918 salinger, J. D.
These soldiers, he thinks, are now fighting those
who were once their own, just as Indira Gandhi will
soon issue orders that devastate her own people, all
in the name of Indian nationalism.
Jennifer McClinton-Temple
SaLiNGEr, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye
(1951)
Published in 1951, The Catcher in the Rye, by J. D.
Salinger (1919–2010), sparked controversy over
its employment of adult themes and subjects in a
work narrated by a teenager. However, the novel
has endured as a masterpiece due to Salinger’s
magnificent use of voice and keen insights into the
nature of cruelty, innocence, duplicity, and iso-
lation. Holden Caulfield narrates the events of the
novel from a hospital, where he is presumably being
treated for mental illness, and tells the readers of
the events that ensued after learning of his expul-
sion from Pencey Preparatory School, where he was
failing four of his five subjects. The title of the novel
comes from a Robert Burns poem, “Coming Thro’
the Rye,” as Holden imagines himself in a rye field
full of children and must catch them before they fall
off the edge of a cliff, becoming the titular “catcher
in the rye.” This is the central metaphor of the
novel, as Holden wishes to preserve the innocence
of childhood before children can be exposed to the
complexity and “phoniness” of adulthood.
It is worthwhile to note that Holden Caulfield is
an “unreliable narrator,” declaring to the reader, “I’m
the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life.” The
reader, therefore, can never be certain if the informa-
tion Holden relates is the truth, or whether Holden’s
reminiscences are distorted by his memory, mental
state, or propensity for lying.
Jeff Pettineo
crueLty in The Catcher in the Rye
Cruelty is manifest in The Catcher in the Rye primar-
ily as violence, though there are many examples of
psychological cruelty as well. Although Holden is
dismayed at the capacity and even tolerance human
beings display for acts of cruelty—be they psycho-
logical or physical—he never fully realizes that he is
responsible for acts of cruelty as well.
Early in the novel, J. D. Salinger describes the
setting at Pencey Preparatory School using imag-
ery of war and violence. Holden stands atop a hill
near a cannon from the Revolutionary War, looking
down at a football game, where “the two teams were
bashing each other all over the place.” This initial
description is a foreshadowing of the cruelty Holden
will face outside of the “structured” environment of
sports and school as he travels around New York.
Holden, however, is the instigator of cruelty on
several occasions. For example, he becomes angered
by his classmate Stradlater’s refusal to answer his
question about whether or not Stradlater had sex
with Jane Gallagher, a childhood companion of
Holden’s. As a result, Holden reacts violently, tak-
ing a swing at Stradlater but missing: “I tried to
sock him, with all my might, right smack in the
toothbrush, so it would split his goddam throat
open. Only, I missed. . . . It probably hurt him a
little bit, but not as much I wanted.” Holden even
muses that at Pencey, “You never saw so many
mean guys in your life,” referring to boys who try
to ostracize the more awkward classmates such as
Robert Ackley.
Holden is also the victim of violence. In one
episode, Maurice, a pimp Holden meets at a hotel,
roughs him up for not paying for a prostitute in full.
Maurice threatens Holden, then snaps his finger
on Holden’s pajamas—“I won’t tell you where he
snapped it, but it hurt like hell.” And Holden is cruel
to himself. When his brother, Allie, passed away,
Holden claims he slept in the garage that night and
“broke all the windows in the garage,” and as a result,
he cannot make a tight fist with his hand.
There are several instances of psychological cru-
elty, especially on Holden’s part. In one case, Holden
tells his friend Sally Hayes that she gives him “a
royal pain in the ass,” even after declaring that he
loves her and suggesting they run off together to
get married. Later, he confesses that although “he
meant it” when he first suggested his plan to Sally,
he declares, “I probably wouldn’t have taken her even
if she wanted to go with me.” He also lashes out at
his own sister, Phoebe, telling her to “shut up” and
relating that “I was almost set to hit her. I thought
I was going to smack her for a second. I really did.”
His anger makes Phoebe cry.