The Cather In The Rye

1. The Cather In The Rye Author: J.D. Salinger By: Nick

2. J.D. Salinger • Born in NYC, Jan 1st 1919. • J.D. went to New York University and Columbia University. • His career was interrupted by WW2 and he returned from service in 1946 • He wrote for the “New Yorker” • Published 35 short stories including some in the “Saturday evening post” and “Colliers” between 1940 and 1948

3. Setting • Catcher in The Rye starts out in Agerstown, Pennsylvania, at Pencey prep High school. • But the setting changes throughout the book as Holden travels throughout Newyork. • It takes place in the 1950’s

4. Characters • Holden Caulfield is the main character of the story. He’s also the narrator of the novel. He’s a 16 year old junior and he’s getting expelled from Pencey Prep due to academic failure. Holden is his own person and doesn’t care what other people think about him. • Ackley is Holden’s next door neighbor at Pencey and he barges into Holden’s room a lot and he doesn’t get Holden’s hints that he wants him to leave. • Stradlater is Holden’s room mate at Pencey, he’s handsome, popular and gets all the ladies. He appears like a stud but he really has bad hygiene and doesn’t take care of himself. • Jane Gallagher is a girl that Holden spent a lot of time with one summer in Maine on vacation.

5. Phoebe Caulfield is Holden’s 10 year old sister who he loves a lot. She is one of the few people that understand Holden even though she is so young. • D.B. Caulfield Is Holden’s older brother who he admires • Sally Hayes is an attractive girl that Holden dated for a while but Holden thinks shes dumb. • Mr. spencer is Holden’s history teacher at Pencey and he tries to help Holden with his academic struggle. • Mr. Antolini is Holden’s former English teacher at Elkton Hills school. Teaches at NYU and takes Holden in for a few days. • Maurice Is the elevator operator that lends Holden a prostitute • Sunny is the prostitute

6. Literary Elements • Written in English • Written in the late 1940’s – early 1950’s in New York • Published in July of 1951 by a company called Little, Brown and Company. • The tone of the story is often disgusted and bitter because of the way people act.

7. Plot Summary • The book starts out with Holden at Pencey Prep in Agerstown Pennsylvania, a school he doesn’t like at all. He’s actually soon getting kicked out for academic failure. Its Saturday and he isn’t suppose to go home until Wednesday and if his parents find out that he is getting kicked out he will be in big trouble! So for a few days he has to find a place to stay. But before he leaves his room mate, Stradlater goes on a date with his old friend Jane Gallagher and Holden and Stradlater get into a fight. He then gets interrupted by Ackley who is his next door neighbor. Ackley is an ugly guy who has a terrible sense of hygiene. He gets onto Holden’s nerves a lot. So that night Holden decides to leave Pencey Prep. He goes out to a few bars that night and he finally stays the night at a hotel in New York.

8. Holden stays at a hotel and its around 1 am and the elavator operator asks him if he wants a girl for the night. Holden says why not and the elevator clerk says it’ll be 5 bucks. So about 15 minutes later this girl knocks on his door named sunny. They don’t end up doing anything that night because Holden just didn’t feel like it so he payed her 5 bucks and she left. Later that night while he’s trying to sleep the elavator operator and sunny knock on the door asking for their money. Claiming that it was suppose to be 10 dollars. Holden and the guy get into a fight and they steal 5 more dollars from him and they leave. The next day Holden finally realizes that he hates the adult life and he decides to try and run away from it. He goes home to see Phoebe, his sister and she loans him her Christmas money that she has been saving up so he can get away. Mr. Antolini takes him in for a few days and lets him stay at his place to re-cooperate. Holden realized that he didn’t want other kids to fall off the cliff of childhood into the word of adulthood. He wanted to be the catcher in the rye field that caught the kids before they fell off the cliff. Metaphorically speaking.

9. Critique • I thought the book was a good book over all. The only part I didn’t like was the ending because it didn’t really tell what Holden’s future was going to hold for him. But I would definitely recommend the book to other people that are looking for a book that they want to get hooked on because a lot of the time I didn’t want to put the book down.

10. Bibliography • www.gradesaver.com/author/j-salinger/