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.
IMAGERY
1. Imagery is a set of mental pictures or images.
2. The use of vivid or figurative language to represent objects, actions, or ideas.
So when Holden was pretending he had been shot in the guts this is an example of imagery.
SETTING
(TIME) -A long weekend in the late 1940s or early 1950s
(PLACE) -Holden begins his story in Pennsylvania, at his former school, Pencey Prep. He then recounts his adventures in New York City.
CONFLICT
Protagonist
Holden Caulfield is the protagonist and narrator of the novel, and all the events in the plot revolve around him. He is a sixteen- year-old boy who has trouble fitting in and finding a place for himself in life. There is nothing heroic about Holden, and he is often considered an anti-hero.
Antagonist
Holden’s antagonist is his inability to fit into society. Throughout the novel, he is pitted against different characters, social situations, educational environments, technology, and the world in general. But Holden is really fighting himself, and until he learns who he is and finds a place for himself he the world, he cannot be at peace.
Climax
This is a novel of progressive climax, where one high point in the plot leads up to the next, as follows:
Mini-Climax One
The first climax is reached when Holden ends up lying on the floor with a bleeding nose after his roommate Stradlater has beaten him a fight that Holden started. Holden has lost his first battle against the world and escapes form Pencey.
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Mini-Climax Two
When Holden has been beaten by the pimp Maurice at the end of Chapter Fourteen, he is once again lying on the floor incapacitated with the pain from the impact. His second direct confrontation has ended in defeat. With no where to go, he heads to Grand Central Station.
Mini-Climax Three
In his search for human connection, Holden gathers his courage, places a phone call to Sally, and sets a date with her for the afternoon. He tells her about his plan to run away out West and suggests that she join him. She scoffs at his foolishness and walks out, leaving him again rejected and in isolation.
Mini-Climax Four
The fourth climax occurs when Holden faces rejection from the one little person upon whom all his hopes are anchored--Phoebe. This has the most shattering impact on Holden, and he is forced to search elsewhere for understanding. Hence he goes to Mr. Antolini for help.
Mini-Climax Five
The fourth climax occurs when Holden is rejected by Mr. Antolini, the last person he has to turn to for help. He is sure that this man, above all others, will be able to understand his needs and accept him. To his horror, Mr. Antolini gives Holden an academic lecture about scholastic performance. Then he approaches Holden in the middle of the night, touching his on the forehead. Holden interprets he gesture as a sexual advance.
The actual climax is never viewed in the course of the novel, only foreshadowed by the mini-climaxes and proven by Holden’s stay at a psychiatric hospital. Sometime after the close of action in the book, life amongst the "phonies" gets to be too much for Holden. The reader is forced to imagine the inevitable outcome of this story - the total mental breakdown of the protagonist, Holden Caulfield.
Outcome
The novel ends in tragedy for Holden when he finally realizes he cannot win his battle. He returns home to his parents and is obviously sent to a psychiatric hospital to "rest" before retiring to the world that has defeated him.
Holden Caulfield is the protagonist and narrator of the novel, and all the events in the plot revolve around him. He is a sixteen- year-old boy who has trouble fitting in and finding a place for himself in life. There is nothing heroic about Holden, and he is often considered an anti-hero.
Antagonist
Holden’s antagonist is his inability to fit into society. Throughout the novel, he is pitted against different characters, social situations, educational environments, technology, and the world in general. But Holden is really fighting himself, and until he learns who he is and finds a place for himself he the world, he cannot be at peace.
Climax
This is a novel of progressive climax, where one high point in the plot leads up to the next, as follows:
Mini-Climax One
The first climax is reached when Holden ends up lying on the floor with a bleeding nose after his roommate Stradlater has beaten him a fight that Holden started. Holden has lost his first battle against the world and escapes form Pencey.
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Mini-Climax Two
When Holden has been beaten by the pimp Maurice at the end of Chapter Fourteen, he is once again lying on the floor incapacitated with the pain from the impact. His second direct confrontation has ended in defeat. With no where to go, he heads to Grand Central Station.
Mini-Climax Three
In his search for human connection, Holden gathers his courage, places a phone call to Sally, and sets a date with her for the afternoon. He tells her about his plan to run away out West and suggests that she join him. She scoffs at his foolishness and walks out, leaving him again rejected and in isolation.
Mini-Climax Four
The fourth climax occurs when Holden faces rejection from the one little person upon whom all his hopes are anchored--Phoebe. This has the most shattering impact on Holden, and he is forced to search elsewhere for understanding. Hence he goes to Mr. Antolini for help.
Mini-Climax Five
The fourth climax occurs when Holden is rejected by Mr. Antolini, the last person he has to turn to for help. He is sure that this man, above all others, will be able to understand his needs and accept him. To his horror, Mr. Antolini gives Holden an academic lecture about scholastic performance. Then he approaches Holden in the middle of the night, touching his on the forehead. Holden interprets he gesture as a sexual advance.
The actual climax is never viewed in the course of the novel, only foreshadowed by the mini-climaxes and proven by Holden’s stay at a psychiatric hospital. Sometime after the close of action in the book, life amongst the "phonies" gets to be too much for Holden. The reader is forced to imagine the inevitable outcome of this story - the total mental breakdown of the protagonist, Holden Caulfield.
