Full Title -The Catcher in the Rye

Author -J. D. Salinger

Type Of Work - Novel

Genre - Coming-of-age, Realism, Satire

Language - English

Time And Place Written - Late 1940s–early 1950s, New York

Date Of First Publication - July 1951; parts of the novel appeared as

short stories in Collier’s, December 1945, and in The New
Yorker, December 1946

Indepth Facts:

Narrator: Holden Caulfield, narrating from a psychiatric facility a few

months after the events of the novel

Point Of ViewP: Holden Caulfield narrates in the first person, describing

what he himself sees and experiences, providing his own commentary
on the events and people he describes.

Tone: Holden’s tone varies between disgust, cynicism, bitterness, and

nostalgic longing, all expressed in a colloquial style.

Tense: Past

Setting (Time): A long weekend in the late 1940s or early 1950s

Setting (Place): Holden begins his story in Pennsylvania, at his former

school, Pencey Prep. He then recounts his adventures in New York City.

Protagonist: Holden Caulfield

Major Conflict: The major conflict is within Holden’s psyche. Part of him
wants to connect with other people on an adult level (and, more
specifically, to have a sexual encounter), while part of him wants to
reject the adult world as “phony,” and to retreat into his own memories
of childhood.

Rising Action: Holden’s many attempts to connect with other people

over the course of the novel bring his conflicting impulses—to interact
with other people as an adult, or to retreat from them as a child—into
direct conflict.

Climax: Possible climaxes include Holden’s encounter with Sunny, when

it becomes clear that he is unable to handle a sexual encounter; the end
of his date with Sally, when he tries to get her to run away with him; and
his departure from Mr. Antolini’s apartment, when he begins to
question his characteristic mode of judging other people.

Falling Action: Holden’s interactions with Phoebe, culminating in his

tears of joy at watching Phoebe on the carousel (at the novel’s end he
has retreated into childhood, away from the threats of adult intimacy
and sexuality)

Themes: Alienation as a form of self-protection; the painfulness of

growing up; the phoniness of the adult world

Motifs: Relationships, intimacy, and sexuality; loneliness; lying and

deception

Symbols: The “catcher in the rye”; Holden’s red hunting hat; the
Museum of Natural History; the ducks in the Central Park lagoon

Foreshadowing: At the beginning of the novel, Holden hints that he has

been hospitalized for a nervous breakdown, the story of which is
revealed over the course of the novel.

