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{{Short description|1951 novel by J. D. Salinger}}
[[Image:rye_catcher.jpg|thumb|200px|''The Catcher in the Rye'' book cover]]
{{Other uses}}
'''''The Catcher in the Rye''''' is a [[novel]] by [[J. D. Salinger]].
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2021}}
{{Infobox book
| name = The Catcher in the Rye
| border = no
| image = The Catcher in the Rye (1951, first edition cover).jpg
| alt = Cover features a drawing of a carousel horse (pole visible entering the neck and exiting below on the chest) with a city skyline visible in the distance under the hindquarters. The cover is two-toned: everything below the horse is whitish while the horse and everything above it is a reddish-orange. The title appears at the top in yellow letters against the reddish-orange background. It is split into two lines after "Catcher". At the bottom in the whitish background are the words "a novel by J. D. Salinger".
| caption = First edition cover
| author = [[J. D. Salinger]]
| illustrator =
| cover_artist = [[E. Michael Mitchell]]<ref>{{cite web |title=CalArts Remembers Beloved Animation Instructor E. Michael Mitchell |publisher=Calarts.edu |url=http://calarts.edu/news/11-sep-2009/calartsremembersbelovedanimationinstructoremichaelmitchell |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090928013312/http://calarts.edu/news/11-sep-2009/calartsremembersbelovedanimationinstructoremichaelmitchell |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 28, 2009 |access-date=January 30, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=50 Most Captivating Covers |publisher=Onlineuniversities.com |url=http://www.onlineuniversities.com/blog/2010/01/judging-the-book-50-most-captivating-covers-of-all-time/ |access-date=January 30, 2010}}</ref>
| country = United States
| language = English
| genre = [[Literary realism|Realistic fiction]], [[Coming-of-age story|Coming-of-age fiction]]
| published = July 16, 1951<ref name="burgernyt" />
| publisher = [[Little, Brown and Company]]
| media_type = Print
| pages = 234 (may vary)
| isbn =
| dewey = 813.54
| oclc = 287628
}}
 
'''''The Catcher in the Rye''''' is the only published novel by American author [[J. D. Salinger]]. It was partially published in serial form in 1945–46 before being novelized in 1951. Originally intended for adults, it is often read by adolescents for its themes of [[angst]] and [[social alienation|alienation]], and as a critique of [[superficiality]] in society.<ref>Costello, Donald P., and [[Harold Bloom]]. "The Language of 'The Catcher in the Rye:' Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations: The Catcher in the Rye (2000): 11–20. Literary Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. December 1, 2010.</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=November 15, 2000 |title=Carte Blanche: Famous Firsts |work=Booklist |url=http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-28671475_ITM |access-date=December 20, 2007}}</ref> The novel also deals with themes of innocence, identity, belonging, loss, connection, sex, and depression. The main character, [[Holden Caulfield]], has become an icon for teenage rebellion.<ref>'' Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Allusions'' By Elizabeth Webber, Mike Feinsilber p. 105</ref> Caulfield, [[Coming-of-age story|nearly of age]], gives his opinion on a wide variety of topics as he narrates his recent life events.
Published in [[1951]], the novel remains controversial to this day, especially by noted book critic EJ Carver, "I enjoyed the book immensely, despite being asleep for half of it. I would call it a masterpiece of modern times". It has long been considered "inappropriate" and "[[immoral]]" in more [[conservative]] areas of the [[United States]]. It was the 13th most frequently [[banned books|challenged]] book of the [[1990s]], according to the [[American Library Association]] [http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bbwlinks/100mostfrequently.htm].
 
''The Catcher in the Rye'' has been translated widely.<ref>{{cite book |last=Magill |first=Frank N. |year=1991 |title=Magill's Survey of American Literature |url=https://archive.org/details/magillssurveyofa02magi |url-access=registration |chapter=J. D. Salinger |publisher=Marshall Cavendish Corporation |___location=New York |isbn=1-85435-437-X |page=1803}}</ref> About one million copies are sold each year, with total sales of more than 65&nbsp;million books.<ref>According to List of best-selling books. An earlier article says more than 20 million: {{cite news |last=Yardley |first=Jonathan |author-link=Jonathan Yardley |date=October 19, 2004 |title=J. D. Salinger's Holden Caulfield, Aging Gracelessly |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43680-2004Oct18.html |access-date=January 21, 2007|quote=It isn't just a novel, it's a dispatch from an unknown, mysterious universe, which may help explain the phenomenal sales it enjoys to this day: about 250,000 copies a year, with total worldwide sales over – probably way over – 10 million.}}</ref> The novel was included on ''Time''{{'}}s 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923,<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Grossman |first1=Lev |last2=Lacayo |first2=Richard |date=October 16, 2005 |title=All-Time 100 Novels: The Complete List |magazine=Time |url=https://entertainment.time.com/2005/10/16/all-time-100-novels/}}</ref> and it was named by [[Modern Library]] and its readers as one of the [[Modern Library 100 Best Novels|100 best English-language novels of the 20th century]].<ref name="ALA" /><ref>List of most commonly challenged books from the list of the one hundred most important books of the 20th century by Radcliffe Publishing Course</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Guinn |first=Jeff |date=August 10, 2001 |title='Catcher in the Rye' still influences 50 years later |work=[[Erie Times-News]] |format=fee required |url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=ET&p_theme=et&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EDCAD301800C85B&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D |access-date=December 18, 2007}} [http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-6739335_ITM Alternate URL]</ref> In 2003, it was listed at number 15 on the BBC's survey "[[The Big Read]]".<!-- <ref>{{cite web |title=The Big Read – Top 100 Books |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/top100.shtml |website=bbc.co.uk |access-date=February 19, 2019}}</ref><ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/top100.shtml "The Big Read"], BBC, April 2003. Retrieved October 18, 2012.</ref> -->
Its [[protagonist]], [[Holden Caulfield]], has become an icon for teenage [[angst]]. The book, written in the first person, relates Holden's experiences in the days following [[expulsion]] from his [[preparatory school]].
 
==Plot==
''[[Publishers Weekly]]'' has reported that the majority of current readers of ''The Catcher in the Rye'' are women.
Holden Caulfield recalls the events of a long weekend, shortly before the previous year's Christmas. The story begins at Pencey Preparatory Academy, an elite [[boarding school]] in the fictional town of Agerstown, Pennsylvania, where he has been expelled after failing all his classes, except English.
 
