It was a good book with witty sayings and never really got boring.I also recommend this book because it is fun and the things that Holden does in the book entertain you and makes you want to read more to find out what happens next. I think what worked the best in this book was the wording because it really related to teenagers and showed what it was like to be in the real world as a teen. What i didnt like was how much language was used in this book sometimes it got to be too much and other times seemed to be in a weird place. Overall i highly recommend this book because it is interesting and keeps you entertained with all the adventures that Holden comes across.


 * Literary Elements**


 * Genre: Bildungsroman
 * Point of View: Holden Caulfield
 * Setting: Pency Prep, Pennsylvania, New York over the long weekend in the late 40's to early 50's

Pain of growing up Phoniness of the real world Alienation as a form of self-protection
 * Themes**

Works Cited Salinger, J. D. The Catcher In The Rye. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1951 "Key Facts The Catcher in the Rye" 6 November 2008 http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/catcher/facts.html