Quiz answers
1. Why does Holden call his brother D.B. a prostitute? (Chapters 1-2)
Because he lives in Hollywood, writing for the movie industry
2. What happened to the fencing equipment in New York?
Holden left it all on the subway
3. Why has Holden been kicked out of Pencey Prep?
For flunking too many classes
4. Why is everyone at the football game that Holden watches from the
top of the hill?
It’s the popular last game of the season against a school rival.
5. What does Mr. Spencer tell Holden?
He lectures him about failing in school and life by not applying himself.
6. Why is Holden so worried about Stradlater’s date with Jane?
(Chapters 3-4)
He likes Jane and doesn’t want Stradlater coming on to her.
7. What does Stradlater ask Holden to do for him while he’s out on his
date?
Write a composition for him describing a room
8. What is the new hat that Holden is so excited about?
A red hunting cap with ear flaps
9. Why does Ackley annoy Holden?
He has really bad personal hygiene, asks aggravating questions, and
messes with Holden’s things
10. How does Holden know Stradlater’s date, Jane?
They played checkers together one summer.
11. What does Stradlater do when Holden keeps provoking him?
(Chapters 5-6)
Punches Holden
12. How did Holden’s younger brother, Allie, die?
Leukemia
13. What does Stradlater think of the essay Holden wrote for him?
He hates it and complains that it’s about the wrong subject.
14. What is on Allie’s baseball mitt?
Poems
15. What do Mal, Ackley, and Holden end up doing when they take a
bus into town?
Eating burgers
16. What does Holden decide while he is in Ackley’s room? (Chapter 7-
9)
That he’ll leave school that night and head into the city
17. Who sits next to Holden on the train?
The mother of one of Holden’s classmates
18. What does Holden tell the woman on the train about Ernest?
He lies and tells her how modest and popular he is.
19. Where does Holden go once he gets to the city?
To a seedy hotel called the Edmont
20. Who does Holden call from the hotel room after spying on people
in the other rooms?
Faith Cavendish, a possibly promiscuous girl, whose number he has
21. What does Holden think of his sister, Phoebe? (Chapters 10-12)
He thinks she’s pretty, smart, likeable, nice, and funny.
22. Who does Holden dance and drink (a coke) with in the hotel bar?
A group of girls visiting from out of town
23. What was Holden’s relationship with Jane?
They became good friends one summer, and Holden was attracted to
her.
24. What does Horwitz, the cabby, get angry at Holden about?
Ducks
25. Why does Holden flee from the nightclub?
Because he runs into Lillian Simmons, who annoys him.
26. What happens between Holden and the prostitute? (chapters 13-
15)
She sits in his lap, but he tells her he injured his “clavichord” and can’t
have sex with her.
27. Why does the prostitute return with Maurice the doorman?
Maurice insists that Holden owes more money.
28. The next morning, what does Holden arrange to do?
Go on a date with a girl named Sally Hayes
29. What do Holden and the nuns talk about?
Romeo and Juliet
30. What does Holden give the nuns?
Ten dollars
31. What does the little boy sing as he walks in the street? (chapters
16-17)
If a body catch a body coming through the rye
32. What does Holden buy for his sister?
A record with the song Little Shirley Beans
33. What do Holden and Sally think of the show they see starring the
Lunts?
Holden finds the show pretentious: Sally loves it.
34. Why does Holden think Sally wants to go ice-skating?
So she can wear a short skating skirt
35. What do Holden and Sally fight about?
Holden insists that they run off to live in a cabin in the woods.
36. What fond memory does Holden recall while he’s watching the
Rockettes Christmas show? (Chapters 18-20)
How he and Allie used to love the kettle drum player at these shows
37. What does the “phony” war movie Holden sees make him think
about?
He thinks about how he would hate to go to war and about D.B. serving
in the Army during WWII.
38. What does Holden ask Luce a lot of questions about at the Wicked
Bar?
Sex, girls, and psychoanalysis
39. Why did Holden miss Allie’s funeral?
He was in the hospital for his hand, which he hurt punching out the
garage windows.
40. Why is Holden cold, wet, and worried he’s getting pneumonia when
he’s in Central Park looking for ducks?
Because at the bar he stuck his head in a wash basin full of water
41. What does Holden finally say when Phoebe presses him to name
one thing he really likes? (Chapters 21-23)
Allie
42. What happened to James Castle when the boys tormented him?
He jumped out a window and died trying to get away from them.
43. What does the lyric–“if a body catch a body coming through the
rye”–that Holden misquotes make him imagine?
Standing at the edge of a cliff and catching children who come too close
to the edge
44. What happens when Holden’s parents come home?
Holden hides in the closet, then he gives Phoebe his hunting cap,
borrows money, and leaves.
45. Whom does Holden call in the middle of the night from his house?
Mr. Antolini, his old English teacher, whom he liked
46. In what state does Holden find Mr. Antolini? (Chapter 24)
It’s apparent he’s been drinking.
47. What does Holden say about digressions in speeches?
He thinks they are interesting.
48. What does Mr. Antolini think is about to happen to Holden?
He thinks he’s in for a major psychological fall.
49. What does Holden say about the guys at Pencey?
He actually kind of misses them.
50. Why does Holden run out of the apartment in the middle of the
night?
He’s freaked out when he wakes up to feel Mr. Antolini stroking his hair.
51. Whom does Holden talk to every time he crosses the street the
next day?
Allie
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