Mirja+-+The+Catcher+in+the+Rye


====J.D. Salinger was born in Manhattan, New York on January 1, 1919. He is the son of a Jewish man and his Scotch-Irish wife. After many years in multiple prep schools, Salinger was sent to the [|Valley Forge Military Academy] between the years of 1934 and 1936. During World War II, Salinger served as an infantryman and was involved in the [|Invasion of Normandy]. After serving in the Army from 1942 to 1946, Salinger devoted himself to writing. Many of Salinger's short stories were appearing in magazines as early as 1940. "[|Slight Rebellion off Madison]" was the short story that launched his career, it was published by the //New Yorker// in 1946. Salinger wrote his first novel in 1951, __The Catcher in the Rye__. The book immediately became an instant success. Due to its mature content, the book has been banned several times throughout history. J.D. Salinger did not publish anything other stories until 1963. Although Salinger is a well known author, many people do not know a lot about him. Salinger usually keeps to himself unless he needs to make contact with another person. In 1987 Salinger married Colleen O'Neill. They now live together in rural New Hampshire; where Salinger continues to write.====


====The book begins off with the main character, Holden Caulfield telling the reader about how he was kicked out of a preparatory school named Prency Prep, which is located in Agerston, Pennsylvania. Caulfield learns that he expelled from the school because he was failing four out of his five classes, the only class that he passed was an English class. He then goes back to his dormitory for a few hours and speaks with his roommates, Stradlater and Ackerley. He discusses a girl he used to live near with Stradlater and he is told that Stradlater and the girl will be going out on a date. Holden is very uneasy about this and eventually gets into a fist fight with Stradlater about it. After this, Holden decides to leave the dormitory early and take a train to New York and stay in a hotel.====

====Holden takes a cab to a cheap hotel and introduces something that repeats throughout the whole book, which is the question of where the ducks that swim in the Central Park pond go during the winter. Once he is in the hotel, he sees some strange things. He sees a man dressing in womens ==== ====clothes and a couple spitting on each other. Probably because of this, he decides to leave and go out to a club in the city. At the club he sees a pianist and describes him as a “phony”. He also sees two older girls and asks one of them to dance. He thinks she is a good dancer so he stays with her and her friend for a few hours before they insist they have to leave. Once they leave, he stays and continues drinking for most of the night. Once he finally leaves, instead of going back to his hotel, he takes a walk through Central Park alone at night. He gets very sick and eventually goes back to his hotel. He again brings up the ducks in the pond with the cab driver. Once he gets to the hotel, the elevator man makes him an offer. He offers to send up a prostitute for the entire night for only ten dollars. Holden agrees. However, when she goes up to his room, he gets very uncomfortable and doesn't want to do anything but talk with her. This is not what a prostitute normally does so she leaves and Holden only gives her five dollars. The next morning Maurice, the elevator man, comes up to his room and demands the remaining five dollars, but Holden refuses. Maurice attacks Caulfield and leaves him in the room, Holden then puts on his hunting cap and goes back to sleep. ====

====In the morning Caulfield gets up and decides to call his ex-girlfriend, Sally Hayes. They decide to arrange a meeting that will take place in the afternoon. Caulfield leaves the hotel and decides to go eat. He arrives as a sandwich bar and meets a pair of nuns. He then strikes up a conversation about Romeo and Juliet with them. Before the nuns leave, Caulfield decides to give them a donation of ten dollars. As they leave, Caulfield realizes that he needed that money for his date. Caulfield then leaves the sandwich bar and then goes to a theater, where he buys tickets for his date. Holden then goes to the Biltmor Hotel to meet Sally. She arrives late, but Caulfield doesn't mind. From the hotel Caulfield and Sally go to the theater. When the movie is stopped, Caulfield noticed that Sally is flirting with another person. They boy invites them to go ice-skating with him at Radio City. When they finish ice-skating, Caulfield goes on into a rant about "phonys" and then wants to run away with Sally. She says that she doesn't want to, this makes Caulfield angry, so he leaves without her. ====


