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The Catcher in the Rye

Class Notes & Questions

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Downoad the novel here: https://www.uzickagimnazija.edu.rs/files/Catcher%20in%20the%20Rye.pdf

 

These notes include reading questions and my analysis

​Create an ongoing biography of Holden Caulfield: This should include facts that he reveals about himself, his family, his opinions, etc. This should also include Reasonable Deductions.

 

Holden reveals that he is ostracized, alone and “faggy” (p.2).

 

Why is Holden upset with Mr. Spencer?

 

Holden is a character tormented by his phoniness/ hypocrisy. How is this made evident?

 

After complaining incessantly that he hates phonies, Holden declares, “I’m the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life,” (p.16). Therefore, how would you deduce he feels about himself?

 

Even though we are nowhere near being able to answer it, the question is still valuable to pose; what does the title of the novel mean? What is a Catcher in the Rye?

 

Describe Holden and Ackley’s relationship/ dynamic—which words would best describe it? Do you think they like each other at all?

 

How does Holden feel about Jane Gallagher? (p.31, p.78-80)

 

What is symbolized by ‘keeping the kings in the back row’ and never moving them? If Jane still does this, what might that indicate to Holden?

 

Based on his description, how does Holden feel about Allie? Does he (Holden) compare or even come close (to Allie)? (p. 38-9)

 

“He’s dead now. He got leukemia and died when we were up in Maine, on July 18, 1946. You’d have liked him. He was two years younger than I was, but he was about fifty times as intelligent…His teachers were always writing letters to my mother, telling her what a pleasure it was having a boy like Allie in their class…But it wasn’t that he was the most intelligent member in the family. He was also the nicest, in lots of ways. He never got mad at anybody…he had very red hair…God, he was a nice kid, though. He used to laugh so hard at something he thought of at the dinner table that he just about fell off his chair,” (p.38).

 

The impact of Allie’s death on Holden:

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“…they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all, because I broke all the windows in the garage. I don’t blame them…I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist(…) I even tried to break all the windows on the station wagon we had that summer, but my hand was already broken and everything by that time, and I couldn’t do it,” (p.39).
 

Deconstruct the symbolism of not being able to break the Station Wagon windows. (Hint: What other type of car does a station wagon look like?)

           

 

 

 

Station Wagon                        Hearse

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When Stradlater rejects Holden’s descriptive paragraph about Allie’s baseball mitt and then displays total disregard for Jane Gallagher, this impacts Holden tremendously. Why? (p.41-3)

 

In the middle of confronting Stradlater, Holden declares that it was his intention to punch Stradlater “in the toothbrush, so it would split his goddam throat open,” (p.43). What does this type of rage and intention reveal about Holden’s character?

 

Holden leaves Pencey Prep screaming, “Sleep tight, ya morons!” (p.52). Explain why he chooses to leave on a note of hostility rather than choosing to amicably say good-bye. What is the risk of saying good-bye nicely?

 

Holden meets Ernest Morrow’s mother and intentionally misleads her to think that her son is a nice, humble, shy boy—rather than a “bastard”. Why? How might his own experience with a disappointed mother have influenced him? (p. 54-8)

 

If you combine Holden’s bright red hunting cap and his false claim to have cancer (a brain tumor), in addition to his being appallingly nice to Mrs. Morrow, you might argue that he is masquerading as his dead brother Allie. Explain. (p.54= cancer claim, p.38-9= Allie description)

 

Holden chooses to dance with a group of 3 women, despite intensely disliking them. Why? (p. 70-6)

 

Holden repeatedly inquires about the fate of the Central Park ducks (p. 13, p. 60, p. 81-83). He finally gets an answer from Horwitz the cab driver:

 

"If you was a fish, Mother Nature’d take care of you, wouldn’t she? Right? You don’t think them fish would die when it gets to be winter, do ya?” (p. 83) Explain why this answer is comforting.

 

For the encounter with Sunny the prostitute there are many elements that deserve deconstructive analysis (p.93-8);
 

Irony; Sunny’s name is ironic, the fact that Sunny is the aggressor in this scene is ironic, etc.

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Sunny is ‘spooky’—explain.