Later, Holden agrees to write an English composition for his roommate, Ward Stradlater, who is heading out on a date. He is distressed when he learns that Stradlater's date is Jane Gallagher, with whom Holden has been infatuated. When Stradlater returns, hours later, he fails to appreciate the deeply personal composition Holden has written for him about the [[baseball glove]] of Holden's late brother, Allie, who died from [[leukemia]] years earlier, and refuses to say whether he had sex with Jane. Enraged, Holden punches and insults him, but Stradlater easily wins the fight. Fed up with the "phonies" at Pencey Prep, Holden decides to catch a train to New York, planning to stay away from his home until Wednesday, when his parents will have received notification of his expulsion.
==Plot Summary==
{{spoiler}}
The book covers the 48 hours in Holden's life after being kicked out of Pencey [[preparatory school|Prep]], right before the [[Christmas]] holidays, circa [[1949]]. Having already been kicked out of other schools and not wanting to face his parents, he decides to set off and spend a few days alone in [[New York City]] after visiting the only teacher he's ever trusted. (Please finish summary)
 
Throughout the night, Holden has unpleasant encounters with a [[prostitute]] named Sunny, and her [[pimp]], Maurice, who ends up in a physical altercation with Holden; a familiar date, Sally Hayes, who Holden invites to run away with him but is rejected; and an old classmate Carl Luce, who Holden unrelentingly questions about his sex life. Holden eventually gets drunk, awkwardly flirts with several adults, calls Sally again, and runs out of money.
==Character List==
* '''[[Holden Caulfield]]'''. The protagonist and narrator of the story, Holden is a troubled, [[antisocial]] 16 year old boy.
* '''Phoebe Caulfield'''. Phoebe is Holden's younger sister whom, in Holden's eyes, has retained her innocence. However, she can be even more mature than he, at times criticizing him for his childishness.
* '''Allie Caulfield'''. Allie is Holden's deceased younger brother and possibly the root of Holden's turbulent maturation process.
* '''D. B. Caulfield'''. D.B. is Holden's older brother who has become a successful screenwriter in [[Hollywood]]. Although Holden enjoys his stories, he regards him as a phony for "selling out".
* '''Robert Ackley'''. Ackley occupies the room adjacent to Holden's at Pencey Prep, and Holden portrays him as "pimply" social outcast and a generally obnoxious person.
* '''Jane Gallagher'''. Jane does not appear in the novel, but Holden thinks of her frequently as one of the few girls he had felt truly intimate with.
* '''Ward Stradlater'''. Stradlater is Holden's popular roommate, and one of the few sexually active boys at Pencey Prep. Holden is infuriated by his date with Jane and provokes a violent encounter with him.
* '''Mr. Spencer'''. Mr. Spencer was Holden's History teacher at Pencey. He feels guilty for failing Holden, and he unsuccessfully attempts to make Holden understand the "game of life".
* '''Mr. Antolini'''. Antolini was Holden's English teacher at Elkton Hills, another school he attended before, who Holden seeks for guidance. Like Mr. Spencer, he too tries to make Holden understand maturity and he almost reaches him, but Holden fears that Mr. Antolini may be making [[homosexual]] advances and flees from his apartment.
* '''Carl Luce'''. Carl is a student at [[Columbia University]] that Holden knows from Whooton, a school he once attended. Holden meets up with him at a bar and is anxious to discuss sex, but his childish and irritating behavior causes Carl to leave.
* '''Sally Hayes'''. Sally is a girl that Holden asks out on a date, but ultimately he ruins the affair by calling her a "pain in the ass" in frustration and then later phoning her house while intoxicated.
* '''George Andover'''. George Andover is a close friend of Sally Hayes. Sally and George accidentally meet at a theater, while Holden is on a date with Sally. Holden becomes increasingly bitter towards George while George and Sally have conversations during the intermissions.
* '''Maurice.''' Maurice is the elevator operator at the Edmont Hotel who procures a [[prostitute]] for Holden, and then later barges into Holden's hotel room and forces him to pay more than agreed upon.
* '''Sunny'''. Sunny is the young prostitute Holden hires through Maurice; he is uncomfortable with the prospect of sex with her, and she leaves.
* '''Ossenberger'''. Ossenberger is a graduate of Pencey Prep who has become very rich since he left. He started an undertaking business where he would take a dead body away for just five dollars. Holden sarcastically claims that Ossenberger probably just wraps the bodies up in bags and throws them in a river.
* '''Ernest Morrow'''. Holden meets Mrs. Morrow, Ernest's mother, on a train to New York, and has a conversation with her. Holden describes Ernest to the reader as one of the biggest jerks he's ever met, but tells his mother that Ernest is kind, sensitive, shy, and smart.
* '''Anne Louise Sherman'''. Anne Louise Sherman is one of Holden's ex-girlfriends.
* '''Valencia'''. Valencia is a dancer at a The Wicker Bar. Holden tries to make an advance on her, but he is ignored.
* '''Faith Cavendish'''. Holden is told that Faith Cavendish gives up sex to anyone very easily, and therefore decides to call her in [[New York]] while he is bored and aroused. They have a phone conversation, but she tells Holden that she cannot go out on a date that night, so Holden gives up on her.
* '''Eddie Birdsell'''. Birdsell, who attends [[Princeton]], is the person that tells Holden that Faith Cavendish is "easy." Holden met him once at a party, but otherwise knows nothing about him.
* '''Ernie'''. Ernie is a very skilled piano player at a bar in New York. Holden believes that Ernie is a "phony" because he is very good at his job and gladly accepts all the positive praise that he receives.
* '''Horwitz'''. Horwitz is a cab driver that picks up Holden. They have a conversation about where ducks go in winter (a predominant symbol in the novel).
* '''Lillian Simmons'''. Lillian Simmons is an old friend of D.B. Caulfield, whom Holden runs into at a bar that the three of them used to visit often. Holden regards her as a phony. She has very big knockers.
* '''Hazle Weatherfield'''. Hazle Weatherfield is a recurring character in stories made up by Phoebe Caulfield.
* '''Rudolf Schmidt'''. Rudolf Schmidt is the janitor on Holden's floor in Pencey Prep. Holden uses Rudolf's name as his own, as a false identity when he meets Mrs. Morrow.
* '''Jim Steele'''. This is another false identity used by Holden. This alias is made up.
* '''Arthur Childs'''. While at Whooton, Holden meets Arthur Childs. The two share an interest in tennis, and converse about the sport. Eventually Arthur alters the conversation to where the nearest Catholic Church is located, thus souring their relationship for Holden.
* '''James Castle'''. James Castle commits suicide while Holden is attending Whooton. Holden is taking a shower when he hears Castle fall. Holden assumes that it was a TV or a radio, but heads downstairs and finds Castle's bloody corpse on the pavement as well as observers gathered around it. Mr. Antolini is the only person at the whole scene who comes near Castle's body. Antolini checks Castle's pulse, then puts his coat over Castle, and carries the dead body to the infirmary.
* '''Phil Stabile'''. Phil Stabile is responsible for James Castle's suicide. James Castle had said something about Stabile, and Stabile responded by gathering some friends to go lynch Castle. When they break into his room, Castle refuses to take back his comment, and ends up jumping out of the dorm room window. Stabile is expelled for the death, but receives no further punishment.
* '''Ed Banky'''. Ed Banky is the baseball coach at Pencey who frequently lends his car to students so they can have sex.
* '''Fredrick Woodruff'''. Fredrick buys Holden's 90-dollar typewriter for $20 as Holden leaves Pencey.
* '''Mal Brossard'''. Mal is an acquaintance of Holden's. Holden and Ackley go to see a movie with Mal on Holden's last night at Pencey.
* '''Mr. Haas'''. Mr. Haas is headmaster at Elkton Hills. Holden remembers him as a big phony.
* '''Dr. Thurmer'''. Dr. Thurmer is the headmaster at Pencey Prep. Tells Holden that life's a game.
* '''Selma Thurmer'''. Selma Thurmer is the daughter of the headmaster of Pencey Prep. She goes to Pencey's football games often and had a conversation with Holden on a bus from Agerstown.
 
