Five Critical Essays on The Catcher in the Rye Reviewed

Introduction

The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger was first published in 1951. The novel deals with the issues of identity, belonging, connection, and alienation. This paper reviews five scholarly articles written on the novel.

Holden's Irony and the Failure to Connect

This article by Lisa Privitera was published in Explicator in 2008. The article postulates that the irony of Holden Caulfield is that the harder he tries to keep his family and friends at arm's length, the closer he comes to making unexpected discoveries about them — and even about himself.

Privitera points out that Holden has a sensitivity that keeps him from finding his place in the world. This makes the character readily identifiable to many teenagers. His perspective on life prevents him from making friends easily, and he wants nothing to do with the "phonies" who inhabit the adult world. Though Holden claims he wants to be left alone, more than anything he wants to make a genuine connection with someone. He attempts to connect with Jane, Sally, and finally a prostitute, but each encounter ends in failure.

He has no real friends at Pencey. Other than his sister Phoebe, he has no meaningful relationships with members of his family. As Privitera notes, "Holden's innocence died with his brother Allie, and lying and avoidance have become the norm in his life, rather than the innocent invincibility of childhood" (p. 204).

According to Privitera, the novel is not only the story of a young man's sad spiral into a nervous breakdown, but also the story of a boy who takes the chances his readers do not feel capable of risking. His failure makes him all the more real to those same readers. This has propelled the book into a statement for a generation's attempt to make sense of an ever more complex world. Holden becomes the symbol of a tragic hero who dares to flout society's rules, acknowledging that there is nowhere for him to go. The irony of the book is that even though Holden subconsciously longs to be accepted, he cannot make a connection. He does succeed, however, in making "Salinger the unwilling, erstwhile guru to a generation of displaced teenagers who made Holden an icon of their angst" (p. 205).

This article by M. duMais Svogun appeared in the December 2009 issue of English Studies. The article compares two segments of Salinger's novel: chapters 21–23, in which Holden finally returns home to his family's apartment and has a late-night conversation with his younger sister Phoebe, and an earlier episode in chapters 13–14, in which Holden has an abortive and violent encounter with a teenage prostitute named Sunny and her pimp Maurice, who doubles as a hotel elevator operator. Taken together, the author argues that these two episodes "provide some of the most compelling, concentrated evidence in the novel of Salinger's (and Holden's) overriding preoccupation: the confounding nature of individual identity" (p. 695).

Identity, Repetition, and the Nature of the Self

Svogun claims that the puzzle of identity — what makes a person phony or real — is at best difficult to determine. Holden experiences a number of epiphanies during the course of the novel. He realizes that his fantasy of being the catcher in the rye is unrealistic, and after watching Phoebe ride the carousel, he admits that if children fall off, they fall off.

Nevertheless, Holden is still unable to find where he fits in society. The author notes that Holden seems to understand that both outward circumstances and one's inborn nature contribute to the formation of identity. After seeing his fellow hotel residents engaging in "perverty" behavior, he admits that he sometimes thinks of "crumby stuff" he would not mind doing if the opportunity arose. Additionally, he speculates about how Sunny became a prostitute, indicating his awareness of the role fate may play in identity development.

Svogun notes that by the end of the story Holden grasps that the struggle to discover one's identity is ongoing and indefinite. When asked by "a lot of people" about his plans and intentions, Holden responds, "How do you know what you are going to do? The answer is you don't" (p. 705).

This essay by Peter Shaw appeared in New Essays on The Catcher in the Rye, published by Cambridge University Press in 1991. Shaw provides a psychoanalytic interpretation of Holden's social observations and mental state, framing his actions and emotions as a pattern of behavior peculiar to adolescent crisis.