J. D. Salinger

Created by Harvard students for students everywhere, each title in the 'Sparknotes' series contains complete plot summary and analysis, key facts about the work, an analysis of the major characters, suggested essay topics, themes, motifs, and symbols, and an explanation of important quotations.

The Catcher in the Rye

Anyone who has read J.D. Salinger's New Yorker stories--particularly A Perfect Day for Bananafish, Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut, The Laughing Man, and For Esme With Love and Squalor--will not be surprised by the fact that his first novel is full of children. The hero-narrator of The Catcher in the Rye is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caulfield.

Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days. The boy himself is at once too simple and too complex for us to make any final comment about him or his story. Perhaps the safest thing we can say about Holden is that he was born in the world not just strongly attracted to beauty but, almost, hopelessly impaled on it.
There are many voices in this novel: children's voices, adult voices, underground voices-but Holden's voice is the most eloquent of all. Transcending his own vernacular, yet remaining marvelously faithful to it, he issues a perfectly articulated cry of mixed pain and pleasure. However, like most lovers and clowns and poets of the higher orders, he keeps most of the pain to, and for, himself. The pleasure he gives away, or sets aside, with all his heart. It is there for the reader who can handle it to keep.

I didn’t care what kind of a job it was, though. Just so people didn’t know me and I didn’t know anybody. I thought what I’d do was, I’d pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes. That way I wouldn’t have to have any goddam stupid useless conversations with anybody. If anybody wanted to tell me something, they’d have to write it on a piece of paper and shove it over to me. They’d get bored as hell doing that after a while, and then I’d be through with having conversations for the rest of my life.

I wasn’t feeling too marvelous, to tell you the truth. Finally, though, I came out and went in the men’s room, staggering around like a moron, and filled one of the washbowls with cold water. Then I dunked my head in it, right up to the ears. I didn’t even bother to dry it or anything. I just let the sonuvabitch drip. Then I walked over to this radiator by the window and sat down on it. It was nice and warm. It felt good because I was shivering like a bastard. It’s a funny thing, I always shiver like hell when I’m drunk.

Kat Albanese

In the first place, I certainly don't enjoy seeing him in that crazy cemetery. Surrounded by dead guys and tombstones and all. It wasn't too bad when the sun was out, but twice—

—we were there when it started to rain. It was awful. It rained on his lousy tombstone, and it rained on the grass on his stomach. It rained all over the place. All the visitors that were visiting the cemetery started running like hell over to their cars. That's what nearly drove me crazy. All the visitors could get in their cars and turn on their radios and all and then go someplace nice for dinner—everybody except Allie.

Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.

“I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all.”

I'm sort of glad they've got the atomic bomb invented. If there's ever another war, I'm going to sit right the hell on top of it. I'll volunteer for it, I swear to God I will.

Imagine giving somebody a feel and telling them about a guy committing suicide at the same time!

You never even worried, with Jane, whether your hand was sweaty or not. All you knew was, you were happy. You really were.

Girls. Jesus Christ. They can drive you crazy. They really can.

Sex is something I just don't understand. I swear to God I don't.

Almost every time somebody gives me a present, it ends up making me sad.

I felt so lonesome, all of a sudden. I almost wished I was dead.

Sometimes I act a lot older than I am―I really do―but people never notice it. People never notice anything.

I don't give a damn, except that I get bored sometimes when people tell me to act my age.

lelayna

People always clap for the wrong things. If I were a piano player, I’d play it in the goddam closet.

Srijita Sarkar 

She knocked me out. I mean it. I was half in love with her by the time we sat down. That's the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty, even if they're not much to look at, or even if they're sort of stupid, you fall half in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are. Girls. Jesus Christ. They can drive you crazy. They really can.

I held hands with her all the time, for instance. That doesn't sound like much, I realize, but she was terrific to hold hands with. Most girls if you hold hands with them, their goddam hand dies on you, or else they think they have to keep moving their hand all the time, as if they were afraid they'd bore you or something. Jane was different. We'd get into a goddam movie or something, and right away we'd start holding hands, and we wouldn't quit till the movie was over. And without changing the position or making a big deal out of it. You never even worried, with Jane, whether your hand was sweaty or not. All you knew was, you were happy. You really were.