Nostalgic to see his younger sister Phoebe, Holden sneaks into his parents' apartment while they are out and wakes her. Though happy to see him, Phoebe quickly guesses he has been expelled and chastises him for his general aimlessness and disdain. When she asks if he cares about anything, Holden shares a fantasy (based on a [[Mondegreen|mishearing]] of [[Robert Burns]]'s ''[[Comin' Thro' the Rye|Comin' Through the Rye]]''), in which he imagines himself saving children running through a field of rye by catching them before they fall off a nearby cliff. Phoebe points out that the actual poem says, "when a body meet a body, comin' through the rye." Holden breaks down in tears, and his sister tries to console him.
==Themes==
The title refers to a misquote on Holden's part of the line from the lyrical poem ''Comin' through the Rye'' by [[Robert Burns]], "gin a body ''meet'' a body / comin' thro' the rye". It is a thought born of innocence trying to protect innocence. Holden imagines himself standing in a field of rye in which children are playing. In his imagination, there is a cliff just beside the field. He would stand in the field and catch the children if they came too close to the cliff, saving them from falling over it into adulthood&mdash;a metaphor for children losing their innocence and growing up into the "phonies" Holden so despises (see below). This theme is best illustrated when Holden discovers a number of "Fuck You" [[graffiti]] and does his best to erase them before any young children can see them, though he laments that, undoubtedly, more is being "created" faster than he can get rid of it. (Ironically, this exact mentality was cited by censors when the book was [[banned books|banned]].)
 
As his parents return home, he slips out and visits his former English teacher, Mr. Antolini, who expresses concern that Holden is headed for "a terrible fall". Mr. Antolini advises him to begin applying himself and provides him with a place to sleep. Holden awakens to find Mr. Antolini patting his head, which he interprets as a sexual advance. He leaves and spends the rest of the night in a train-waiting room at [[Grand Central Terminal]], sinking deeper into despair.
Another major theme is what Holden calls "phoniness." He feels surrounded by dishonesty and false pretenses, and throughout the book is frequently picking out the "phonies" he sees around him. As a teenage boy who is deeply troubled by his own depression and personal failings, Holden believes that most of the seemingly happy or successful people he encounters are either liars or ignorant. However, Holden flat-out refuses to consider that other people might have honest reasons for acting the way they do. He calls them "phony," but his entire narrative is a set of categorical judgements he makes without evidence: in other words, he is pretending to himself he is being honest and sees what others do not, presumably to reinforce his feelings of righteousness.
 
In the morning, having lost hope of ever finding meaningful connection in the city, he decides to head out [[Western United States|West]] to live as a deaf-mute gas station attendant in a log cabin. He arranges to see Phoebe at lunchtime to explain his plan and say goodbye. When they meet up at the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], she arrives with a suitcase and asks to go with him. Holden refuses, which upsets Phoebe. He tries to cheer her by allowing her to skip school at the [[Central Park Zoo]], but she remains angry. They eventually reach the [[Central Park Carousel|carousel]], where they reconcile after he buys her a ticket. The sight of her riding the carousel fills him with happiness.
Ironically, Holden exhibits the same "phoniness" he denounces; he admittedly puts on pretenses, lies, and makes irrational and contradictory assumptions, which alienate him from society. He oversimplifies, overgeneralizes, and overreacts in his interactions with those around him. He is idealistic, emotionally immature, and unable to adapt to the realities and complexities of adulthood, and considers himself a martyr of sorts, a victim of the world, in order to justify his alienation and inability to relate with others.
 
He alludes to encountering his parents that night, "getting sick," and being sent to a [[sanatorium]] in California near his older brother, D.{{nbsp}}B. He also mentions that he will be attending another academy in September. The novel ends with Holden stating that he is reluctant to say more because talk of school has made him miss his former classmates.
==Style==
===Sarcasm===
Though the tone of the novel is gloomy, Holden's [[sarcasm|sarcastic]] comments add [[humor]]. When Holden watches some men unloading a [[Christmas tree]] while taking [[God]]'s name in vain, he comments: "It certainly was a gorgeous way to talk about a Christmas tree."
 
==History==
===Stream of conciousness===
Various older stories by Salinger contain characters similar to those in ''The Catcher in the Rye''. While at [[Columbia University]], Salinger wrote a [[short story]] called "The Young Folks" in [[Whit Burnett]]'s class; one character from this story has been described as a "thinly penciled prototype of Sally Hayes". In November 1941 he sold the story "[[Slight Rebellion off Madison]]", which featured Holden Caulfield, to ''[[The New Yorker]]'', but it was not published until December 21, 1946, due to [[World War II]]. The story "[[I'm Crazy]]", which was published in the December 22, 1945 issue of ''[[Collier's]]'', contained material that was later used in ''The Catcher in the Rye''. In 1946, ''The New Yorker'' accepted a 90-page [[manuscript]] about Holden Caulfield for publication, but Salinger later withdrew it.<ref>{{cite book |last=Salzman |first=Jack |year=1991 |title=New essays on the Catcher in the Rye |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=9780521377980 |page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780521377980/page/3 3] |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780521377980|url-access=registration }}</ref> The school Holden attends is Pencey Preparatory Academy, a [[boarding school]] in Pennsylvania that Salinger may have based on the [[Valley Forge Military Academy and College]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/04/valley-forge-military-academy-problems-hazing-sexual-assault-lawsuits/ |title=Hazing, Fighting, Sexual Assaults: How Valley Forge Military Academy Devolved Into "Lord of the Flies" – Mother Jones |publisher=Motherjones.com |date=2005-10-30 |accessdate=2022-09-02}}</ref>
This style, used throughout the novel, refers to the use of seemingly disjointed ideas and episodes used in a [[pseudorandom]] and highly structured way that is used to illustrate a [[theme]].
 
==ControversyWriting style==
''The Catcher in the Rye'' is narrated in a [[First-person narrative|subjective]] style from the point of view of Holden Caulfield, [[Stream of consciousness|following his exact thought processes]]. There is flow in the seemingly disjointed ideas and episodes; for example, as Holden sits in a chair in his dorm, minor events, such as picking up a book or looking at a table, unfold into discussions about experiences.
''The Catcher in the Rye'' has been shrouded in [[controversy]] since its publication. Reasons for banning have been the use of [[offensive]] [[language]], [[premarital sex]], [[alcohol abuse]], and [[prostitution]]. According to some extremist theories the book is an [[FBI]] or [[CIA]] tool for [[mind control]].
 
Critical reviews affirm that the novel accurately reflected the teenage [[colloquialism|colloquial]] speech of the time.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Costello |first=Donald P. |date=October 1959 |title=The Language of 'The Catcher in the Rye' |journal=American Speech |doi=10.2307/454038 |jstor=454038 |volume=34 |issue=3 |pages=172–182 |quote=Most critics who glared at ''The Catcher in the Rye'' at the time of its publication thought that its language was a true and authentic rendering of teenage colloquial speech. |issn = 0003-1283}}</ref> Words and phrases that appear frequently include:<ref>{{cite web |title=Study Help Full Glossary |url=https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/c/the-catcher-in-the-rye/study-help/full-glossary |website=CliffsNotes |access-date=9 January 2024}}</ref>
[[Mark David Chapman]], murderer of musician [[John Lennon]], was carrying the book when he was arrested immediately after the murder and referred to it in his statement to police shortly thereafter, but oddly [[John Lennon]] was reading the book when killed. [http://www.crimelibrary.com/classics4/chapman/]. [[John Hinckley, Jr.]] was also reported to have been obsessed with the book.
 
