HMWK: For Wed. Read to pg. 40
J. D. Salinger
Jerome
David Salinger was an American author, best known for his novel, The
Catcher in the Rye, and his reclusive nature. He last published an
original work in 1965, and gave his last interview in 1980. Wikipedia
Books
The Catcher in the Rye: Background Info
Author Bio
Full Name: J. D. Salinger
Date of Birth: January 1, 1919-2010
Place of Birth: New York City
Brief Life Story:
Jerome David Salinger grew up on Park Avenue in New York. His father
was a successful Jewish cheese importer, and his mother was Scotch-Irish
Catholic. After struggling in several prep schools, Salinger attended
Valley Forge Military Academy from 1934-1936. He went on to enroll in
several colleges, including New York University and Columbia, though he
never graduated. He took a fiction writing class in 1939 at Columbia
that cemented the dabbling he had done in writing since his early teens.
During World War II, Salinger ended up in the Army’s infantry division
and served in combat, including the invasion of Normandy in 1944.
Salinger continued to write during the war and in 1940 he published his
first short story in Story magazine. He went on to publish many stories in the New Yorker, the Saturday Evening Post, Esquire, and others from 1941 to 1948. In 1951 he published his only full-length novel, The Catcher in the Rye,
which rocketed Salinger into the public eye. Salinger hated his sudden
fame and retired from New York to Cornish, New Hampshire, where he has
lived ever since. He continues to avoid contact with the media, and has
ceased to publish. No one knows if he continues to write.
Key Facts
Full Title: The Catcher in the Rye
Genre: Coming-of-Age Novel (Bildungsroman)
Setting: Agerstown, Pennsylvania and Manhattan, New York in 1950.
Climax: When Holden leaves Mr. Antolini’s apartment
Protagonist: Holden Caulfield
Antagonist: Stradlater, Phonies, and Adults
Point of View: First person (Holden is the narrator)
Historical and Literary Context
When Published: 1951
Literary Period: Modern American
Related Literary Works: Not much is known about the influences Salinger drew upon to write The Catcher in the Rye.
It is known that during World War II he met with Ernest Hemingway in
Paris, which suggests that Salinger admired Hemingway’s work. Even if
that’s true, it’s difficult to trace any particular author’s influence
in Catcher because it’s written in such a
fresh and unique voice with a degree of candor and brashness perhaps
unprecedented in American fiction.
Related Historical Events: Many parallels exist between Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of The Catcher in the Rye,
and J. D. Salinger: both grew up in upper class New York, both flunked
out of prep schools, and so on. It’s no surprise, then, that Salinger’s
experience in World War II should cast a shadow over Holden’s opinions
and experiences in The Catcher in the Rye.
World War II robbed millions of young men and women of their youthful
innocence. Salinger himself witnessed the slaughter of thousands at
Normandy, one of the war’s bloodiest battles. In Catcher
we see the impact of Salinger’s World War II experience in Holden’s
mistrusting, cynical view of adult society. Holden views growing up as a
slow surrender to the “phony” responsibilities of adult life, such as
getting a job, serving in the military, and maintaining intimate
relationships. World War I was supposedly “the war to end all wars”;
World War II proved that this claim was as hollow as the “phony” ideas
adult characters impose on Holden throughout The Catcher in the Rye.
Extra Credit
Banned in the Rye. Many critics dismissed the book as trash due to its healthy helping of four-letter words and sexual situations, and even today Catcher in the Rye has been banned in school districts in Washington, Ohio, Florida and Michigan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arPhzlHlyEY
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