Insight Text Guide. Scott Hurley. J. D. Salinger

Transcription

1 Insight Text Guide Scott Hurley The Catcher in the Rye J. D. Salinger

2 Copyright Insight Publications 2008 Copying for educational purposes: The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10% of the pages of this work, whichever is the greater, to be reproduced and/or communicated by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or the body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act. For details of the CAL licence for educational institutions contact: Copyright Agency Limited Level 19, 157 Liverpool Street Sydney NSW 2000 Telephone: (02) Facsimile: (02) info@copyright.com.au Reproduction and Communication for other purposes: Except as permitted under the Act (for example, any fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review) no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, communicated or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission. All inquiries should be made to the publisher at the address below. First published in 2008, reprinted Insight Publications Pty Ltd ABN Glenhuntly Road, Elsternwick Vic 3185 Australia. Tel: Fax: books@insightpublications.com.au Cover Design: Graphic Partners Internal Design & DTP: Sarn Potter Editing: Timothy Roberts & Robert Beardwood Printing: Hyde Park Press National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry: Hurley, Scott. J. D. Salinger s The Catcher in the Rye / Scott Hurley. 1st ed (pbk.) Insight text guides Bibliography. For secondary school age. Salinger, J. D. (Jerome David), The Catcher in the Rye. Salinger, J. D. (Jerome David), Criticism and interpretation

3 contents Character map iv Overview 1 About the author 1 Synopsis 1 Character summaries 4 Background & context 7 Genre, structure & language 9 Chapter-by-chapter analysis 13 Characters & relationships 34 Themes, ideas & values 42 Different interpretations 55 Questions & answers 61 Sample answer 66 References & reading 68

4 iv ChARACT er map Jane Gallagher A girl Holden was friends with in Maine and whom he idolises. Her date with Stradlater sends Holden into a spiral of anxiety and depression. Robert Ackley Unhygienic boy from Holden s school with a vindictive personality. Ward Stradlater Holden s roommate; conceited and sexually predatory. Holden attacks him over Jane. Allie Caulfield Holden s dead younger brother, whom Holden reveres and sometimes talks to. Phoebe Caulfield Holden s ten-yearold sister, whom he loves; he visits her at home on Sunday night, and at school the next morning. D.B. Caulfield Holden s older brother, a writer working in Hollywood, to Holden s disapproval. Mr Spencer Holden s history teacher who attempts to advise him. Two Nuns Holden has a pleasant conversation with them in a coffee shop. Mrs Morrow Mother of a Pencey student whom Holden chats up on the train to New York. Bernice, Marty and Laverne Three women from Seattle with whom Holden dances. Holden Caulfield The sixteen-year-old protagonist who spends three days in New York hiding from his parents, meeting friends, observing society and sinking deeper into depression. Carl Luce Pretentious student from one of Holden s previous schools. Sunny The young prostitute Holden hires, but cannot proceed with. Sally Hayes A shallow girl Holden used to date. He goes out with her on Sunday afternoon. Maurice Sunny s pimp; beats and swindles Holden. Mr Antolini Holden s favourite teacher from a previous school. Gives Holden advice and a place to sleep but then makes what Holden thinks is a homosexual pass.

5 1 OVERVIEW About the author Jerome David Salinger was born in New York City in Like Holden Caulfield, his most famous creation, Salinger had a privileged upbringing, attending public schools in Manhattan during his early years but then switching to private ones. He served in the army during World War II, in the D-Day landing and the bloody Battle of the Bulge campaign. A fluent German speaker, he interrogated German prisoners of war; he also experienced a newly liberated concentration camp. At the end of the war he was treated for combat-related stress, but remained in Europe to partake in the postwar de-nazification process. The Catcher in the Rye came out in 1951 and was an immediate critical and commercial success. By the late fifties it had begun to take on classic status, but unlike many other literary classics it continues to sell extraordinarily well, reputedly 250,000 copies each year. Over the next decade, Salinger published a collection of short stories, Nine Stories (1953), as well as two further volumes, each containing two novellas: Franny and Zooey (1961) and Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: an Introduction (1963). He has lived in the small town of Cornish, New Hampshire since Nearly as famous for being a recluse as he is for writing The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger has granted very few interviews and has had no works appear since a novella, Hapworth 16, 1924, came out in the New Yorker magazine in Synopsis The Catcher in the Rye covers three days in the life of Holden Caulfield, a sixteen-year-old from an affluent family in New York City. Holden tells us the story months later from some kind of hospital in California. On the Saturday afternoon when the action begins, a December day in 1949, Holden has recently been asked not to return to Pencey, his