* "Flitty" – [[Homosexuality|homosexual]]
Critics see Holden as a disturbing influence on youths they consider to be "social outcasts". Holden is portrayed as a juvenile who rejects and is rejected by many peers and individuals. People like Chapman and Hinckley come to relate themselves to Holden, the person that nobody understands and that can't understand anybody else.
* "Give her the time" – [[sexual intercourse]]
* "[[Making out|Necking]]" – kissing, hugging, and caressing passionately
* "Phony" – people who are dishonest or fake about who they really are<ref>{{cite web |title=The Catcher in the Rye: Questions and Answers |url=https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/catcher/key-questions-and-answers/# |website=SparkNotes |access-date=9 January 2024}}</ref>
* "Prince" – a fine, generous, helpful fellow (often used in sarcastic fashion)
* "[[Rubbernecking|Rubbernecks]]" – people who turn their heads to gaze in curiosity
* "To shoot the bull" – To make [[small talk]] to pass the time
* "Snowing" – deceiving, misleading, or winning over by glib talk, flattery, etc.
 
==Interpretations==
Thirty years after its publication in 1951, ''The Catcher in the Rye'' was both the most banned book in America as well as the second most taught book in public schools.
[[Bruce Brooks]] held that Holden's attitude remains unchanged at story's end, implying no maturation, thus differentiating the novel from [[young adult fiction]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Brooks |first=Bruce |author-link=Bruce Brooks |date=May 1, 2004 |title=Holden at sixteen |work=[[Horn Book Magazine]] |url=http://archive.hbook.com/magazine/articles/2004/may04_brooks.asp |access-date=December 19, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20071221100107/http://archive.hbook.com/magazine/articles/2004/may04_brooks.asp |archive-date=December 21, 2007}}</ref>
In contrast, [[Louis Menand]] thought that teachers assign the novel because of the optimistic ending, to teach adolescent readers that "alienation is just a phase."<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Menand |first=Louis |author-link=Louis Menand |date=September 27, 2001 |title=Holden at fifty |magazine=The New Yorker |url=http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2001/10/01/011001fa_FACT3?currentPage=all |access-date=December 19, 2007}}</ref> While Brooks maintained that Holden acts his age, Menand claimed that Holden thinks as an adult, given his ability to accurately perceive people and their motives. Others highlight the dilemma of Holden's state, in between adolescence and adulthood.<ref name="Onstad" /><ref>Graham, 33.</ref> Holden is quick to become emotional. "I felt sorry as hell for..." is a phrase he often uses. It is often said that Holden changes at the end, when he watches Phoebe on the carousel, and he talks about the golden ring and how it's good for kids to try to grab it.<ref name="Onstad">{{cite news |last=Onstad |first=Katrina |date=February 22, 2008 |title=Beholden to Holden |work=[[CBC News]] |url=http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/bartlett.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080225165543/http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/bartlett.html |archive-date=February 25, 2008}}</ref>
 
Peter Beidler in his ''A Reader's Companion to J. D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye"'' identified the movie that the prostitute "Sunny" refers to. In chapter 13 she says that in the movie a boy who looked like Holden fell off a boat, and from this detail, Beidler deduced that the movie was ''[[Captains Courageous (1937 film)|Captains Courageous]]'' (1937), with the boy played by child-actor [[Freddie Bartholomew]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Press |first=Coffeetown |date=2011-06-16 |title=A Reader's Companion to J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye (Second Edition), by Peter G. Beidler |url=https://coffeetownpress.com/2011/06/16/the-second-edition-of-peter-g-beidlers-a-readers-companion-to-j-d-salingers-the-catcher-in-the-rye/ |access-date=2022-08-03 |website=Coffeetown Press |page=28 |language=en}}</ref>
==Cultural References==
 
Each Caulfield child has literary talent. D.{{nbsp}}B. writes screenplays in Hollywood;<ref>{{harvtxt|Salinger|1969|p=67}}</ref> Holden also reveres D.{{nbsp}}B. for his writing skill (Holden's own best subject), but he also despises Hollywood industry-based movies, considering them the ultimate in "phony" as the writer has no space for his own imagination and describes D.{{nbsp}}B.'s move to Hollywood to write for films as "prostituting himself"; Allie wrote poetry on his baseball glove;<ref>{{harvtxt|Salinger|1969|p=38}}</ref> and Phoebe is a diarist.<ref>{{harvtxt|Salinger|1969|p=160}}</ref> This "catcher in the rye" is an analogy for Holden, who admires in children attributes that he often struggles to find in adults, like innocence, kindness, spontaneity, and generosity. Falling off the cliff could be a progression into the adult world that surrounds him and that he strongly criticizes. Later, Phoebe and Holden exchange roles as the "catcher" and the "fallen"; he gives her his hunting hat, the catcher's symbol, and becomes the fallen as Phoebe becomes the catcher.<ref>{{cite news |author=Yasuhiro Takeuchi |date=Fall 2002 |title=The Burning Carousel and the Carnivalesque: Subversion and Transcendence at the Close of ''The Catcher in the Rye'' |journal=Studies in the Novel |volume=34 |issue=3 |pages=320–337}}</ref>
The [[1997]] film ''[[Conspiracy Theory (movie)|Conspiracy Theory]]'', featuring [[Mel Gibson]], uses the book quite prominently, although it does not explicitly link the book's content to the theme of mind control.
 
In their [[Salinger (book)|biography of Salinger]], [[David Shields]] and [[Shane Salerno]] argue that: "''The Catcher in the Rye'' can best be understood as a disguised [[war novel]]." Salinger witnessed the horrors of World War II, but rather than writing a combat novel, Salinger, according to Shields and Salerno, "took the trauma of war and embedded it within what looked to the naked eye like a coming-of-age novel."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Shields |first1=David |last2=Salerno |first2=Shane |date=2013 |title=Salinger |edition=Hardcover |publisher=Simon & Schuster |page=xvi |id={{ASIN|1476744831|country=ca}} |quote=The Catcher in the Rye can best be understood as a disguised war novel. Salinger emerged from the war incapable of believing in the heroic, noble ideals we like to think our cultural institutions uphold. Instead of producing a combat novel, like Norman Mailer, James Jones, and Joseph Heller did, Salinger took the trauma of war and embedded it within what looked to the naked eye like a coming-of-age novel.}}</ref>
In the [[1993]] film ''[[Six Degrees of Separation (film)|Six Degrees of Separation]]'', the character Paul (played by [[Will Smith]]) pretends to be writing a thesis on the book and gives a brief analysis of it.
 
In his book ''Rebels: Youth and the Cold War Origins of Identity'',<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Medovoi |first=Leerom |date=2005-12-01 |title=Rebels: Youth and the Cold War Origins of Identity |url=https://www.academia.edu/2210761/Rebels_Youth_and_the_Cold_War_Origins_of_Identity |journal=Duke University Press}}</ref> Professor Leerom Medovoi posits that ''The Catcher in the Rye'' is "centered on identity", and that Holden Caulfield "epitomizes the triumph of the young rebel as a requisite figure for representing the national identity of America".<ref name=":1" /> Medovoi says that in contrast to the oppressive governance of the 1950s Soviet Union, America thought itself a plucky and rebellious player on the world stage, similar to how Holden felt in contrast with the phony adult world.
"[[We Didn't Start the Fire]]" by [[Billy Joel]] made reference to the book in the song.
 