Goddam money. It always ends up making you blue as hell.

I knew it wasn't too important, but it made me sad anyway.

I felt like marrying her the minute I saw her. I'm crazy. I didn't even like her much, and yet all of a sudden I felt like I was in love with her and wanted to marry her. I swear to God I'm crazy.

But you're wrong about that hating business. I mean about hating football players and all. You really are. I don't hate too many guys.

The catcher in the rye

I don’t understand the hate for Holden. He’s clearly a depressed kid whose entire state of being changed when his brother died. I feel bad for him, I don’t sympathize with him but I do feel empathetic for what he’s going through. He’s just a kid whose innocence was taking from him too early, and that’s a very sad thing. I love that he wants to protect children from the world he hates so much, I just wish he’d understand there’s not so much to hate and grow up. Poor Holden.

Dylan Starr

I don’t really understand the hype of this book. The main character is a moron but maybe that’s why people like it? I guess I just didn’t get it. 

Alicia Evans

Samuel Oppong

What a great way to start my reading journey.

Katherine Jaenn

I'm a little too old to really relate to Holden's coming of age, but it was nice all the same to follow along his journey.

Throckmorton

'If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.' The first of J. D. Salinger's four books to be published, The Catcher in the Rye is one of the most widely read and beloved of all contemporary American novels. 'The handbook of the adolescent heart' The New Yorker

The Catcher in the Rye requires no introduction. To most people, that is. For me, however, it is one of those books that I had preconceptions in my head through secondarily absorbing hundreds of think pieces and Reddit analyses and word-of-mouth opinions beforehand, rather than having an organic view through reading the novel as a schoolkid (Of Mice and Men was my American lit childhood) or as an adult. These preconceptions constituted of the two prevailing opinions on this book online, the first of which is that Catcher, while being a regarded classic, was largely immature, best suited for teenagers, and its protagonist, Holden Caulfield, is a whiny, rich, entitled know-it-all who feels he is above the world. The second of which is that J.D. Salinger is actually representing very faithfully a child’s perspective on the world fuelled by trauma and grief, and the novel is a misinterpreted masterpiece. Before reading then, Catcher had this superposition of quality in my mind, both bad and good, and, loving a controversial read, I’m very happy to have picked this up myself and confirmed that it is, in fact, the latter.

Its premise is relatively straightforward. Holden Caulfield, a 17-year-old boy attending a private school, finds out he has flunked his classes and will soon be expelled. Not wanting to face the shame of his family, he goes to New York City to stay in a hotel and, essentially, falls into an alcohol-fuelled bender. Throughout this, he reminisces on his past, recounting various traumatic memories, including the recent death of his younger brother and the disillusionment that followed it, and his brief relationship with a girl for which he still has strong, romantic, protective feelings towards.

Catcher is told in first person in a very conversational, slang-heavy, diatribe-filled style which, once you've gotten into Holden Caulfield’s repetitive nature of storytelling, is such a pleasure and a breeze to read through. I've always been impressed by authors who intentionally limit their own form of expression by tying it into a narrator’s limited vocabulary, and yet still manage to pull off emotional and impactful storytelling. Indeed, Salinger does a lot with Holden’s unique narrative voice; with the narration following Holden’s stream-of-consciousness, we are witness to his live breakdowns, involuntary memories and, most importantly, his avoidance in discussing the crux of his breakdown, which is the great succession of traumatic experiences which he keeps bottled within him. In a book I read earlier this year, A Pale View of Hills, a similar avoidant narrative voice is used to sidestep potentially uncomfortable thoughts. Like I said in that review, it's the silence on certain topics that hits you hard, harder than if the actual events were described in full. 

The highlight of the novel for me was therefore how this repressed trauma is manifested both in Holden’s spiralling, psychosexual depravity and also his innocence-guarding protection role to the children in his life. Because although Salinger writes Holden as keeping his cards close to his chest when it comes to discussing his trauma (or, if you like, his kings in the back row), the abuse he has suffered presents in both his positive and destructive behaviours, giving us a very multifaceted exploration on the portrayal of trauma. And even the titular Catcher in the Rye metaphor, in which Holden sees himself as a saviour of wayward children, is this not just a grand pursuit to save others in the way he’d wish to be saved. To control and preserve his and other children's innocence forever?