====Caulfield decides to go to a drug store, From there he calls Carl Luce, a former classmate of his. They decide that they will meet for drinks later on that day. To speed up the process of waiting, Caulfield watches a movie, when it ends Caulfield goes to the bar where the two are supposed to meet. Caulfield wants to talk about sex, but Luce says that he would rather not. After a few questions, Luce gets irritated and leaves. Caulfield then decides to get drunk and call Sally. This irritates both of them and Sally hangs. Deciding to sober up, Caulfield dips his head into freezing pond water. He feels sick so he thinks that it would be best if he left and went back to his parents home. ====


====Caulfield arrives at his parents apartment, he sneaks upstairs and decides to look for his sister, Phoebe. He finds her asleep. After some time Caulfield wakes up Phoebe, he tells her that he was kicked out of school. She tells him that their father will kill him because of it. He finally makes her ==== ==== listen and then they go into a deep conversation about his journey. During this their parents come home. Caulfield runs into a closet and wait for them to leave. He hells Phoebe that he is leaving New York and moving westward. She gives him some money that she was saving up, before Caulfield leaves, he hands her his red hunting cap. ====

What Worked:
====Salinger has done a great job at writing this book. It is unique in its own way and somewhat irregular. He does a great job of making the reader understand his character and the struggles with conformity he faces through seemingly normal occurrences. Salinger also gives his character a strong personality by giving him “catchphrases” like “Phony” and “lonely”. The symbolism in the book worked out very well, the biggest piece of symbolism was Caulfield's hunting cap. The red hunting cap represents Caulfield's originality and individuality, he is the only one with that cap. Salinger does a great job showing that Caulfield is unique in his own way, even through changing times.====

What Didn't Work:
====While Catcher in the Rye is a very good and unique book, there a few things that I didn't particularly like. The book was a little too mature for my liking. Many of the events are random and it did not feel like some things even added anything to the story. For example, Holden told two nuns that his favorite book was Romeo and Juliet, one of the nuns asked Holden what he liked and disliked about the the book, he says, "//Well, I'm not too crazy about Romeo and Juliet," I said. "I mean I like them, but--I don't know. They get pretty annoying sometimes. I mean I felt much sorrier when old Mercutio got killed than when Romeo and Juliet did. The thing is, I never liked Romeo too much after Mercutio gets stabbed by that other man--Juliet's cousin--what's his name?//" (Salinger 60). The whole scene just seemed pointless to me, it felt like Salinger was just trying to take up space just because he had the ability to do it. One of the bigger let downs in the book was that the ending didn't give any closure whatsoever for me. It didn't explain what happened to Caulfield at all. I would have liked to know what happened once he finally confronted his parents and how he ended up in California. That was the lowest point of the book for me, but overall the book is a good example of what a good author can do.====

Literary Information
 ====__The Catcher in the Rye__ was written in 1951 by J.D. Salinger and it was published on July 16th, 1952. This book<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> goes under the genre of a bildungsroman. The whole story revolves around the "coming of age" of Holden Caulfield through numerous encounters with many different people. Throughout the story Caulfield is trying the connect and fit in with people on a mature level. The story is told in first person view, the narrator, Caulfield, is at some treatment center recounting the adventures that he had. The beginning of the story takes place in Pennsylania, while the rest of it happens in New York City, New York, in the span of about a week or so. ====

<span style="color: rgb(235, 5, 5); text-align: center; display: block;">Recommendation
====I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to read adventure books or wants to know how maturity affects a person. This book is about the growing maturity of the main character and the responsibilities that come along with it. Through time the character learns the harsh reality of the real world. __The Catcher in the Rye__ takes a deep look into the pain that loneliness can bring. While the character is conforming with the world around him, he also tries to be unique through his own fashion statement. The book shows that while change can be good, staying the same never hurts.====

<span style="color: rgb(235, 5, 5); text-align: center; display: block;">Other Books That You May Enjoy
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<span style="color: rgb(235, 5, 5); text-align: center; display: block;">**Works Cited**
Alexander, Paul. "J.D. Salinger's Women". __New York Entertainment__. 2 February 1998. 12 March 2009. <span class="wiki_link_ext">[|<http://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/features/2162/>] "J.D. Salinger Biography". 12 March 2009. [|<http://www.notablebiographies.com/Ro-Sc/Salinger-J-D.html>]

"J(erome) D(avid) Salinger (1919-)". 9 December 2008. 12 March 2009. <span class="wiki_link_ext"> [|<http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/salinger.htm>]

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