==Reception==
The anime series ''[[Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex]]'' has references to the book throughout the series. The main story arc involves the case of a cyber-terrorist known as [[The Laughing Man (anime)|The Laughing Man]], whose name is taken from [[The Laughing Man (Salinger)|one of Salinger's short stories]], and the use of symbolism referring to the novel as well as some quotes of it. The most notable quote is the one plastered on the Laughing Man's logo: "I thought what I'd do was pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes".
''The Catcher in the Rye'' has been consistently listed as one of the best novels of the twentieth century. Shortly after its publication, in an article for ''[[The New York Times]]'', Nash K. Burger called it "an unusually brilliant novel,"<ref name="burgernyt">{{cite news |last=Burger |first=Nash K. |date=July 16, 1951 |title=Books of The Times |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/09/13/specials/salinger-rye02.html |access-date=March 18, 2009}}</ref> while James Stern wrote an admiring review of the book in a voice imitating Holden's.<ref>{{cite news |last=Stern |first=James |date=July 15, 1951 |title=Aw, the World's a Crumby Place |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/09/13/specials/salinger-rye01.html |access-date=March 18, 2009}}</ref> [[George H. W. Bush]] called it a "marvelous book," listing it among the books that inspired him.<ref>{{cite web |title=Academy of Achievement – George H. W. Bush |work=The American Academy of Achievement |url=http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/bus0int-1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19970213181840/http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/bus0int-1 |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 13, 1997 |access-date=June 5, 2009}}</ref> In June 2009, the [[BBC]]'s Finlo Rohrer wrote that, 58 years since publication, the book is still regarded "as the defining work on what it is like to be a teenager."<ref name="finlo rohrer">{{cite news |last=Rohrer |first=Finlo |date=June 5, 2009 |title=The why of the Rye |work=BBC News Magazine |publisher=BBC |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8084931.stm |access-date=June 5, 2009}}</ref> Out of all teen demographics over the years, troubled and depressed teens seem to have a greater tendency to relate with Holden. In a 1975 interview with Robert Coles, <ref name=":2">Coles, Robert. “Holden Caulfield Is a Teenage Everyman” ''Social Issues in Literature:'' ''Depression in J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye'', Greenhaven Press, 2009, pages 137-47.</ref> renowned child psychoanalyst Anne Freud shares her experience treating teens who read ''The Catcher in the Rye'' for school. “I got to know this Holden Caulfield by hearsay before I met him as a reader. My analytic patients spoke of him sometimes as if they’d actually met him; they used his words, his way of speaking. ... I began to realize that they had taken him into their minds, and hugged him – they spoke, now, not only his words in the book (quotations from it) but his words become their own words."<ref name=":2" /> [[Adam Gopnik]] considers it one of the "three perfect books" in American literature, along with ''[[Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]'' and ''[[The Great Gatsby]]'', and believes that "no book has ever captured a city better than ''Catcher in the Rye'' captured New York in the fifties."<ref name=":0">Gopnik, Adam. ''The New Yorker'', February 8, 2010, p. 21</ref> In an appraisal of ''The Catcher in the Rye'' written after the death of J. D. Salinger, Jeff Pruchnic says the novel has retained its appeal for many generations. Pruchnic describes Holden as a "teenage protagonist frozen midcentury but destined to be discovered by those of a similar age in every generation to come."<ref>Pruchnic, Jeff. "Holden at Sixty: Reading Catcher After the Age of Irony." Critical Insights: ------------The Catcher in The Rye (2011): 49–63. Literary Reference Center. Web. February 2, 2015.</ref>
 
Not all reception has been positive. The book has had its share of naysayers, including the longtime ''[[Washington Post]]'' book critic [[Jonathan Yardley]], who, in 2004, wrote that the experience of rereading the novel after several decades proved to be "a painful experience: The combination of Salinger's [[wiktionary:execrable#English|execrable]] prose and Caulfield's [[wiktionary:jejune#English|jejune]] narcissism produced effects comparable to mainlining castor oil." Yardley described the novel as among the worst popular books in the annals of American literature. "Why," Yardley asked, "do English teachers, whose responsibility is to teach good writing, repeatedly and reflexively require students to read a book as badly written as this one?"<ref>{{cite news|last=Yardley |first=Jonathan |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/jd-salingers-holden-caulfield-aging-gracelessly/2013/08/27/04127c00-0f5b-11e3-85b6-d27422650fd5_story.html |title=J.D. Salinger's Holden Caulfield, Aging Gracelessly |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=2004-10-19 |accessdate=2022-09-02}}</ref> According to Rohrer, many contemporary readers, as Yardley found, "just cannot understand what the fuss is about.... many of these readers are disappointed that the novel fails to meet the expectations generated by the mystique it is shrouded in. J. D. Salinger has done his part to enhance this mystique. That is to say, he has done nothing."<ref name="finlo rohrer" /> Rohrer assessed the reasons behind both the popularity and criticism of the book, saying that it "captures existential teenage angst" and has a "complex central character" and "accessible conversational style"; while at the same time some readers may dislike the "use of 1940s New York vernacular" and the excessive "whining" of the "self-obsessed character".
The film ''[[Igby Goes Down]]'' borrows heavily from the plot of Catcher in the Rye, and contains numerous allusions to the work throughout the film.
 
==Censorship in the United States==
American rock band [[Green Day]], in their [[Kerplunk!]] album, has a song titled "Who Wrote Holden Caulfield?"
In 1960, a teacher in [[Tulsa, Oklahoma]], was fired for assigning the novel in class. She was later reinstated.<ref>{{cite news |last=Dutra |first=Fernando |date=September 25, 2006 |title=U. Connecticut: Banned Book Week celebrates freedom |publisher=The America's Intelligence Wire |url=http://www.dailycampus.com/focus/banned-book-week-celebrates-freedom-1.1060005 |archive-url = https://archive.today/20130215192024/http://www.dailycampus.com/focus/banned-book-week-celebrates-freedom-1.1060005 |url-status=dead |archive-date = February 15, 2013 |access-date=December 20, 2007 |quote=In 1960 a teacher in Tulsa, Okla. was fired for assigning "The Catcher in the Rye". After appealing, the teacher was reinstated, but the book was removed from the itinerary in the school.}}</ref> Between 1961 and 1982, ''The Catcher in the Rye'' was the most [[Censorship|censored]] book in high schools and libraries in the United States.<ref name="In Cold Fear review">{{cite news |date=April 1, 2003 |title=In Cold Fear: 'The Catcher in the Rye', Censorship, Controversies and Postwar American Character. (Book Review) |work=[[Modern Language Review]] |url=http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-4139523_ITM |access-date=December 19, 2007}}</ref> The book was briefly banned in the [[Issaquah, Washington]], high schools in 1978 when three members of the School Board alleged the book was part of an "overall communist plot".<ref>{{cite book |last=Reiff |first=Raychel Haugrud |year=2008 |title=J.D. Salinger: The Catcher in the Rye and Other Works |publisher=Marshall Cavendish Corporation |___location=Tarrytown, NY |isbn=978-0-7614-2594-6 |page=80 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oBPBiaBBF24C&pg=PA80}}</ref> This ban did not last long, and the offending board members were immediately recalled and removed in a special election.<ref>{{cite book |last=Jenkinson |first=Edward |date=1982 |title=Censors in the Classroom |publisher=Avon Books |page=35 |isbn=978-0380597901}}</ref> In 1981, it was both the most censored book and the second most taught book in public schools in the United States.<ref>{{cite web |last=Andrychuk |first=Sylvia |date=February 17, 2004 |title=A History of J.D. Salinger's ''The Catcher in the Rye'' |page=6 |url=http://www.slais.ubc.ca/courses/libr559f/03-04-wt2/projects/S_Andrychuk/Content/history_book_catcher.pdf |quote=During 1981, ''The Catcher in the Rye'' had the unusual distinction of being the most frequently censored book in the United States, and, at the same time, the second-most frequently taught novel in American public schools. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928072611/http://www.slais.ubc.ca/courses/libr559f/03-04-wt2/projects/S_Andrychuk/Content/history_book_catcher.pdf |archive-date=September 28, 2007}}</ref> According to the [[American Library Association]], ''The Catcher in the Rye'' was the 10th most frequently [[Challenge (literature)|challenged]] book from 1990 to 1999.<ref name="ALA">{{cite web |title=The 100 most frequently challenged books: 1990–1999 |publisher=[[American Library Association]] |url=http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedbydecade/1990_1999/index.cfm |access-date=August 13, 2009}}</ref> It was one of the ten most challenged books of 2005,<ref>{{cite web |title="It's Perfectly Normal" tops ALA's 2005 list of most challenged books |publisher=[[American Library Association]] |url=http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=News&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=119074 |access-date=March 3, 2015}}</ref> and although it had been off the list for three years, it reappeared in the list of most challenged books of 2009.<ref>{{cite web |title=Top ten most frequently challenged books of 2009 |publisher=[[American Library Association]] |url=http://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10#2009 |access-date=September 27, 2010}}</ref>
 
