Week 2 The Catcher in the Rye History

The Catcher in the Rye History

The book we were reading its called "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Stalinger. It was first published in 1951, having an inmediate impact on the american society of those times, but why?

The answer is simple, it criticizes  the american society and breaks the perfect-american-family model. In his story Stalinger talks about a young man called Holden Caulfield who is a student at a school called Pencey Prep, he gets expelled from that school because he doesnt apply himself. He leaves the school sooner than he was supposed to and goes to NY. Through his story we can see that american society at that times is not so perfect as you could have thought. Through his eyes we can see the " Dark Side" of that society; we can see prostitutes, trasvestites, suicidal people and a lot of people that pretend to be what they arent.

Teenagers reacted in a different way to the book. Several thought that the book was a waste of time, a smaller group thought it was a very good book with great reflexions and with a good plot. And even a smaller group felt identiefied with the book, they thought it was the best  book they have ever read, and made changes in their lifes, for good and bad. As an example of the bad changes we have Mark David Chapman, the guy who killed John Lennon. The day he was going to murder John he left all his stuff in his house in order for the police to fid them and on top of all the things he left a copy of this book, in the first page he wrote: "This is my declaration" and he signed it as Holden Caulfield.

This book has been banned in several places because it shows a lot of obscene stuff like minnors smoking and drinking, elevator guys offering prostitutes to anybody or couples spitting to each other.The connection with Mark David Chapman also has contributed to the ban of this book because several persons think he got the courage and inspiration for the murder from this book.

   

Mark David Chapman and The Catcher in the Rye

Now im gonna present 2 reviews of the book, one made nowdays and one back in the 50s

Nowdays:

Let's just say that this book is certainly one open to a lot of controversy and debate, yet that is what makes it such an interesting read.

The Catcher in the Rye certainly wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea, however I find it an exciting and compelling read, with a gallon of brutal reality poured in along with some humour, contrasting with moments of depression.

Despite being written in 1951, I think many teenagers would be able to relate to the various themes present in the book. It is a modern classic of the coming of age genre. I find the main character, 17-year-old Holden Caulfield, absolutely intriguing and as I read the book, it was fascinating to get inside the head of the strange, rebellious protagonist.

The book begins with Holden directly addressing you, the reader, and he begins to retell the events over a three day period from last December. His story starts at Pencey Prep, a prestigious boarding school filled with "phonies", as Holden likes to call them.

What strikes me the most is the way Salinger creates the a brash atmosphere from the very beginning of the book with Holden being portrayed as insolent, lazy and quite frankly, completely clueless about his future.

Almost all of the story is one long flashback of this three day period with occasional references to the present. One thing that sets The Catcher in the Rye apart from other similar novels, I think, is the fairly frequent use of profanity - be warned! The heavy use of colloquialism is effective in making the reader relate to the characters better and make the characters seem realistic, but on the other hand, if you're under fourteen, I would certainly not recommend the novel to you! It isn't only the language used that makes The Catcher in the Rye unsuitable for younger readers, but also the themes discussed, centred around the idea of morality.

J.D. Salinger's novel is a wake-up call to all teenagers and in a sense, is an inspiring read because it sends out the message that we should all remain hopeful and true to ourselves. Teenagers can relate to it because of its complex themes of rebellion, identity and independence but I would recommend you read it before you're an adult otherwise you may have the urge to slap Holden for his actions when reading the book!

Aiman.A Thursday June 21 2012

Back In the 50s

In "A Perfect Day for Bananafish," the first of J. D. Salinger's remarkable short stories to attract widespread attention, a young veteran recovering from a nervous breakdown in Florida takes a little girl out swimming, in a charmingly described interlude, and then goes to his hotel room and shoots himself when he is confronted by his shallow wife. In "For Esmé— With Love and Squalor," one of the best and most moving of all his stories, an American soldier in Germany suffering from an extreme case of combat fatigue is brought back by a message from a little girl he had met in England. And in the climactic scene of his first novel, The Catcher in the Rye, the sixteen-year-old hero who has been wandering around New York alone for three days, ever since his expulsion from boarding school, in a state somewhere between reality and unreality, abandons his dream of running away to the West and goes home (and subsequently to a sanitarium) when his ten-year-old sister, whom he has met secretly, is clearly broken-hearted at the thought of his leaving.

In all three cases the children and the boy-men are exceedingly well done. In each case, despite the similarity of situation, they are quite different and distinct individuals. The final scene in The Catcher in the Rye is as good as anything that Salinger has written, which means very good indeed. So are a number of other episodes. But the book as a whole is disappointing, and not merely because it is a reworking of a theme that one begins to suspect must obsess the author. Holden Caulfield, the main character who tells his own story, is an extraordinary portrait, but there is too much of him. He describes himself early on and, with the sureness of a wire recording, he remains strictly in character throughout:

I shook my head. I shake my head quite a lot. "Boy!" I said. I also say "Boy!" quite a lot. Partly because I have a lousy vocabulary and partly because I act quite young for my age sometimes. I was sixteen then, and I'm seventeen now, and sometimes I act like I'm about thirteen. It's really ironical because I'm six foot two and I have gray hair. I really do. The one side of my head—the right side is full of millions of gray hairs. I've had them ever since I was a kid. And yet I still act sometimes like I was only about twelve.

In the course of 277 pages the reader wearies of this kind of explicitness, repetition and adolescence, exactly as one would weary of Holden himself. And this reader at least suffered from an irritated feeling that Holden was not quite so sensitive and perceptive as he, and his creator, thought he was. In any case he is so completely self-centered that the other characters who wander through the book —with the notable exception of his sister Phoebe—have nothing like his authenticity. The Catcher in the Rye is a brilliant tour-de-force, but in a writer of Salinger's undeniable talent one expects something more.

Anne L. Goodman July 19 ,19 

J.D Stalinger

Holden Caulfield