Catcher in the Rye Fact Sheet

 

1)      Title. Working or Alternative Titles Catcher in the Rye

2)      Author JD Salinger

3)      Date of Publication 1951

4)      Genre Coming of age story,  literary realism

5)      Writing Techniques First person narration

6)      The Setting and How It Contributes to the Drama or Atmosphere The setting is a boys prep school in Pennsylvania called Pencey Prep and later New York City. The boys prep school is filled with homosexual overtones and phonies. New York City although it is filled with people holding cannot manage to find anyone to spend time with.

7)      Central Conflict and How It Develops and Resolves. What is the climax? Related Minor Conflicts the major conflict in the story is Holden Caulfield being kicked out of school and slowly having a nervous breakdown. It develops with Holden leaving school and making a series of bad decisions over a long weekend. It is resolved when Holden is institutionalized.

8)      Major Characters major characters are Holden Caulfield, Ackley, Stradlater, Phoebe

  9)      Minor Characters Jane Gallagher, Sally Hayes, Mr Spencer, Carl Luce

10)  Themes : Themes include a coming-of-age story and the fake reality adults live in compared to the reality that children live in.

11)  Symbols and Motifs symbols include the red hunting hat, the carousel in the park, the museum that Holden visits as a child then again as a young adult, the ducks in the pond and the fish in Central Park.

12)  Plot Overview, Chronologically, Including the Setting and Movement from Place to Place (Be Brief! Three to five sentences!) Holden Caulfield is at a prep school and has been kicked out, he leaves school and decides to live alone in New York City for a few days until he is forced to face his parents. He is very lonely and manic and searches for someone to hang out with and talk to so he stays up and doesn't sleep for days on end and has a series of interactions with people and eventually meets up with his sister who convinces him not to run away and at the end of the book he is hospitalized because of his nervous breakdown.

13)  What is Most Stunning about this Book is amazing that no adults in this book attempt to help Holden or even realize that he is on a manic psycho trip waiting for his nervous breakdown to take him over and even though he gives lots of notice and red flags that he is in trouble they continue to shuffle him around from place to place and school to school without actually helping him.

14)  A Quote of Less than Ten Words to Memorize “this is my people shooting hat” page 22

 

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