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Why does Holden stop being aroused in the presence of Sunny? In fact, she quickly starts depressing him instead. Why?

 

Holden is uncertain about whether he believes in god. On page 99 he’s feeling depressed and hopeless after his run-in with Sunny. On one hand he’s tempted to pray, while on the other hand he describes himself (rather ironically) as “sort of an atheist”. Holden regularly says “goddam”, which if deconstructed, literally means to be damned by god. Holden seems to feel that his suffering, and particularly Allie’s death, is a curse from god.

 

The list of Holden’s most commonly used words:

 

• Phony: fake, disingenuous, hypocritical, etc

• Goddam: On the surface it’s just a profane word. However, upon closer examination, it seems that Holden says it so often because he feels ‘damned by god’

• Hate: Holden often declares that he hates a variety of people, words, expressions, etc. Hate is a word that conveys the notion that Holden passionately and actively carries animosity towards much in this world. The sentiment of ‘hate’ is like a fire that must constantly be stoked and fueled. It is entirely different from merely disliking something or being irked by it.  

• Depressed: Holden regularly declares that he is depressed, which is to say profoundly sad, experiencing a state of perpetual sorrow that has no discernible conclusion in sight.

 

Holden considers committing suicide and claims only to hesitate because he doesn’t want a bunch of spectators staring at the gory mess he would leave behind (p. 104). Why should that matter? Does this have anything to do with being a catcher in the rye?

 

Write a biography that includes every important detail that has been revealed about Holden so far (up to page 122). Relevant details include personal history, physical characteristics, fixations, struggles, conflicts, your insights and analyses of the character, etc.

 

Holden unleashes a scattered rant when speaking to Sally. He says the following:

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-He hates living in New York (p.130)

-He hates phonies (p.130)

-He hates that people care more about their cars/ objects than they do about living things/ life/ people. (p.131)

-He hates that guys pretend to care about sports, and only talk about girls, liquor, and sex. (p.131)

-He hates how people stick together according to the “dirty little goddam cliques” they belong to. (p.131)

 

Holden declares to Sally that they should get married and flee from the stressful pandemonium of life in New York to a quiet, remote cabin in Vermont. List what he wants to escape and speculate on his reasons for wanting to escape. (p. 130-133)

 

In chapter 19 Luce asks Holden a question that encapsulates the novel’s central theme; “When are you going to grow up?” Explain whether Holden is ‘grown up’ or not.

 

Holden pretends to have a wound that he carefully conceals from everybody. How is this symbolic/ metaphorical? (p. 150)

 

On page 154 Holden drops and shatters the record that he bought for Phoebe, but chooses to keep the pieces. On pages 163-164 Holden gives Phoebe those broken record pieces, which she gladly accepts and puts into a drawer. Deconstruct and explain the metaphorical significance of this record.

 

On page 155-6 Holden starts talking about Allie as though he is not dead—what does this reveal about his attitude towards Allie’s death? Has he fully accepted it and confronted his grief?

 

According to Holden why has he failed out of yet another school? (p. 167-70)

 

The Tragic James Castle story: What happened and why do Mr. Antolini’s actions make him a catcher in the rye? (p. 170-1, p. 174)

 

Holden, tellingly, cannot think of anything that he likes apart from Allie (p.171)

 

According to Holden, what is a catcher in the rye literally? Now explain what it is symbolically (p. 172-3)

 

Dissecting Holden Caulfield the name:

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• Holden sounds a lot like Hold On; this is ironic because Holden (Hold On) is a boy who cannot let go of his dead brother Allie. Holden (Hold On) also cannot let go of the fact that all children must grow up, which will inevitably result in the loss of innocence.

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• Caulfield can be cut in two; Caul and Field. A Caul is the amniotic membrane that protects a fetus in the womb—something that keeps innocent, vulnerable children safe. The Field portion refers to the field of rye. In the context of Holden’s catcher in the rye explanation/ fantasy the rye field is symbolic of the domain of childhood innocence.

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• Thus combined, his name essentially conveys his central ambition in the novel; Holden wants to help children hold on to their innocence as long as possible. He aspires to be the protective barrier (the caul) between childhood innocence and the trauma of joining the adult world.

