The Catcher in the Rye
“I’m sick of just liking people. I wish to God I could meet somebody I could respect.”
About the Author
Jerome David Salinger (January 1, 1919 – January 27, 2010)
Salinger was an American writer, born in Manhattan, who gained fame for his novel The Catcher in the Rye. He has written several short stories in Story magazines and played a part in World War 2 with American Military. After 1951, he gained popularity and followed the bestseller with short sequences of stories.
About the Novel
J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield recounts the days following his expulsion from Pencey Prep, a private school. After indulging in a fight with his roommate, Stradlater, Holden leaves school two days early to have fun around New York before returning home, interacting with teachers, prostitutes, nuns, an old girlfriend, and his sister along the way. J.D. Salinger’s classic The Catcher in the Rye illustrates a teenager’s dramatic struggle against death and growing up.
Genre
Realistic Fiction, Coming of age Fiction
Tone
Depressing and Sad
Main Message
Protecting the Innocent and Isolation
Setting
New York City in the 1950s
Main Characters in the Catcher in the Rye
Holden Caulfield
The narrator and Protagonist of the Novel
Ackley
A next-door neighbor of Holden at Pencey Prep
Stradlater
Holden’s roommate at Pencey Prep
B. Caulfield
Holden’s older brother
Sally Hayes
Holden’s Girlfriend
Sunny
The prostitute whom Holden hires through Maurice
Famous Quotes from Catcher in the Rye
- “Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.”
- “I’m quite illiterate, but I read a lot.”
- “I like it when somebody gets excited about something. It’s nice.”
- “I’m sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody.”