The Catcher of The Rye: One of the Most Controversial Novels of All Times

The Catcher in the Rye is novel written by J. D. Salinger, partially published in  1951 and is considered to be among most controversial novels of all times and was banned in many countries for many years.The novel has  become popular readers for its themes of teenage angst and alienation and has been translated in almost all of the world's major languages.

Around 1 million copies are sold each year, with total sales of more than 65 million books, while the novel's protagonist has become an icon for teenage rebellion. The novel also deals with complex issues of innocence, identity, belonging, loss, and connection.

About the Author:

Jerome David Salinger or J.D. Salinger was an American writer born in 1919, at New York. He was known for his widely read novel, The Catcher in the Rye. Following his early success publishing short stories and The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger led a very private life for more than a half-century. He published his final original work in 1965 and gave his last interview in 1980. He died in 2010, at the age of 91

The Plot:

Holden Caulfield is a teenager,  living in an unspecified institution in Southern California near Hollywood in 1951. Caulfield intends to live with his brother D.B, an author and World War II veteran with whom Holden is angry for becoming a screenwriter, one month after his discharge. As he waits, Holden recalls the events of the previous Christmas.

Holden begins his story at Pencey Preparatory Academy, an exclusive boarding school in Agerstown, Pennsylvania, on the Saturday afternoon of the traditional football game with a rival school. Holden has been expelled from Pencey due to poor work and is not to return after Christmas break, which begins the following Wednesday. He plans to return home on that day so that he will not be present when his parents receive notice of his expulsion. After forfeiting a fencing match in New York by forgetting the equipment in the subway, he is invited to the home of his history teacher, Mr. Spencer. Spencer is a well-meaning but long-winded old man. Spencer greets him and offers him advice, but embarrasses Holden by further criticizing Holden's work in his subject in a rude manner.

Holden returns to his dorm wearing the new red hunting cap he bought in New York. His dorm neighbor Robert Ackley is one of the few students also missing the game. Ackley, unpopular among his peers, disturbs Holden with his impolite questioning and mannerisms. Holden, who feels sorry for Ackley, tolerates his presence.

 Later, Holden agrees to write an English composition for his roommate, Ward Stradlater, who is leaving for a date. However, Holden is distressed to learn that Stradlater's date is an old friend, Jane Gallagher, whom Holden had romantic feelings for and feels protective of. That night, Holden decides to go to a Cary Grant comedy with his best friend Mal Brossard and Ackley. Since Ackley and Mal had already seen the film, they end up just playing pinball and returning to Pencey. When Stradlater returns hours later, he fails to appreciate the deeply personal composition Holden wrote for him about the baseball glove of Holden's late brother Allie, and refuses to reveal whether he slept with Jane.

 Enraged, Holden punches him, and Stradlater easily wins the ensuing fight. When Holden continues insulting him after the fight, Stradlater knocks him unconscious and leaves him with a bloody nose. After leaving for Ackley's room, Holden is disappointed when he treats him rudely.

Fed up with the so-called "phonies" at Pencey Prep, Holden impulsively decides to leave Pencey early, sells his typewriter to earn money, and catches a train to Penn Station in New York. Holden intends to stay away from his home in a hotel until Wednesday, when his parents would have received news of his expulsion. Aboard the train, Holden meets the mother of a wealthy, obnoxious Pencey student named Ernest Morrow, and lies to her about himself and her son.

In a taxicab, Holden inquires with the driver about whether the ducks in the Central Park lagoon migrate during winter, a subject he brings up often, but the man barely responds. Holden checks into the dilapidated Edmont Hotel. He spends an evening dancing with three tourist women from Seattle in the hotel lounge and enjoys dancing with one, though is disappointed that he is unable to hold a conversation with them.

 Following an unpromising visit to Ernie's Nightclub in Greenwich Village, Holden becomes preoccupied with his internal angst and agrees to have a prostitute named Sunny visit his room. His attitude toward the girl changes the minute she enters the room; she seems about the same age as him. Holden becomes uncomfortable with the situation, and when he tells her all he wants to do is talk, she becomes annoyed and leaves.

Even though he still paid her the right amount for her time, she returns with her pimp Maurice and demands more money. Holden insults Maurice, and after Sunny takes the money from Holden's wallet, Maurice punches him in the stomach and leaves with Sunny. Afterwards, Holden imagines that he has been shot by Maurice, and pictures murdering him with an automatic pistol.

The next morning, Holden, becoming increasingly depressed and in need of personal connection, calls Sally Hayes, a familiar date. Although Holden claims that she is "the queen of all phonies", they agree to meet that afternoon to attend a play at the Biltmore Theater. Holden shops for a special record, "Little Shirley Beans", for his 10-year-old sister Phoebe. He spots a small boy singing "If a body catch a body coming through the rye", which lifts his mood. Although Holden's date initially goes well, it soon sours after Sally introduces her friend George. After the play, Holden and Sally go ice skating at Rockefeller Center, where Holden suddenly begins ranting against society and frightens Sally. He impulsively invites Sally to run away with him that night to live in the wilderness of New England, but she is uninterested in his hastily conceived plan and declines. The conversation turns sour, and the two angrily part ways.

Holden decides to meet his old classmate, a Columbia student named Carl Luce, for drinks at the Wicker Bar in the Seton Hotel. During the meeting, Holden annoys Carl with his fixation on sex. After Luce leaves, Holden gets drunk, awkwardly flirts with several adults, and calls an icy Sally. Exhausted and out of money, Holden wanders over to Central Park to investigate the ducks, breaking Phoebe's record on the way.

Nostalgically recalling his experience in elementary school and the unchanging dioramas in the Museum of Natural History that he enjoyed visiting as a child, Holden heads home to see Phoebe. He sneaks into his parents' apartment while they are out, and wakes up Phoebe – the only person with whom he seems to be able to communicate his true feelings.

Although Phoebe is happy to see Holden, she quickly deduces that he has been expelled, and chastises him for his aimlessness and his apparent dislikes towards everything. When asked if he cares about anything, Holden shares a selfless fantasy he has been thinking about (based on a mishearing of Robert Burns's Comin' Through the Rye): he pictures himself as the sole guardian of thousands of children playing in a huge rye field on the edge of a cliff. His job is to catch the children if, in their abandon, they come close to falling off the brink; to be, in effect, the "catcher in the rye". Because of this misinterpretation, Holden believes that to be the "catcher in the rye" means to save children from losing their innocence.