LS5623: Classic YA Lit: Catcher in the Rye

1.     BIBLIOGRAPHY

Salinger, J.D. Catcher in the Rye. New York: Little, Brown, 1945. Print.

2.     PLOT SUMMARY
Holden Caulfield, a sixteen year old student, is kicked out of his most recent prep school. Not wanting to wait around the prep school for the next four days with his fellow classmates, all of whom he feels are “phonies,” he heads to New York City to spend three days alone as an adult before facing his disappointed parents.

3.     CRITICAL ANALYSIS characters, plot, setting, theme, style, authenticity

Catcher in the Rye is a book written from a unique point of view. Not only is it done in a conversational first-person narrative, but Holden talks very casually, often using slang and profanity when describing a situation or person. His fresh perspective helps teenagers find themselves in his depressed optimism in life and rebellious nature towards authority, parents, and society.

This is a book that often faces censorship or outright banishment from schools and libraries across the country for its profanity and dealings with sexual encounters. People who feel the need to police such things from their teenagers’ reading might be offended. Even though this is considered a YA book, I would not recommend it for tweens because of its mature material.

4.     CREATIVE ACTIVITY

Catcher in the Rye is a book meant to be read by upper level high school students, so this creativity is merely a writing prompt (unlike younger children, who often have crafts and activities that involve felt or construction paper).

J.D. Salinger writes the entire book from a first-person, conversational perspective. Using this unusual tactic makes it seem like Holden Caulfield is discussing with the reader his three days in New York after getting kicked out of school. Invite the students to do their own creative writing narrative. They should try to write about an event in that same first-person, conversational perspective. Although the event does not need to be their own (they can take a story that happened to a friend and pretend it happened to them) it’s encouraged that they take from their own life—Salinger was heavily inspired from his own life.

5.     RELATED RESOURCES

American Masters on PBS:
PBS did a broadcast about J.D. Salinger and created both a poster and an education guide for teachers to help discuss this controversial book. It includes a lot of information about Salinger himself and how his life influenced Catcher in the Rye and his other writings.

PBS, 2014. American Masters: J.D. Salinger. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/jd-salinger/educators-guide-and-poster/2852/ . accessed on June 9, 2015

If a Body Texts a Body: Texting in The Catcher in the Rye
This lesson plan discusses the role of technology in communication and uses The Catcher in the Rye and discuss points where Holden might have used texting or other technology, had he been in the modern age.

Filkins, Scott. If a Body Texts a Body: Texting in The Catcher in the Rye. ReadWriteThink. http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/body-texts-body-texting-1170.html

6.     PUBLISHED REVIEW 

Aiman, A. 2012. Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger-review. The Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jun/21/review-salinger-catcher-rye