Outside of this serious subject matter lurking subconsciously within the story, Holden’s general observations about the world can at points be genuinely funny. I like to mention when a book is funny because although comedy requires just as much of a command of language than writing lyrical and aesthetic prose, authors who are funny do not get their equivalent share of credit. Salinger writes Holden’s narration like a stand-up comedy routine at points, and reading his inane Seinfeld-esque comments on how some people are so boring but you should keep them around because they can be really good whistlers, or how nobody ever sends your regards when you tell them to, or how some people are terrible dancers—all of these little comments made the book a lot more entertaining, and served to heighten the tragic elements lurking beneath, like the clown Pagliacci telling all of his jokes. 

In terms of the criticisms I had read going into the book, I have therefore found them completely unfounded. The trauma-based reading aside, I am not sure that Holden is ‘whiny’ at all. I am not sure anyone should ‘grow out’ of a general disdain for the inauthenticity of the world. A distaste of authority, a skepticism of social systems, a willingness to look life in the eye and identify and feel its latent absurd melancholy—why are these characteristics associated with the naivety of youth? Why should we expect to coagulate and mold ourselves into a chronic passivity? The Catcher in the Rye is a book that calls out ‘phony’ systems from the perspective of a child, but it is not a story told by a child, it is a story told by the adult Salinger, who experienced first hand the horrors of World War II, and uses Holden as a metaphor for innocence lost. The issues then are still the same today. And in this world of death, grief, and atrocity, I think we should all tap into our inner Holden Caulfield and continue to rage against the phony system, and continue to protect the innocence of the children who are its victims.

shain

The Catcher in the Rye requires no introduction. To most people, that is. For me, however, it is one of those books that I had preconceptions in my head through secondarily absorbing hundreds of think pieces and Reddit analyses and word-of-mouth opinions beforehand, rather than having an organic view through reading the novel as a schoolkid (Of Mice and Men was my American lit childhood) or as an adult. These preconceptions constituted of the two prevailing opinions on this book online, the first of which is that Catcher, while being a regarded classic, was largely immature, best suited for teenagers, and its protagonist, Holden Caulfield, is a whiny, rich, entitled know-it-all who feels he is above the world. The second of which is that J.D. Salinger is actually representing very faithfully a child’s perspective on the world fuelled by trauma and grief, and the novel is a misinterpreted masterpiece. Before reading then, Catcher had this superposition of quality in my mind, both bad and good, and, loving a controversial read, I’m very happy to have picked this up myself and confirmed that it is, in fact, the latter.

Its premise is relatively straightforward. Holden Caulfield, a 17-year-old boy attending a private school, finds out he has flunked his classes and will soon be expelled. Not wanting to face the shame of his family, he goes to New York City to stay in a hotel and, essentially, falls into an alcohol-fuelled bender. Throughout this, he reminisces on his past, recounting various traumatic memories, including the recent death of his younger brother and the disillusionment that followed it, and his brief relationship with a girl for which he still has strong, romantic, protective feelings towards.

Catcher is told in first person in a very conversational, slang-heavy, diatribe-filled style which, once you've gotten into Holden Caulfield’s repetitive nature of storytelling, is such a pleasure and a breeze to read through. I've always been impressed by authors who intentionally limit their own form of expression by tying it into a narrator’s limited vocabulary, and yet still manage to pull off emotional and impactful storytelling. Indeed, Salinger does a lot with Holden’s unique narrative voice; with the narration following Holden’s stream-of-consciousness, we are witness to his live breakdowns, involuntary memories and, most importantly, his avoidance in discussing the crux of his breakdown, which is the great succession of traumatic experiences which he keeps bottled within him. In a book I read earlier this year, A Pale View of Hills, a similar avoidant narrative voice is used to sidestep potentially uncomfortable thoughts. Like I said in that review, it's the silence on certain topics that hits you hard, harder than if the actual events were described in full. 

