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1、An Overview of The Catcher in the RyeRobert BennettEven though The Catcher in the Rye is usually considered only a minor classic of American fiction, it is a very popular novel that frequently provokes strong reactions-both positive and negative-from its readers. In fact, The Catcher in the Rye is o
2、ne of the most widely read and discussed works in the American literary canon. Despite its widespread popularity and significant reputation, however, some critics argue that it is too vulgar, immoral, and immature to be considered serious literature. Moreover, a few teachers and parents have censore
3、d the novel because they feel that it will corrupt children who read it. While there are undoubtedly subversive, or corrupt elements in the novel, arguments for censoring it generally misrepresent its more nobler intentions and greatly exaggerate its subversive designs. Putting aside the overinflate
4、d claims of the novels most extreme critics and supporters, the diversity and intensity of readers reactions to The Catcher in the Rye suggest that the issues it raises are significant ones. Consequently, it seems likely that readers will continue to have heated discussions about this minor classic
5、for a long time to come. One of the issues that has been debated ever since the novels initial publication is whether or not it qualifies as a significant work of literature. Does it offer significant insights into the complexities of human existence and the development of American culture, or does
6、it simply appeal to vulgar adolescent minds with its obscene language, complaining about everything without developing any positive insights of its own? While some of the initial reviews of The Catcher in the Rye were negative, critics later acknowledged it as a significant literary work and demonst
7、rated how the novels narrative structure, themes, and character development resemble other great works of literature. For example, Arthur Heiserman and James E. Millers essay, J. D. Salinger: Some Crazy Cliff, helped establish the literary significance of The Catcher in the Rye by showing how it bel
8、onged to the long tradition of epic quest narratives in western literature. Similarly, Charles Kaplans essay, Holden and Huck: The Odysseys of Youth, points out similarities between The Catcher in the Rye and Mark Twains Huckleberry Finn. Both novels are about a young man who tells the story of his
9、own personal odyssey using his own comical wisdom and colloquial everyday language. Critic Lilian Furst compares The Catcher in the Rye to Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevskys novels in the Canadian Review of Comparative Literature. Helen Weinberg compares it to Franz Kafkas novels in The New Novel
10、in America while John M. Howell in his essay Salinger in the Waste Land, compares it to T. S. Eliots poetry. Perhaps the most interesting aspect about The Catcher in the Rye , however, is that it redefines the focus of the literary text. Instead of focusing primarily on plot development like most tr
11、aditional novels, The Catcher in the Rye focuses more on character development. In fact, most of the plot is mundane and uneventful; it only becomes interesting because Salinger makes the character of Holden and the perspective through which Holden narrates the story interesting. Consequently, when
12、reading The Catcher in the Rye it is important to pay attention to how Salinger represents Holdens character, language, and world view. While some critics simply dismiss Holdens character as purely negative, vulgar, whining, and cynical, a more balanced reading of the novel could indicate that there
13、 is something more to Holden than his academic failures and adolescent cynicism: He is perceptive, sensitive, creative, and even intelligent in his own way. There are several ways that critics have attempted to describe Holdens positive characteristics, including rather obvious childlike innocence.
14、This quality is evident in a number of passages, including when Holden expresses his desire to be a catcher in the rye who protects little children from falling over the edge of a cliff, his fight with Stradlater for making sexual advances to Jane Gallagher, his inability to have sex with a prostitu
15、te, and his tender dance with his sister. In his essay The Saint as a Young Man, critic Jonathan Baumbach, like as other critics, notes that Holden acts like a saint or savior of the innocent. It is this sensitive, innocent, and childlike side of Holden that makes him a complex and endearing charact
16、er in spite of his vulgarity and immaturity. Another way that critics have tried to show the positive side of Holden is by focusing on his demonstrated ability to use language creatively. After all, the one course that Holden passes is English. Not only does Holden write a good essay for himself but
17、 he also writes a good one for his roommate Stradlater. In addition to writing, Holden is a natural actor and storyteller. He is often seen imitating his classmates or mimicking roles from the movies. In fact, A. Robert Lee goes so far as to argue in his essay Flunking Everything Else Except English
18、 Anyway that Holden continually performs himself by endlessly putting on a new mask and new identity for each new situation. In the train scene for example, Holden makes up stories about one of his classmates in order to please his classmates mother; he not only adopts a new identity for himself, bu
19、t he also fabricates a whole new fictional history of life at Pencey. Speaking is another area of importance. Even if Holden may not amount to much else, he is always a smooth talker who can keep the reader interested simply by the way that he creatively tells his story using the vernacular slang th
20、at American teenagers used in the early 1950s. While such positive interpretations of Holden correct reductive interpretations that simply dismiss Holden as an immature cynic, Duane Edwardss , Holden Caulfield: Dont Ever Tell Anybody Anything, advances an even more complex interpretation of Holden.