The challenges generally begin with Holden's frequent use of vulgar language;<ref>{{cite news |date=October 6, 1997 |title=Art or trash? It makes for endless, unwinnable debate |work=[[The Topeka Capital-Journal]] |url=http://www.cjonline.com/stories/100697/snider.html |access-date=December 20, 2007 |quote=Another perennial target, J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye," was challenged in Maine because of the "f" word. |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080606032330/http://www.cjonline.com/stories/100697/snider.html |archive-date=June 6, 2008}}</ref><ref name="Boron" /> other reasons include sexual references,<ref>{{cite news |last=MacIntyre |first=Ben |date=September 24, 2005 |title=The American banned list reveals a society with serious hang-ups |work=The Times |___location=London |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,923-1792974,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080111104410/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,923-1792974,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 11, 2008 |access-date=December 20, 2007}}</ref> [[blasphemy]], undermining of family values<ref name="Boron" /> and moral codes,<ref name="Frangedis">{{cite journal |last=Frangedis |first=Helen |date=November 1988 |title=Dealing with the Controversial Elements in ''The Catcher in the Rye'' |journal=The English Journal |doi=10.2307/818945 |jstor=818945 |volume=77 |issue=7 |pages=72–75 |quote=The foremost allegation made against ''Catcher'' is... that it teaches loose moral codes; that it glorifies... drinking, smoking, lying, promiscuity, and more.}}</ref> encouragement of rebellion,<ref>{{cite news |author=Yilu Zhao |date=August 31, 2003 |title=Banned, But Not Forgotten |work=The New York Times |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B06E2DF1438F932A0575BC0A9659C8B63 |access-date=December 20, 2007 |quote=''The Catcher in the Rye,'' interpreted by some as encouraging rebellion against authority...}}</ref> and promotion of drinking, smoking, lying, [[promiscuity]], and sexual abuse.<ref name="Frangedis" /> The book was written for an adult audience, which often forms the foundation of many challengers' arguments against it.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogs.bl.uk/english-and-drama/2016/09/banned-from-the-classroom-censorship-and-the-catcher-in-the-rye.html|title=Banned from the classroom: Censorship and The Catcher in the Rye – English and Drama blog|website=blogs.bl.uk|access-date=January 30, 2019}}</ref> Often the challengers have been unfamiliar with the plot itself.<ref name="In Cold Fear review" /> Shelley Keller-Gage, a high school teacher who faced objections after assigning the novel in her class, noted that "the challengers are being just like Holden. ... They are trying to be catchers in the rye."<ref name="Boron">{{cite news |last=Mydans |first=Seth |date=September 3, 1989 |title=In a Small Town, a Battle Over a Book |work=[[The New York Times]] |page=2 |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE1D7103CF930A3575AC0A96F948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2 |access-date=December 20, 2007}}</ref> Censorship of the book often causes a [[Streisand effect]], as such incidents cause many to put themselves on the waiting list to borrow the novel, where there was no waiting list before.<ref name="Whitfield">{{cite journal |last=Whitfield |first=Stephen |date=December 1997 |title=Cherished and Cursed: Toward a Social History of The Catcher in the Rye |journal=The New England Quarterly |doi=10.2307/366646 |jstor=366646 |volume=70 |issue=4 |pages=567–600 |url=http://www.northeastern.edu/neq/pdfs/Whitfield%2C_Stephen_J.pdf |access-date=November 2, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120912144104/http://www.northeastern.edu/neq/pdfs/Whitfield%2C_Stephen_J.pdf |archive-date=September 12, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |year=2001 |title=J.D. Salinger |publisher=[[Chelsea House]] |___location=Philadelphia |isbn=0-7910-6175-2 |pages=77–105}}</ref>
"Life Is A Flower", featured on Swedish band [[Ace Of Base]]'s 1998 album "Flowers", includes the line "No catcher in the rye can help you from yourself".
 
==Violent reactions==
One of the main characters in the film ''[[The Good Girl]]'' calls himself Holden and is seen reading the book and constantly referring to it.
{{further|The Catcher in the Rye in popular culture#Shootings}}
Several shootings have been [[The Catcher in the Rye in popular culture#Shootings|associated]] with Salinger's novel, including [[Robert John Bardo]]'s murder of [[Rebecca Schaeffer]] and [[John Hinckley Jr.]]'s [[Attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan|assassination attempt]] on [[Ronald Reagan]]. Additionally, after [[Murder of John Lennon|fatally shooting]] [[John Lennon]], [[Mark David Chapman]] was arrested with a copy of the book that he had purchased that same day, inside of which he had written: "To Holden Caulfield, From Holden Caulfield, ''This'' is my statement".<ref>{{cite web |last=Weeks |first=Linton |date=September 10, 2000 |title=Telling on Dad |work=[[Amarillo Globe-News]] |url=http://amarillo.com/stories/091000/boo_tellingondad.shtml |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110604005125/http://amarillo.com/stories/091000/boo_tellingondad.shtml |url-status=dead |archive-date = June 4, 2011 |access-date=February 12, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Doyle |first=Aidan |date=December 15, 2003 |title=When books kill |work=[[Salon.com]] |url=http://dir.salon.com/story/books/feature/2003/12/15/books_kill/index1.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071105025510/http://dir.salon.com/story/books/feature/2003/12/15/books_kill/index1.html |archive-date=November 5, 2007}}</ref>
 
Commenting on the fascination of Hinckley and Chapman, Harvey Solomon-Brady wrote:
Kevin Smith’s [[1997]] film ''[[Chasing Amy]]'' features the characters named Holden McNeil (a reference to [[Holden Caulfield]]) and Banky Edwards (a reference to the Pencey baseball coach Ed Banky).
 