6 2 expensive private school, after the coming Christmas break. He has previously failed out of two other schools. Saying farewell to Mr Spencer, his history teacher, that afternoon, Holden cannot explain his inability to apply himself at Pencey. Back in his dorm with two other students, Robert Ackley and Ward Stradlater, the latter his roommate, Holden discovers that Stradlater is going on a date with Jane Gallagher, a girl whom Holden spent quite a bit of time with two summers earlier. The news makes Holden very anxious, both out of his affection for Jane and his knowledge that Stradlater is unscrupulous on a date. When Stradlater returns, Holden grills him about what happened before attacking him. After their fight, which Holden loses, he decides to return to New York that night. He will stay in a hotel for a few days before returning to the family apartment on the date he is expected after his parents have found out about his dismissal from Pencey. On the train from Pennsylvania, Holden talks to the mother of one of the boys at Pencey. The elaborate web of lies he weaves about her son is a kind of attempted seduction of the older woman. The rest of The Catcher in the Rye finds him either wandering around New York City or meeting up with various people met at random or previously telephoned. Arriving at around midnight, Holden tries to arrange a date with an easy girl called Faith; he asks two cab drivers to have a drink with him; he goes to two nightclubs. All of this occurs without Holden ever seeming to tire. He is driven by a desperate need not to be alone. When alone, he becomes anxious about Jane and depressed about life. He thinks about his dead brother Allie and his little sister Phoebe, whom he would like to see, but cannot, because it would mean revealing himself to his parents. The night ends with a distracted Holden arranging a tryst with a prostitute called Sunny. Not only is he unable to have sex with her, but her pimp Maurice extorts money from Holden before striking him. The next day Holden meets two nuns. He buys a record for Phoebe and looks for her in Central Park, unsuccessfully. He also goes to the theatre with Sally Hayes, a girl he has dated in the past. It is not a success; Holden is repelled by her shallowness, yet concocts a fantasy

7 3 about running away with her to live in the woods. He later has a drink with Carl Luce, a past acquaintance. It too goes poorly, and Holden gets very drunk. He stumbles back to Central Park, drunk, broke, temporarily homeless and terribly depressed. Throughout this second day, Holden realises that the life he has lived in New York City doesn t appeal to him anymore. He continues to think about his dead brother and sinks deeper into depression. Finally he looks for some comfort from his sister Phoebe, sneaking into the family apartment to visit her. Holden feels happy with her until she realises that he has been kicked out of school again. They have a long talk, in which Holden further realises that beyond her and the memory of their dead brother, nothing in life holds much interest for him. When his parents return, Holden must sneak out of the apartment, but not before borrowing money from Phoebe and breaking down in tears. Holden goes to the apartment of Mr Antolini, the English teacher at one of his previous schools. Holden is woken by the feel of Mr Antolini s hand on his head. Reading this as a pass, Holden flees the apartment to spend what remains of the night on a bench at Grand Central Station. The next day Holden feels physically ill and mentally unhinged. He seems to be suffering from a mental breakdown, imagining that he is about to disappear and calling on his dead brother Allie to keep him from doing so. He decides to leave New York forever, without luggage or money, only staying long enough to say goodbye to Phoebe and return her money. Waiting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Holden passes out. When Phoebe arrives with a suitcase, intending to come with him, he blows up in anger at her, and suddenly decides that he is not going to go anywhere. His story about the events of these three days ends with Holden having to win back the favour of the now angry Phoebe. He guides her into Central Park, first to the zoo and then to the carrousel, where he is truly happy watching her. The final chapter returns to the present. From his sanatorium, Holden tells us that he is not going to tell us any more; nor can he guarantee that he will finally start applying himself when he starts at a new school in the autumn.

8 4 Character summaries Holden Caulfield: The sixteen-year-old narrator whose adventures we follow during his three days in New York. Holden is a funny, sarcastic and brutally honest observer. He is also deeply troubled. Over the course of the novel he sinks deeper into depression, until he seems to be in the throes of a nervous breakdown in the penultimate chapters. Allie: He s dead now He was two years younger than I was, but he was about fifty times as intelligent (p.33); he never got sore about anything (p.89). Holden s younger brother, who died when Holden was thirteen, Allie was brilliant and forgiving, a kind of Christ figure for Holden, who has not gotten over the death. Holden thinks about Allie throughout the novel. Phoebe: You never saw a little kid so pretty and smart in your whole life (p.60). Holden s ten-year-old sister; she is bright, like Allie, but mercurial, like Holden. His relationship with her is the most important in the novel. Holden thinks about Phoebe quite a bit before going to see her on Sunday night. His feelings of protectiveness about her and the drama the siblings enact on Monday, when Phoebe tries to come with Holden out west, create the climax of the novel. D.B.: Now he s out in Hollywood, D.B., being a prostitute (p.1). Holden s older brother, who shares some attributes of the book s author, J. D. Salinger: a writer of short stories and a veteran of the Normandy landing in World War II. D.B. has become a disappointment to Holden in the way he has prostituted himself by going to Hollywood to write screenplays. He only appears in references in the novel, but Holden often thinks about him. Mr and Mrs Caulfield: my mother She s nervous as hell. Half the time she s up all night smoking cigarettes (p.143). The latter is the only one to appear, albeit briefly, in a late chapter, but Holden s worry about what his parents will think about his failing out of Pencey accounts for some of his mental distress. Mr Spencer: I d like to put some sense in that head of yours, boy. I m trying to help you (p.13). Holden s elderly history teacher at Pencey.