21、Instead of trying either to redeem Holden as a saint or to condemn him as a pessimist, Edwards argues that Holden is an ironic character who critiques his phony culture but ends up participating in the same phony culture that he condemns. His argument becomes even more interesting when readers remem
22、ber that Holden is the novels narrator. By making such an unorthodox and unreliable character as Holden the narrator, Salinger subtly suggests that maybe readers cannot completely trust everything Holden tells them about himself and the world in which he lives. Obviously, the perspective of a cynica
23、l failure like Holden cannot be trusted completely as an accurate description of the way things really are, but neither can his compassionate wit be dismissed entirely. Consequently, the reader must always read between the lines like a detective looking for hints and clues that might help explain wh
24、ich of Holdens insights are valid and which are as phony as the phoniness he condemns. Moving beyond purely literary interpretations, The Catcher in the Rye can also be interpreted from the perspective of the social sciences. In particular, many critics have advanced psychoanalytic interpretations o
25、f the novel because it repeatedly explores questions relating to death, sexuality, and processes of both psychological development and psychological breakdown. In general, these psychoanalytic interpretations usually try to get beneath the surface of Holdens psyche to discover some hidden force that
26、 explains why Holden thinks and acts the way that he does. One way to uncover the hidden layers of Holdens mind is to look back on his childhood in order to find some significant or traumatic event that might explain his current state of being. Clearly, one of the most traumatic, formative moments i
27、n Holdens childhood was the death of his brother Allie. Throughout the novel, Holden repeatedly thinks about his dead brother. For example, when Holden agrees to write a paper for his roommate Stradlater, he writes about Allies baseball mitt. Or when Holden starts to have a breakdown while walking a
28、round New York City, he pleads in his mind with Allie to protect him. Perhaps as a result of this traumatic childhood experience involving death, Holden seems to be somewhat obsessed with it. For example, when Phoebe asks Holden to name people that he enjoys, the only people other than Phoebe that h
29、e can think of are all dead: Allie and James Castle, a boy who died at Holdens school. This obsession with death, therefore, might be one clue that can offer insight into the inner workings of Holdens mind. Another place where one might find clues about Holdens psychological make-up is in his relati
30、onships with other people and especially in his sexual or almost sexual relationships with women. Throughout the novel, Holden is continually obsessed with women, but he rarely does anything about it. He likes Jane Gallagher, but they never get beyond holding hands. He even orders a hooker to his ho
31、tel room, but he decides that he only wants to talk. Instead of developing sexual or even intimate relationships with women, Holden seems to focus most of his emotional energy on his younger sister, Phoebe. While some critics have interpreted this as evidence of Holdens repressed incestual desires a
32、nd psychological immaturity, others have interpreted it as simply an affectionate bond between siblings that demonstrates Holdens innocence. While the novel may not provide any definitive explanation of Holdens sexuality, sexuality is clearly an important and interesting aspect of his character. A f
33、inal way to interpret The Catcher in the Rye is to read it from a sociological perspective. Instead of simply analyzing Holdens individual psychological make-up, a sociological analysis probes deeper into the social and economic contexts that shape Holdens personality. Carol and Richard Ohmanns essa
34、y, Reviewers, Critics, and The Catcher in the Rye, offers an excellent example of such an interpretation. In their Marxist analysis, the Ohmanns argue that critics narrow focus on moral issues causes them to overlook how these moral issues are related to broader social and economic contexts. By situ
35、ating the novel in its broader historical context at the beginning of the cold war, the Ohmanns argue that the novel is less about the morality of Holdens internal psychological character than it is about the capitalist economic system that produces Holdens character. As the Ohmanns point out, the p
36、eople who Holden criticize are virtually all representatives of a corrupt capitalist society: Mr. Haas is the phony headmaster who gets money for the school by kissing up to wealthy parents while ignoring poorer parents; Mr. Ossenburger is the phony funeral parlor owner who makes money off of person
37、al tragedies; and the majority of Holdens classmates are simply the spoiled children of similar bourgeois money-grabbers. As the Ohmanns demonstrate, Holden consistently directs his strongest criticisms against the evils of capitalism: the commercialization of culture, class-based social hierarchies
38、, exploitative sexuality, phony image-minded people, etc. From a socioeconomic perspective, therefore, The Catcher in the Rye portrays the manners and follies of the rising American bourgeois class during the post-World War II era of rapid capitalist expansion, and Holden represents a sensitive social critic who reveals the evils of this phony bourgeois society.(Source: Robert Bennett, “An overview of The Catcher in the Rye”, in Exploring Novels, Gale, 1998. )