{{cquote|Compared to books lauded by other killers – [[George Orwell]]'s ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four|1984]]'' by [[John F. Kennedy]]'s assassin [[Lee Harvey Oswald]], [[C. S. Lewis|C.S. Lewis]]'s meditations on Christianity by [[Gianni Versace]]'s murderer [[Andrew Cunanan]] and [[Joseph Conrad]]'s ''The Secret Agent'' by Unabomber [[Ted Kaczynski]] – ''The Catcher in the Rye'' stands out in its devastating ability to influence without explicit instruction.<ref>Harvey Solomon-Brady, WhyNow, "Did The Catcher in the Rye kill John Lennon?," 8 December 2020</ref>}}
The song 'Magna Cum Nada' on The [[Bloodhound Gang]]'s album [[Hooray for Boobies]] refers to Holden Caulfield. The opening lines of the song are:
'Why try? I'm that guy/Holden Caulfield from "Catcher In The Rye"/Put away 'cause he wasn't all there/Like a jigsaw puzzle you might compare/Me to him not a liver but wurst/Been much better off as a still birth'
 
==Attempted adaptations==
==Time Period==
 
===In film===
''The Catcher in the Rye'' clearly takes places in the late [[1940s]] to the early [[1950s]], which is about the time the novel was written. The death of Allie, Holden's younger brother, is given to be [[July 18]], [[1946]] and it is stated Holden was thirteen at that time. It follows, therefore, that the bulk of the story takes place in approximately [[December]] of [[1949]] and the story's "present" is the [[summer]] of [[1950]]. Given that in 1949 Christmas fell on a [[Sunday]], the two days that consume most of the novel are most likely [[December 18]] and [[December 19|19]] (if it was one week later, the second day of Holden's romp would be Christmas and, if it was one week earlier, Pencey would be letting its students out two full weeks before Christmas.)
Early in his career, Salinger expressed a willingness to have his work adapted for the screen.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hamilton |first=Ian |author-link=Ian Hamilton (critic) |title=In Search of J. D. Salinger |url=https://archive.org/details/insearchofjdsali0000hami |url-access=registration |year=1988 |publisher=Random House |___location=New York |isbn=0-394-53468-9}} p. 75.</ref> In 1949, a critically panned film version of his short story "[[Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut]]" was released; renamed ''[[My Foolish Heart (1949 film)|My Foolish Heart]]'', the film took great liberties with Salinger's plot and is widely considered to be among the reasons that Salinger refused to allow any subsequent film adaptations of his work.<ref name="Onstad" /><ref name="berg">Berg, A. Scott. ''Goldwyn: A Biography''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989. {{ISBN|1-57322-723-4}}. p. 446.</ref> The enduring success of ''The Catcher in the Rye'', however, has resulted in repeated attempts to secure the novel's screen rights.<ref>See Dr. Peter Beidler's A'' Reader's Companion to J. D. Salinger's the Catcher in the Rye'', Chapter 7.</ref>
 
When ''The Catcher in the Rye'' was first released, many offers were made to adapt it for the screen, including one from [[Samuel Goldwyn]], producer of ''My Foolish Heart''.<ref name="berg" /> In a letter written in the early 1950s, Salinger spoke of mounting a play in which he would play the role of Holden Caulfield opposite [[Margaret O'Brien]], and, if he couldn't play the part himself, to "forget about it." Almost 50 years later, the writer [[Joyce Maynard]] definitively concluded, "The only person who might ever have played Holden Caulfield would have been J. D. Salinger."<ref name="mayn">{{cite book |last=Maynard |first=Joyce |author-link=Joyce Maynard |title=At Home in the World |url=https://archive.org/details/athomeinworld00joyc |url-access=registration |year=1998 |publisher=Picador |___location=New York |isbn=0-312-19556-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/athomeinworld00joyc/page/93 93]}}</ref>
==Memorable and Significant Quotes==
*"''I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It's awful. If I'm on my way to the store to buy a magazine, even, and somebody asks me where I'm going, I'm liable to say I'm going to the opera.''"
 
Salinger told Maynard in the 1970s that [[Jerry Lewis]] "tried for years to get his hands on the part of Holden,"<ref name="mayn" /> the protagonist in the novel which Lewis had not read until he was in his thirties.<ref name="Whitfield" /> Film industry figures including [[Marlon Brando]], [[Jack Nicholson]], [[Ralph Bakshi]], [[Tobey Maguire]] and [[Leonardo DiCaprio]] have tried to make a film adaptation.<ref>{{cite web |year=2004 |title=News & Features |work=IFILM: The Internet Movie Guide |url=http://vgn.ifilm.com/db/static_text/0,1699,5784,00.html |access-date=April 5, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040906121952/http://vgn.ifilm.com/db/static_text/0,1699,5784,00.html |archive-date=September 6, 2004}}</ref> In an interview with ''[[Premiere (magazine)|Premiere]]'', [[John Cusack]] commented that his one regret about turning 21 was that he had become too old to play Holden Caulfield. Writer-director [[Billy Wilder]] recounted his abortive attempts to snare the novel's rights:
*"''I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes. That way I wouldn't have to have any goddam stupid useless conversations with anybody.''"
 
{{cquote|Of course I read ''The Catcher in the Rye''... Wonderful book. I loved it. I pursued it. I wanted to make a picture out of it. And then one day a young man came to the office of [[Leland Hayward]], my agent, in New York, and said, "Please tell Mr. Leland Hayward to lay off. He's very, very insensitive." And he walked out. That was the entire speech. I never saw him. That was J. D. Salinger and that was ''Catcher in the Rye''.<ref>Crowe, Cameron, ed. ''Conversations with Wilder''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999. {{ISBN|0-375-40660-3}}. p. 299.</ref>}}
*"''Anyway, I'm sort of glad they've got the atomic bomb invented. If there's ever another war I'm going to sit right the hell on top of it. I'll volunteer for it, I swear to God I will.''"
 
In 1961, Salinger denied [[Elia Kazan]] permission to direct a stage adaptation of ''Catcher'' for [[Broadway theater|Broadway]].<ref name="guard">{{cite news |last=McAllister |first=David |date=November 11, 2003 |title=Will J. D. Salinger sue? |work=The Guardian |___location=London |url=http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,6109,1082699,00.html |access-date=April 12, 2007}}</ref> Later, Salinger's agents received bids for the ''Catcher'' film rights from [[Harvey Weinstein]] and [[Steven Spielberg]], neither of which was even passed on to Salinger for consideration.<ref>{{cite web|title=Spielberg wanted to film Catcher In The Rye|url=https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/entertainment/film/spielberg-wanted-to-film-catcher-in-the-rye-124346.html |date=December 5, 2003 |website=Irish Examiner|access-date=August 24, 2019}}</ref>
*"''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. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be. I know it's crazy.''"
 
In 2003, the [[BBC]] television program ''[[Big Read|The Big Read]]'' featured ''The Catcher in the Rye'', interspersing discussions of the novel with "a series of short films that featured an actor playing J. D. Salinger's adolescent antihero, Holden Caulfield."<ref name="guard" /> The show defended its unlicensed adaptation of the novel by claiming to be a "literary review", and no major charges were filed.
*"''If you want to know the truth, I don't ''know'' what I think about it....Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.''"
 