The highlight of the novel for me was therefore how this repressed trauma is manifested both in Holden’s spiralling, psychosexual depravity and also his innocence-guarding protection role to the children in his life. Because although Salinger writes Holden as keeping his cards close to his chest when it comes to discussing his trauma (or, if you like, his kings in the back row), the abuse he has suffered presents in both his positive and destructive behaviours, giving us a very multifaceted exploration on the portrayal of trauma. And even the titular Catcher in the Rye metaphor, in which Holden sees himself as a saviour of wayward children, is this not just a grand pursuit to save others in the way he’d wish to be saved. To control and preserve his and other children's innocence forever?

Outside of this serious subject matter lurking subconsciously within the story, Holden’s general observations about the world can at points be genuinely funny. I like to mention when a book is funny because although comedy requires just as much of a command of language than writing lyrical and aesthetic prose, authors who are funny do not get their equivalent share of credit. Salinger writes Holden’s narration like a stand-up comedy routine at points, and reading his inane Seinfeld-esque comments on how some people are so boring but you should keep them around because they can be really good whistlers, or how nobody ever sends your regards when you tell them to, or how some people are terrible dancers—all of these little comments made the book a lot more entertaining, and served to heighten the tragic elements lurking beneath, like the clown Pagliacci telling all of his jokes. 

In terms of the criticisms I had read going into the book, I have therefore found them completely unfounded. The trauma-based reading aside, I am not sure that Holden is ‘whiny’ at all. I am not sure anyone should ‘grow out’ of a general disdain for the inauthenticity of the world. A distaste of authority, a skepticism of social systems, a willingness to look life in the eye and identify and feel its latent absurd melancholy—why are these characteristics associated with the naivety of youth? Why should we expect to coagulate and mold ourselves into a chronic passivity? The Catcher in the Rye is a book that calls out ‘phony’ systems from the perspective of a child, but it is not a story told by a child, it is a story told by the adult Salinger, who experienced first hand the horrors of World War II, and uses Holden as a metaphor for innocence lost. The issues then are still the same today. And in this world of death, grief, and atrocity, I think we should all tap into our inner Holden Caulfield and continue to rage against the phony system, and continue to protect the innocence of the children who are its victims.

Sjecala sam se da sam bila zaljubljena u Holdena nakon sta sam prvi put procitala ovu knjigu, sta je to bilo, prvi srednje. Nisam se sjecala ista od same knjige. Malo sam sokirana haha, Holden je uzasno egocentrican i teski hejter. Ali voli djecu i iskljucivo kroz to pokazuje neku svoju ljudskost i ljubav. Vidim Filipa u njemu, koji oduvijek pokusava pobjeci od samog sebe i "societyja" i omg koliko telling. Materijal za razgovor kod psihologa. 

Eva Cace

The "brilliant, funny, meaningful novel" (The New Yorker) that established J. D. Salinger as a leading voice in American literature--and that has instilled in millions of readers around the world a lifelong love of books. "If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth." The hero-narrator of The Catcher in the Rye is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caufield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days.

it's hard to enjoy a book that is nothing but rambling of the main character when you can't stand the main character

julia

Si sos hombre y te gusta Holden sos un caprichoso

Idk why but the way this book was written kept me hooked in the beginning. Then it felt sort of aimless. But I got the idea. It's actually kind of inspiring, especially as a kid who is gonna go to college. I can see people finding a kindred spirit in this guy. It's a good book.

mahek 

i see a lot of people seem to have appreciated this far more as adolescents than adults. i see why, though i'm pretty sure at sixteen i'd have probably hated holden caulfield even more, though in a funny sort of way (i think we should all admit he gets pretty funny sometimes). this is certainly an interesting book, and it deserves its place among the classics, and in addition j.d. salinger had the wisdom to make it short, because i don't think i could've taken more of holden's teenage angst, honestly.

holden caulfield; a bunch of radiohead songs glued together

anatolian 

Toller Klassiker, kann ich jedem ans Herz legen. Nette Lektüre für nebenbei. 

Finia

i kept waiting for something to happen but nothing happened

asmo

You can ramble on as long as you’d like, when you write like that 🌹

I read this in one sitting maybe not the best book but I really enjoyed this and didn't expect to find so much comfort in

♱ zuzanna 

fun read, sometimes i think i relate to him. 

Sosa Kuti 

I read this book over a span of a few months. Yes.  Months.

