The Catcher in the Rye

1. The Catcher in the Rye is told in the past tense by Holden Caulfield as he is in a mental institution.  After getting kicked out of three prep schools, he is then expelled from a fourth.  Afraid that his parents will be disappointed in him for getting expelled from yet another school, he decides to spend three days in Manhattan before going home for "Christmas vacation." It soon becomes evident that Holden doesn't have any close relations.  He is obsessed with a girl named Jane, whom he casually dated but didn't keep much contact with.  Lonely for companionship, he hires a prostitute to come to where he is staying.  Not paying her the full amount she demands, he gets beat up by her accomplice.  The next day he meets with Sally Hayes, a girl he once dated.  Not long into their date, he asks her to run away and elope with him, where she refuses.  He then calls Carl Luce, an old acquaintance, to meet him for drinks.  However, Holden offends Carl with his immaturity, and he soon leaves.  The night of Christmas Eve, Holden sneaks into his parents' apartment to see his little sister, telling her he was kicked out of Pencey Prep.  Confused on where his life is going, Holden decides to leave home for good.  He ends the novel explaining that he eventually went home and got "sick," alluding to why he is not in a mental institution.

2. The major theme of The Catcher in the Rye is alienation.  Holden acts as if he is better than everyone else.  Due to this, he has had a hard time forming close with relationships with others, as no one wants to be constantly criticized by their friends.  This in turn has led to the emptiness that Holden feels, and is often the reason behind why he constantly screws up in life.

3. The author's tone, as portrayed by Holden Caulfield, is very cynical.  He seems to feel as if there is no great importance to life.


“Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules.”
“Yes, sir. I know it is. I know it.”
Game, my ass. Some game. If you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then it’s a game, all right—I’ll admit that. But if you get on the other side, where there aren’t any hot-shots, then what’s a game about it? Nothing. No game.

“Like hell it is.” I took it off and looked at it. I sort of closed one eye, like I was taking aim at it. “This is a people shooting hat,” I said. “I shoot people in this hat.”

One of the biggest reasons I left Elkton Hills was because I was surrounded by phonies. That's all. They were coming in the goddam window. For instance, they had this headmaster, Mr. Haas, that was the phoniest bastard I ever met in my life. Ten times worse than old Thurmer. On Sundays, for instance, old Haas went around shaking hands with everybody's parents when they drove up to school. He'd be charming as hell and all. Except if some boy had little old funny-looking parents. You should've seen the way he did with my roommate's parents. I mean if a boy's mother was sort of fat or corny-looking or something, and if somebody's father was one of those guys that wear those suits with very big shoulders and corny black-and-white shoes, then old Haas would just shake hands with them and give them a phony smile and then he'd go talk, for maybe a half an hour, with somebody else's parents. I can't stand that stuff. It drives me crazy. It makes me so depressed I go crazy. I hated that goddam Elkton Hills.

4.

• Direct Characterization -- But there was one nice thing. This family that you could tell just came out of some church were walking right in front of me – a father, a mother, and a little kid about six years old. They looked sort of poor. […] The kid was swell. […] He was making out like he was walking a very straight line, the way kids do, and the whole time he kept singing and humming. […] It made me feel better. It made me feel not so depressed anymore.
• Here Holden describes in detail a family he sees on the street.  Observing others, as he did here, often helps him to not feel so depressed and alienated from the world.
• Flashback -- Anyway, it was the Saturday of the football game. […] I remember around three o'clock that afternoon I was standing way the hell up on top of Thomsen Hill. […] You could see the whole field from there, and you could see the two teams bashing each other all over the place. […] You could hear them all yelling. 
• The entire novel is a flashback, as Holden is giving an account of his life to the point he was admitted into the mental institution.  This excerpt is even deeper into Holden's life.
• Symbolism -- [Ackley] took another look at my hat . . . “Up home we wear a hat like that to shoot deer in, for Chrissake,” he said. “That’s a deer shooting hat.”
  “Like hell it is.” I took it off and looked at it. I sort of closed one eye, like I was taking aim at it. “This is a people shooting hat,” I said. “I shoot people in this hat.” 
• Holden's hunting hat is a symbol for his seclusion.
• Imagery -- I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff—I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all.
• Here Holden connects the title of the novel to the storyline, imagining himself as being the catcher in the rye.
• Foreboding -- “I have a feeling that you’re riding for some kind of terrible, terrible fall. . . . The whole arrangement’s designed for men who, at some time or other in their lives, were looking for something their own environment couldn’t supply them with. . . . So they gave up looking.”
• Mr. Antolini warns Holden that he is afraid Holden is sliding down a slippery slope in terms of where his life is headed.