9 5 He shows concern for Holden s inability to focus at school, but his dirty trick of making Holden read aloud his failing test exam during their interview renders Holden unable to heed any of his advice. Robert Ackley: he had a terrible personality. He was also sort of a nasty guy (p.17). A student at Pencey in the room next to Holden s, Ackley hates everyone and is disliked in turn. Holden teases him, but tries to include Ackley in his evening entertainment, a gesture that is not repaid. When Holden needs sympathy later that evening, Ackley treats him coldly. Ward Stradlater: You take a guy that thinks he s a real hot-shot Just because they re crazy about themself, they think you re crazy about them, too (p.24). Holden s conceited, manipulative, sexually predatory roommate. His going on a date with Jane Gallagher sends Holden into a spiral of anxiety and depression. Holden s fight with Stradlater precipitates Holden s decision to leave Pencey early. Jane Gallagher: I kept thinking about Jane, and about Stradlater having a date with her and all. It made me so nervous I nearly went crazy (p.29). A girl his age whom Holden spent a lot of time with two summers previously, and with whom he seems to be in love, Jane never appears in the book. Faith Cavendish: this girl that wasn t exactly a whore or anything but that didn t mind doing it once in a while (p.57). An ex-burlesque dancer, older than Holden, whose telephone number he has been given. He tries to arrange a date with her on the first night in New York. Bernice, Marty and Laverne: The whole three of them kept looking for movie stars the whole time (p.67). Three women (older than Holden) visiting New York from Seattle. Holden buys them drinks and dances with them at a nightclub in an effort to keep from being alone. The way they keep looking for movie stars and their plans to see the Christmas show at Radio City Music Hall make Holden feel depressed. Horwitz: If you was a fish, Mother Nature d take care of you, wouldn t she? (p.76). A touchy cab driver. Holden gets into a heated discussion with him about what becomes of the ducks and fish in the little pond in Central Park during the winter.

10 6 Lillian Simmons: the Navy guy didn t like her much, even though he was dating her. And I didn t like her much. Nobody did (p.79). An ex-girlfriend of Holden s older brother D.B. who ruins Holden s trip to a nightclub by inviting him to have a drink with her and her date. Maurice: I told him he was a goddam dirty moron (p.93). The elevator operator at the Edmont Hotel and a pimp. He first arranges for Holden s throw with Sunny and then extorts from him more money than was arranged. Physically intimidating and sadistic, he also punches Holden. Sunny: She was very nervous, for a prostitute I think it was because she was young as hell. She was around my age (p.85). A young prostitute; she is crude, childlike, and as Holden describes her, a bit spooky. She becomes both offended and slightly aggressive when Holden will not have sex with her, even after he agrees to pay her anyway. Two Nuns: I said I d enjoyed talking to them a lot, too. I meant it, too (p.101). On Sunday morning Holden meets these two older women, on their way to teach at a convent school in northern Manhattan. Holden, taken by their altruism, continues to think about them. He discusses Romeo and Juliet with one of them. Sally Hayes: I didn t even like her much, and all of a sudden I felt like I was in love with her and wanted to marry her (p.112). A girl Holden s age whom he sometimes dates in New York, Sally comes out with him on Sunday afternoon. She is beautiful but shallow. Carl Luce: He was strictly a pain in the ass, but he certainly had a good vocabulary (p.134). An old schoolmate of Holden s, about three years older, with whom he has a drink on Sunday night. Luce is pretentious, aloof and superior, and will not discuss any of the things Holden wants to talk about. Mr Antolini: He was about the best teacher I ever had, Mr Antolini (p.157); He was trying to act very goddam casual and cool and all, but he wasn t any too goddam cool (p.173). Holden s English teacher from one of his previous schools, Mr Antolini, about D.B. s age, is very bright and sophisticated. He gives Holden some well-meant advice when he comes to sleep on his couch, but he makes what Holden considers a pass at him, sending the already confused young man fleeing into the night.