I was terribly busy with my courses, and my brain didn't have the energy to stay focused for too long on a page. I reread countless times, and dozed off often. But, yet, this book left a lasting impression on me.

Perhaps I loved this novel so much because Holden and I shared similar qualities, or perhaps I was just in the cynical phase of my life, and spent too much time watching Daria. Though, what I know for certain is that this piece of literature resonated with me deeply. And I'm glad I did not have to read it for class - because that would ruin its magic. 

If you're looking for motivation to read this book, I would say just go for it. It's not too long, and it won't disappoint. Whether you like it or not depends on your experiences, your beliefs, and where you are in life. But if you're willing to put up with a person unlike yourself, and understand even the most absurd of their being, then this is for you. To delve into the life of a conflicted affluent teenage boy from New York during the 50s' is a wild ride, and yet one that goes by slowly but surely. 

I'm not sure if I'm just a loser, but to me, Holden seemed like a realistic portrayal of a certain type of teenage-hood. Failing but with everything at your fingertips (for contemporary examples: internet access, free tutoring, etc). Angry at the world, but being privileged (think: having a decent amount of security, or the mentioning by elders of 'people having it worse'). Depressed, but without a glimpse of a reason. 

This book, for me, was great. It satiated and validated my cruelest and most cynical thoughts and feelings. But, it's definitely not for everyone.

The Catcher in Rye is the ultimate novel for disaffected youth, but it's relevant to all ages. The story is told by Holden Caulfield, a seventeen- year-old dropout who has just been kicked out of his fourth school. Throughout, Holden dissects the 'phony' aspects of society, and the 'phonies' themselves- the headmaster whose affability depends on the wealth of the parents, his roommate who scores with girls using sickly-sweet affection. Lazy in style, full of slang and swear words, it's a novel whose interest and appeal comes from its observations rather than its plot intrigues (in conventional terms, there is hardly any plot at all). Salinger's style creates an effect of conversation, it is as though Holden is speaking to you personally, as though you too have seen through the pretences of the American Dream and are growing up unable to see the point of living in, or contributing to, the society around you. Written with the clarity of a boy leaving childhood, it deals with society, love, loss, and expectations without ever falling into the clutch of a cliche

Worst classic i ever read. It feels so American i want to cry. I kept reading it in this STRONG Southern accent for some reason. The main character is a whiny frat boy that is disappointed and feels excluded. Your private school didn't want your lazy ass?? :(Cry me a river. It was the 60's, your mother probably got tired to fake a smile for you everyday, she had your father to fake other things for. 

Mdy<3

It was sort of repetitive and vague, but towards the end it go really good ! It does capture being a teenager without glorifying it.

Indi

A 16-year old American boy relates in his own words the experiences he goes through at school and after, and reveals with unusual candour the workings of his own mind. What does a boy in his teens think and feel about his teachers, parents, friends and acquaintances?

Bella Baxter

If I could have, I would have given it a 3.5/5, might even consider it a 3, but JD Salinger was definitely ahead of his time. He ate toward the end.

Holden is one annoying ass teenager, but it was really nice to see how much he softened and became playful around his sister. Nice slice of life read. Also quite hilarious. I’m also curious how many days this took place because wow what an adventure, lol. A whole movie, really. IYKYK.

I think I read somewhere that this was a difficult read? Maybe because the language usage is a bit archaic, but I understood it fine. Interesting, actually.

OH. I know why I gave it the fourth star— the character descriptions? Setting descriptions? 10/10. Absolutely fantastic. Just excellent. Like, now I know why they tell you to read if you wanna be able to write, lol.

Sarah Sammis

"I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes." (p. 198). That quote is why I finally decided I wanted to read the book. It shows up in The Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex series. My husband had read the book and said I should read it too so when the opportunity presented itself to me, I had to. Now having read the book I see much more of the of it in the series than just this short quote used by the Laughing Man.

Beyond inspiring an arc plot in an animae series, Catcher in the Rye seems to be the book that so many recent first person rambling books with teenage male protagonists spring from. The book reminds me a great deal of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time though better written. There's also a bit of Everything is Illuminated as well but again, much better written.

The Catcher in the Rye

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