 

Holden’s aversion to adulthood: Holden wants to save children from maturity and adulthood because of his own traumatic loss of childhood innocence. Holden seems to think that every child’s transition into adulthood will absolutely be as painful as his own. As such, he impossibly/ delusionally aspires to prevent children from the suffering he knows all too well. Of course, Holden fails to understand several key points (due, one imagines, to his compromised state of mental health):

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• First, nobody can be prevented from aging, and further, maturing and entering the realm of adulthood is unavoidable.

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• Second, another unavoidable consequence of maturing is trauma. Trauma results from discovering that childhood fantasies, various teachings and notions are falsehoods willfully perpetuated by adults. Perhaps the greatest and most piercing traumas are triggered by learning about the impermanence of life; that everyone will one day die, that things, places and people change, and that no one can do anything to stop that.

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• Third, adulthood is nothing but painful and depressing. It is filled with the phony, the hateful, and the (god)damned.

 

A few words concerning why Holden’s catcher in the rye fantasy/ aspiration/ delusion is flawed:

 

To start with the obvious, it’s impossible to keep people eternally innocent. The mind and body will always and without exception mature, as intended by nature, so to speak. As such, questions, yearnings, fascinations and so forth will naturally arise, regardless of a child’s setting. Holden’s well intentioned fantasy quickly becomes abusive in this context; preventing a child from growing up is denying the natural order. In light of Holden’s multiple flirtations with suicidal ideation, his catcher fantasy is an offshoot of that sort of thinking; a world in which children never grow up is a world where procreation ceases to occur, and is thus a fantasy for the end of humanity, a sort of universal death wish, if you will. The irony of his yearning is that Holden as a traumatized adult is not a welcome presence in his own fantasy. By virtue of his presence alone in the rye field, children would lose their innocence due to being exposed to his adulthood, not to mention his rampant cynicism. Another obvious point relates to logistics and scope; catching every child in the world before they fall off the cliff of childhood into the endless, miserable abyss of adulthood can only achieved if one views oneself as a God…

 

Another point to consider about Holden’s catcher in the rye fantasy is that he knows it’s utterly impossible to achieve, which is precisely why he aspires to it. If one accepts that he’s a depressive, then it stands to reason that Holden is constantly on a quest to validate his feelings of self-loathing—this is exemplified by his aspiring to accomplish something that can only end in failure. Failure is a pattern in Holden’s life; he’s failed out of 4 schools, he failed as a brother when he couldn’t keep Allie alive, he’s failed as a son, he failed to protect Jane Gallagher from Stradlater, etc. If you think about it, Holden fails to preserve his sister’s innocence; rather than sugarcoating everything with Phoebe, he goes on an in-depth rant about how miserable he is, sparing no detail, ultimately conveying his depression and hopelessness to her.

 

A proposed amendment to Holden’s catcher in the rye aspiration: Holden must first acknowledge that all children cannot be saved or prevented from leaving their innocence behind. Thus, a reasonable aspiration would be for Holden to strive to be a positive presence in the life of any child he should come into contact with. Furthermore, should he be there at defining junctures in a given child’s life, it should be his goal to make their transition into adulthood as smooth as possible. This could be achieved by acting as a positive role model, by being a person that children and adolescents can trust and count on for dependable advice, and so forth. It’s rather banal, granted, but it is also realistic and plausible.

 

After essentially traumatizing his 10 year old sister by telling her about his struggles, what occurrences confirm to Holden that Phoebe remains innocent? (p. 175, p. 176, p. 179)

 

Why does Holden cry when Phoebe gives him her Christmas shopping money? (p. 179)

 

Mr. Antolini suggests to Holden that he’s, “riding for some kind of terrible, terrible fall,” (p.186). What does he mean?

 

Mr. Antolini shares the following bit of wisdom with Holden, “The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one,” (p. 188). Is this quote relevant to Holden’s present state, struggles or circumstances? Explain.

 

The incident with Antolini: Does Holden react reasonably? Is Holden’s interpretation of Mr. Antolini’s behavior accurate? Is Mr. Antolini behaving inappropriately?  (p. 191-3)

 

Mr. Antolini becomes another piece of evidence that being a catcher in the rye is impossible. Explain.