Outcome
The novel ends in tragedy for Holden when he finally realizes he cannot win his battle. He returns home to his parents and is obviously sent to a psychiatric hospital to "rest" before retiring to the world that has defeated him.
Theme Analysis
J. D. Salinger presents an image of an atypical adolescent boy in The Catcher in the Rye. Holden is much more than a troubled teen going through "a phase." Indeed Holden is a very special boy with special needs. He doesn’t understand and doesn’t wish to understand the world around him. In fact most of the book details his guilty admissions of all the knowledge he knows but wishes he didn’t. Though his innocence regarding issues of school, money, and sexuality has already been lost, he still hopes to protect others from knowing about these adult subjects.
Holden, unlike the usual fictional teenager, doesn’t express normal rebellion. He distrusts his teachers and parents not because he wants to separate himself from them, but because he can’t understand them. In fact there is little in the world that he does understand. The only people he trusts and respects are Allie, his deceased brother, and Phoebe, his younger sister. Everyone else is a phony of some sort. Holden uses the word phony to identify everything in the world which he rejects. He rejects his roommate Stradlater because Stradlater doesn’t value the memories so dear to Holden (Allie’s baseball glove and Jane’s kings in the back row). Even Ernie, the piano player, is phony because he’s too skillful. Holden automatically associates skill with arrogance (from past experiences no doubt) and thus can’t separate the two. Even Holden’s most trusted teacher, Mr. Antolini, proves to be a phony when he attempts to fondle Holden. Thus the poor boy is left with a cluster of memories, some good but most bad.
Yet because of these memories, Holden has developed the unique ability to speak candidly (though not articulately) about the people he meets. Though he seems very skeptical about the world, he is really just bewildered. His vocabulary often makes him seem hard, but in fact he is a very weak-willed individual. Holden has no concept of pain, and often likes to see himself as a martyr for a worthy cause. This is proven after the fight with Maurice, after which he imagines his guts spilling out on the floor.
The end of the book demonstrates significant growth on the part of Holden. Although at first Holden is quick to condemn those around him as phony (like Stradlater and Ackley), his more recent encounters with others prove that he is becoming more tolerant and less judgmental. This is evidenced after the ordeal with Mr. Antolini, where Holden is determined not to make any conclusions about his teacher. This growth contributes to Holden’s fantasy of being a catcher in the rye. Despite his inability and fear of becoming an adult, he has found his role in keeping the innocence of other children protected. This is shown when he tries to scratch out the obscenities at Phoebe’s elementary school. He imagines himself on a cliff, catching innocent children (like himself at one time) who accidently fall off the cliff, bridging the gap between childhood and adulthood.
Holden, like the typical banana-fish, simply absorbs all experiences, good and bad, adding them to his own knowledge base. Really the poor teenager is so confused about what he should do, he simply regresses socially, hoping to escape the tough choices of adulthood by keeping others from them.
Holden, unlike the usual fictional teenager, doesn’t express normal rebellion. He distrusts his teachers and parents not because he wants to separate himself from them, but because he can’t understand them. In fact there is little in the world that he does understand. The only people he trusts and respects are Allie, his deceased brother, and Phoebe, his younger sister. Everyone else is a phony of some sort. Holden uses the word phony to identify everything in the world which he rejects. He rejects his roommate Stradlater because Stradlater doesn’t value the memories so dear to Holden (Allie’s baseball glove and Jane’s kings in the back row). Even Ernie, the piano player, is phony because he’s too skillful. Holden automatically associates skill with arrogance (from past experiences no doubt) and thus can’t separate the two. Even Holden’s most trusted teacher, Mr. Antolini, proves to be a phony when he attempts to fondle Holden. Thus the poor boy is left with a cluster of memories, some good but most bad.
Yet because of these memories, Holden has developed the unique ability to speak candidly (though not articulately) about the people he meets. Though he seems very skeptical about the world, he is really just bewildered. His vocabulary often makes him seem hard, but in fact he is a very weak-willed individual. Holden has no concept of pain, and often likes to see himself as a martyr for a worthy cause. This is proven after the fight with Maurice, after which he imagines his guts spilling out on the floor.
The end of the book demonstrates significant growth on the part of Holden. Although at first Holden is quick to condemn those around him as phony (like Stradlater and Ackley), his more recent encounters with others prove that he is becoming more tolerant and less judgmental. This is evidenced after the ordeal with Mr. Antolini, where Holden is determined not to make any conclusions about his teacher. This growth contributes to Holden’s fantasy of being a catcher in the rye. Despite his inability and fear of becoming an adult, he has found his role in keeping the innocence of other children protected. This is shown when he tries to scratch out the obscenities at Phoebe’s elementary school. He imagines himself on a cliff, catching innocent children (like himself at one time) who accidently fall off the cliff, bridging the gap between childhood and adulthood.
Holden, like the typical banana-fish, simply absorbs all experiences, good and bad, adding them to his own knowledge base. Really the poor teenager is so confused about what he should do, he simply regresses socially, hoping to escape the tough choices of adulthood by keeping others from them.
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