parent nodes: Martin Davis
The Catcher in the Rye is the only major novel written by J. D. Salinger. Published in 1951, the novel remains controversial today (it was the 13th most frequently challenged book from 1990-2000, according to the ALA]) and its hero, Holden Caulfield, has become an icon for teenage angst.
Plot Summary
In the book, a seventeen-year-old Holden Caulfield, now in a mental institution, relates his experiences of the previous year (when he was 16). Holden flunked out from Pencey Preparatory School after failing almost all his subjects (except English). After getting into a fight with his room-mate (over a girl he used to know), Holden leaves for New York, planning on spending a few days in the city before telling his parents. The book deals with his experiences in New York.
Among these experiences are a meeting with a prostitute, a fight with a pimp, sneaking into his own house to meet his sister, among others. Towards the end of the book, Holden suffers from a nervous breakdown and nearly leaves town - until he meets his sister. The ending itself is relatively abrupt and doesn't give too many clues to how Holden's return back home and his future life turns out.
The narrative can be both hard as well as soft. Sometimes, the scenes are dark and congested, such as Holden's meeting with the prostitute and the night in the nightclub. They can also be lonely and cold, such as the scene where Holden breaks Phoebe's disk.
Themes
The main theme of the Catcher in the Rye (in fact, the one which the book is named after) is one of innocence. At one point, Holden imagines himself standing in a field of rye in which children are playing. In his imagination, there is a cliff just beside the field. His ideal job, he tells his younger sister Phoebe, would be to stand in the field and catch the children if they came too close to the cliff, saving them from falling over it - he would like to be, he says, "the catcher in the rye". It has been suggested that this is why he was so angry with Stradlater - he subconsciously thought the later had destroyed Jane's innocence.
The book also deals with phoniness. Holden despises phonies; in fact, he eventually comes to the conclusion that everybody is a phony, except his younger sister Phoebe, and his younger brother, Allie, who died a few years ago.
Characters
The central character of the book is Holden Caulfield, a sixteen-year old teenager. Holden has been interpreted in many ways, from a cynical but clear-thinking critic of the adult world to a confused boy who never grew up. In any case, the character of Holden is one of the best drawn and most detailed in the book. He comments continuously, usually cynically, about the people he meets, the places he sees, and so on. He only really likes his sister, Phoebe Caulfield.
Many of the book's most powerful characters never appear. Allie Caulfield, Holden's younger brother, died several years ago. The night he died, Holden broke every single window in the garage, and had to be hospitalised. It is obvious from the novel that Holden has never completely gotten over his death. During his nervous breakdown, Holden calls to Allie to save him.
Another major character is Jane Gallagher. A friend of Holden's from his early teenage years, Jane was a neighbour of Holden's who he grew close to. At the beginning of the novel, Stadlater (Holden's roommate) goes out with Jane. Stradlater has a reputation, and the thought that he might have slept with Jane makes him extremely angry, leading him to a largely one-sided fight with the much stronger Stradlater, and later to leaving his school. He tried to call Jane a few times in New York, but couldn't work up the nerve.
Controversy
The Catcher in the Rye has been shrowded in controversy almost since it's beginning. A comprehensive history of its censorship can be found here. The main reasons for banning it have been obscene language (the use of the word fuck, though only once or twice), premarital sex, alcohol abuse, and prostitution. Mark David Chapman, murderer of musician John Lennon, asked the latter to sign it for him on the morning of the day he killed him. Chapman was carrying the book when police arrested him immediately after the murder, and also refered to it during his statement to the New York Parole Board in 2000.