The Catcher in the Rye By: J.D.

Salinger
a. General Overview:

1) What was your overall impression of the novel?

2) The novel's title comes from Robert Burns poem, “Comin’ Thro the Rye,” which Holden envisions as
a literal rye field on the edge of a cliff. Do you think it was meant to symbolize anything? If so, what?

3) What symptoms of (teen) depression does Holden show throughout the novel? And what events
do you think trigger depression episodes?

4) While Holden shows tremendous disgust towards phony teens and adults, he constantly idealises
children, an idealisation epitomised by his memory of Allie. Yet, the novel includes episodes of cruelty
among children? Can you recall any?

5) Throughout the narrative, Holden approaches all the characters he shows appreciation for except
one. Who and why do you think he eventually does not contact this character?

6) More than once, Holden admits that “I'm crazy. I swear to God I am”. The truth is that many times
he behaves incongruently, can you remember any episode showing the inconsistency of his actions?

7) Which do you believe to be the main theme(s) of this novel:

• Alienation as a form of self-protection
• The need to fit in society
• Depression and mental breakdown
• The painfulness of growing up
• The phoniness of the adult world
• Fear and shame of sexuality

b. Read the excerpts below and locate them within the novel’s storyline. What’s their
significance?

Now he's out in Hollywood, D.B., being a prostitute. If there's one thing I hate, it's the movies. Don't even mention them to me.
(p. 2)
The more expensive a school is, the more crooks it has--I'm not kidding (p. 4)

"Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules." (p. 15)

I act quite young for my age sometimes. I was sixteen then, and I'm seventeen now, and sometimes I act like I'm about thirteen.
It's really ironical, because I'm six foot two and a half and I have gray hair. I really do. The one side of my head--the right side--
is full of millions of gray hairs…And yet I still act sometimes like I was only about twelve. Everybody says that, especially my
father. It's partly true, too, but it isn't all true. People always think something's all true. I don't give a damn, except that I get bored
sometimes when people tell me to act my age. Sometimes I act a lot older than I am--I really do--but people never notice it.
People never notice anything. (p. 9)

I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It's awful. (p. 17)

It was a very crude thing to do, in chapel and all, but it was also quite amusing. Old Marsalla. (p. 18)

Hey. I almost forgot. She knows you." "Who does?" I said. "My date." "Yeah?" I said. "What's her name?" I was pretty interested.
"I'm thinking . . . Uh. Jean Gallagher." Boy, I nearly dropped dead when he said that. "Jane Gallagher," I said. (p. 32)

I was only thirteen, and they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all, because I broke all the windows in the garage.
(p.76)

I'd only been in about two fights in my life, and I lost both of them. I'm not too tough. I'm a pacifist, if you want to know the
truth…Yeah, I was defending your goddam honor. Stradlater said you had a lousy personality. I couldn't let him get away with
that stuff (p. 48, 51)
 Boy, he's really shy. You oughta make him try to get over that." I looked at her. "Didn't he tell you about it?" "No, he didn't." I
nodded. "That's Ernie. He wouldn't. That's the one fault with him--he's too shy and modest. You really oughta get him to try to
relax occasionally." (p. 61)

Sex is something I just don't understand. I swear to God I don't. (p. 68)

I know old Jane like a book--I still couldn't get her off my brain. I knew her like a book. I really did (p. 83)

You should've heard the crowd, though, when he was finished. You would've puked. They went mad. They were exactly the
same morons that laugh like hyenas in the movies at stuff that isn't funny. I swear to God, if I were a piano player or an actor or
something and all those dopes thought I was terrific, I'd hate it. I wouldn't even want them to clap for me. People always clap for
the wrong things (p.91)
It was really nice sightseeing, if you know what I mean. In a way, it was sort of depressing, too, because you kept wondering
what the hell would happen to all of them. When they got out of school and college, I mean. You figured most of them would
probably marry dopey guys (p. 133)

"I like a mature person, if that's what you mean. Certainly." "You do? Why? No kidding, they better for sex and all?" "Listen. Let's
get one thing straight. I refuse to answer any typical Caulfield questions tonight. When in hell are you going to grow up?" (p.157)

You don't like any schools. You don't like a million things. You don't." "I do! That's where you're wrong--that's exactly where
you're wrong! Why the hell do you have to say that?" I said. Boy, was she depressing me. "Because you don't," she said. "Name
one thing." "One thing? One thing I like?" I said. "Okay." The trouble was, I couldn't concentrate too hot (p. 182)

"You know what I'd like to be?" I said. "You know what I'd like to be? I mean if I had my goddam choice?" "What? Stop swearing."
"You know that song 'If a body catch a body comin' through the rye'? I'd like--" "It's 'If a body meet a body coming through the
rye'!" old Phoebe said. "It's a poem. By Robert Burns." "I know it's a poem by Robert Burns." She was right, though. It is "If a
body meet a body coming through the rye." I didn't know it then, though. (p. 186)
I felt so damn happy all of sudden, the way old Phoebe kept going around and around. (p. 229)

About all I know is, I sort of miss everybody I told about. Even old Stradlater and Ackley, for instance. I think I even miss that
goddam Maurice. It's funny. Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody (p.230).

c. Discussion questions

1) The Catcher in the Rye is often categorised as a “bildungsroman”, a coming-of-age story in which
the narrator recounts his or her hazardous past to develop ideas about what it means to be a
mature person. Yet, as he begins his narrative, Holden challenges our expectations by despising
“all that David Copperfield kind of crap”. How does this novel compare to traditional “novels of
education”?

2) What is the significance of the red hunter's hat that Holden wears?

3) Caufield shows great hostility to some settings in the novel like Pencey and the other 3 schools he
was expelled from, Broadway and Hollywood while he finds solace in places like the NY Natural
History Museum and Central Park, with its lagoon and carousel. How are these 2 types of settings
different and why do they provoke such opposing reactions in the narrator?

4) Do Holden's encounters with adult hypocrisy ring true to you? Or are they more a reflection of his
own deteriorating mental stability? Or both?

5) How are female characters portrayed in this novel? Would you say that Holden is a misogynistic
person? Is Holden able to make any real (and lasting) connections with any other female character—
young or older?

6) If Holden is so obsessed with saving children's innocence, why doesn’t he worry more about his own?
What does "innocence" mean for him?