 

Holden’s reaction to the profanity written on the school walls can be reduced to a simple notion: Language Matters. Holden understands that words are not innocuous and they do not exist in a vacuum. As such, when children see the words “F#ck you” (p. 201) written on a wall, they will seek out the meaning. It is this quest for meaning that will strip them, at least in part, of their innocence. Why is this? Part of what characterizes childhood innocence is the fact that they are oblivious to sexuality/ sexual interaction. Premature exposure to the words “F#ck you” will lead to premature exposure to concepts of sexuality, and thus the premature loss of innocence. By erasing the profane words in question, he is being a catcher in the rye.

 

When Holden declares that he would viciously murder the perpetrator of the profane graffiti at his sister’s school, what insight does that offer the reader into his character? (p. 201)

 

Holden acknowledges on page 202 that his aspiration to be a catcher in the rye is totally unachievable, “If you had a million years to do it in, you couldn’t rub out even half the “F#ck you” signs in the world. It’s impossible.”

Translation: the world is full of things that will strip children of their innocence and I’ll never change that, I can never be a catcher in the rye. Soon after he has his mental collapse.

 

Holden views museums as a sanctuary, as a place that is eternally preserved and safe—symbolically akin to his catcher fantasy. However, Holden is forced to confront the implausibility of this fantasy when he discovers that someone has also written “F#ck you” in the museum (p. 204). In response Holden explains that, “You can’t ever find a place that’s nice and peaceful, because there isn’t any.” Therefore, one must establish that ‘nice and peaceful’ place within themselves—something Holden fails to realize.

 

Phoebe shows up to meet Holden at the museum and arrives with a packed suitcase. How does this indicate that Holden has failed to be a catcher in the rye, that he’s done quite the opposite to his sister? (p. 205-7)

 

Phoebe seems lost to the adult world after showing up to meet Holden with her suitcases, after he viciously scolds her, and after she flees from him to navigate New York City alone (this is essentially an identical mimic of what Holden has more or less done throughout the novel).

 

When Phoebe finally acquiesces to Holden’s request that she ride the carousel, Holden has been a successful catcher in the rye. Explain.

 

Holden finally acknowledges that children cannot and should not be prevented from striving to join the adult world, “All the kids kept trying to grab for the gold ring, and so was old Phoebe, and I was sort of afraid she’d fall off the goddam horse, but I didn’t say anything or do anything. The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it’s bad if you say anything to them,” (p. 211).

 

Explain the subtextual/ symbolic meaning of the above quote in as much detail as possible: Why can Holden not join Phoebe on the carousel? (p. 212 This is not a regulatory question, but rather a metaphorical one)

 

Why does Holden start to cry tears of joy at the sight of Phoebe on the carousel? (p. 212-3)

 

Holden ends the novel on an ironic note; after spilling his guts and sharing the most intimate details of his life so far, he cautions the reader, “Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody,” (p. 214). Why? What does this advice mean?

 

How do you feel about the ending of this novel? How do you feel about not getting closure? How do you feel about being left on the edge of a cliff without a catcher?

 

Is Holden mentally ill or is he simply a boy going through the typical hardships of adolescence?

 

A few words to assist you with the above question: On one hand Holden has many typical adolescent traits; he’s cynical, he’s alienated, he’s having a tough time adjusting to the transition to adulthood. On the other hand, Holden after 2 years has not recovered from the death of his brother Allie; he describes Allie as though he is still alive and even speaks out loud to him on multiple occasions in the novel. Further, it cannot be overlooked that Holden is writing this novel 1 year after the events he describes in a mental hospital. The intention behind evaluating Holden’s mental state is not to judge or to put down, but rather to serve as a basis for you to determine what sense you make of the story. Naturally, your overall assessment of the character and the story at large could be impacted by whether or not you believe Holden is mentally ill.

 

Perhaps the greatest, yet most subtle irony about this novel’s ending is that Salinger rubs the reader’s nose in their yearning for closure. He’s essentially saying ‘if there were such a thing as a catcher in the rye, I’d be able to give you the ending that you’re looking for (the happy ending, the closure you seek, etc). However, since such a world does not exist, you must live with the fact that traumatized, frightened boys have no certain outcomes ahead of them, and there is no guarantee of a happy ending.’