In 2008, the rights of Salinger's works were placed in the JD Salinger Literary Trust where Salinger was the sole trustee. Phyllis Westberg, who was Salinger's agent at Harold Ober Associates in New York, declined to say who the trustees are now that the author is dead. After Salinger died in 2010, Westberg stated that nothing had changed in terms of licensing film, television, or stage rights of his works.<ref>{{cite news |title=Slim chance of Catcher in the Rye movie – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) |newspaper=ABC News |date=January 29, 2010 |publisher=ABCnet.au |url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/01/29/2805400.htm?section=justin |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100202031330/http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/01/29/2805400.htm?section=justin |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 2, 2010 |access-date=January 30, 2010}}</ref> A letter written by Salinger in 1957 revealed that he was open to an adaptation of ''The Catcher in the Rye'' released after his death. He wrote: "Firstly, it is possible that one day the rights will be sold. Since there's an ever-looming possibility that I won't die rich, I toy very seriously with the idea of leaving the unsold rights to my wife and daughter as a kind of insurance policy. It pleasures me no end, though, I might quickly add, to know that I won't have to see the results of the transaction." Salinger also wrote that he believed his novel was not suitable for film treatment, and that translating Holden Caulfield's [[first-person narrative]] into [[voice-over]] and dialogue would be contrived.<ref>{{cite news |last=Connelly |first=Sherryl |date=January 29, 2010 |title=Could 'Catcher in the Rye' finally make it to the big screen? Salinger letter suggests yes |work=Daily News |___location=New York |url=http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/2010/01/30/2010-01-30_could_catcher_in_the_rye_finally_make_it_to_the_big_screen_salinger_letter_sugge.html |access-date=January 30, 2010}}</ref>
*"''I think, even, if I ever die, and they stick me in a cemetery, and I have a tombstone and all, it'll say 'Holden Caulfield' on it, and then what year I was born and what year I died, and then right under that it'll say 'Fuck you.'"''
 
In 2020, [[Don Hahn]] revealed that [[The Walt Disney Company]] had almost made an animated film titled ''Dufus'' which would have been an adaptation of ''The Catcher in the Rye'' "with [[German Shepherd|German shepherds]]", most likely akin to ''[[Oliver & Company]]''. The idea came from then CEO [[Michael Eisner]] who loved the book and wanted to do an adaptation. After being told that J. D. Salinger would not agree to sell the film rights, Eisner stated, "Well, let's just do that kind of story, that kind of growing up, coming of age story."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://collider.com/disney-catcher-in-the-rye-animated-movie-explained/ |title=Disney Once Tried to Make an Animated 'Catcher in the Rye' — But Wait, There's More|website=Collider|last=Taylor|first=Drew|date=August 3, 2020|access-date=August 3, 2020}}</ref>
*Recurrent: "''I'm not kidding.''", "''I'm a madman.''"
 
===Banned fan sequel===
In 2009, the year before he died, Salinger successfully sued to stop the U.S. publication of a novel that presents Holden Caulfield as an old man.<ref name="finlo rohrer" /><ref>{{cite news |last=Gross |first=Doug |date=June 3, 2009 |title=Lawsuit targets 'rip-off' of 'Catcher in the Rye' |publisher=CNN |url=http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/books/06/03/salinger.catcher.lawsuit/index.html |access-date=June 3, 2009}}</ref> The novel's author, [[John David California|Fredrik Colting]], commented: "call me an ignorant Swede, but the last thing I thought possible in the U.S. was that you banned books".<ref>{{cite web |last=Fogel |first=Karl |title=Looks like censorship, smells like censorship... maybe it IS censorship? |url=http://questioncopyright.org/salinger_censors |website=QuestionCopyright.org |date=July 7, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221006161115/https://questioncopyright.org/salinger-censors |archive-date=2022-10-06 |access-date=April 28, 2025}}</ref> The issue is complicated by the nature of Colting's book, ''60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye'', which has been compared to [[fan fiction]].<ref>Sutherland, John. [https://archive.today/20130505075836/http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifestyle/article-23704887-details/How+fanfic+took+over+the+web/article.do How fanfic took over the web] ''[[London Evening Standard]]''. Retrieved July 22, 2009.</ref> Although commonly not authorized by writers, no legal action is usually taken against fan fiction, since it is rarely published commercially and thus involves no profit.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Fan Fiction and a New Common Law|author=[[Rebecca Tushnet]]|journal=Loyola of Los Angeles Entertainment Law Journal|date=1997|volume=17}}</ref>
 
==Legacy and use in popular culture==
{{main|The Catcher in the Rye in popular culture}}
 
==See also==
* [[Book censorship in the United States]]
* [[Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century|''Le Monde''{{'}}s 100 Books of the Century]]
 
==References==
 
===Notes===
 
{{reflist|1=30em}}
 
===Bibliography===
{{Refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last=Graham |first=Sarah |year=2007 |title=J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-34452-4}}
* {{cite news |last=Rohrer |first=Finlo |date=June 5, 2009 |title=The Why of the Rye |work=BBC News Magazine |publisher=[[BBC News]] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8084931.stm}}
* {{citation | last1 = Salinger | first1 = J. D. | title = The Catcher in the Rye | ___location = New York | publisher = Bantam | year = 1969 }}
* {{cite book |last=Wahlbrinck |first=Bernd |year=2021 |title=Looking Back After 70 Years: J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye Revisited |publisher=Tumbelweed |isbn=978-3-9821463-7-9}}
{{Refend}}
 
===Further reading===
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last=Steinle |first=Pamela Hunt |year=2000 |title=In Cold Fear: ''The Catcher in the Rye'' Censorship Controversies and Postwar American Character |publisher=[[Ohio State University Press]] |url=http://www.ohiostatepress.org/index.htm?/books/book%20pages/steinle%20in.html |access-date = March 29, 2018 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160331042330/https://ohiostatepress.org/index.htm?%2Fbooks%2Fbook%2520pages%2Fsteinle%2520in.html |archive-date = March 31, 2016 |url-status = dead }}
{{refend}}
 
==External links==
{{Wikiquote|The Catcher in the Rye}}
{{wikiquote}}
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* [http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Humanities/Literature/Authors/Literary_Fiction/Salinger__J_D_/Catcher_in_the_Rye__The/ Yahoo!'s Catcher in the Rye Section]
* [http://www.bookdrum.com/books/the-catcher-in-the-rye/9780140237504/index.html Book Drum illustrated profile of ''The Catcher in the Rye'']; {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160928091148/http://www.bookdrum.com/books/the-catcher-in-the-rye/9780140237504/index.html |date=September 28, 2016 }}
* [http://www.euronet.nl/users/los/censorhistory.html A comprehensive history] of the book's [[censorship]]
* [http://www.mansionbooks.com/BookDetail.php?bk=213 Photos of the first edition of ''Catcher in the Rye'']
* [http://pinkmonkey.com/booknotes/monkeynotes/pmCatcher40.asp Monkey Notes]
* [http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/books/06/03/salinger.catcher.lawsuit/index.html "Lawsuit targets 'rip-off' of 'Catcher in the Rye{{'"}}] – [[CNN]]
* [http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/catcher/ Spark Notes]
 
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