Catcher in the rye By Chelsey P. - PowerPoint Presentation

Catcher in the rye By Chelsey P.

Jerome David Salinger Born January 1, 1919 in Manhattan, New York. Youngest child of Sol Salinger and Miriam (Marie). Didn’t do very well in school, The story of Holden Caulfield is pretty similar to his own story. Graduated from Valley Forge Military Academy in 1936. Went to NYU in the fall of 1936, but dropped out. After dropping out he went to work in Austria and Poland, leaving just a month before Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in March of 1938. In 1938 attended Ursinus (Latin for Bear) College, but dropped out after one month, and in 1939 he attended Columbia University where he “came alive” and got into writing. In 1941, Salinger began submitting short stories to the New Yorker getting rejected until December when they accepted a work by the name “Slight Rebellion off Madison” it was set to be published in that months issue, until Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7 th and it was deemed inappropriate. In 1942 Salinger had been accepted into the military after trying for months to get in. He worked with the Counterintelligence Corps interrogating war criminals. In July of 1951 he publish “ The Catcher in the Rye” with Little, Brown and Co. In an interview in 1953 with a high school newspaper Salinger admits it’s a bit autobiographical saying, "My boyhood was very much the same as that of the boy in the book ... It was a great relief telling people about it."

Chapter 7 & 8 In chapter 7 Holden is a bit hysterical, it starts off with him going into Ackley’s room after getting into a fight with his roommate Stradlater . Throughout the chapter loneliness and depression get mentioned 6 times. (pg. 62, 63, 64, 66, 67) Holden keeps calling Ackley “prince” in a very sarcastic way saying, “you’re a real prince. You’re a gentleman and a scholar kid.” which he keeps saying to Ackley because he is arguing with him about letting him stay in his roommate's bed. At the end of chapter 7 Holden makes the decision to leave Pencey Prep, because he didn’t want to hang around anymore as it made him sad and lonesome. In chapter 8 Holden makes it to the train station and gets onto a train headed to New York. On the train he runs into a mother of a kid he went to Pencey Prep with and she starts asking him questions which he responds to with lies about how her kid is great and they wanted him to be their class president He tells her this lie about how he has this brain tumor they have to take out and that is why he is going home early, and the chapter ends with her getting off the train and wishing him luck with his operation.

Chapter 9 & 10 Chapter 9 begins with Holden getting off the train at Penn Station and getting into a phone booth. Where he debates on who he should call because he feels like he needs to call and talk to someone and decides not to either because its too late, or he doesn’t want the wrong person answering the phone. After standing in the phone booth he gets into a cab accidentally telling the cabbie his address instead of the hotels, he asks the driver to turn around. After this Holden asks the cab driver if he knew where the ducks at the lagoon went in the winter and the cabbie thought he was messing with him. He calls up this girl he doesn’t know, who’s phone number he got from a person he met at a party that went to Princeton. He asks her to meet him up for cocktails which she declines because its late and she’s a working girl who needs her sleep. In the beginning of chapter 10 Holden brings up again the idea of calling his sister Phoebe but she wouldn’t be anywhere near the phone and how his mom would know it was him. So instead he heads to the Lavender Room which is the hotels night club. He spends all of chapter 10 in the Lavender Room, where he sees a group of 3 women whom he begs to dance with him. The rest of the chapter is talking about their dancing skills and how ignorant and annoying they are. Chapter 10 ends with the Lavender Room closing for the night and Holden leaving to head to his room.

Chapter 11 & 12 The beginning of chapter 11, Holden just left the Lavender Room when he starts to think about Jane Gallagher again. He starts thinking of the summer they got to know each other better and how his mother basically started it all by making a big stink about Janes dog peeing on their lawn. Mentions how he would joke with her about leaving all her kinged pieces in the back row when they played checkers but he didn’t joke with her too often, she didn’t like it. This whole chapter is him reminiscing on all of the memories he has with Jane. This chapter ends with him leaving the hotel to go to a nightclub called Ernie’s that his brother, D.B. took him to. Chapter 12 was a bit short and not much happened in this chapter. Holden made it to Ernie’s in a taxi, he again brought up the ducks at the lagoon with the taxi driver. Taxi driver was not very concerned with the ducks he was more concerned with the fish. Mentioned again at the beginning of the chapter that he wanted to talk to Phoebe (his sister). He mentions throughout this chapter that he is lonely and that it is depressing. Once at Ernie’s he gets a drink and a table then he runs into someone that knows him because of his brother and he finds her irritating because she wont leave him alone. Has to leave Ernie’s because of her he didn’t want to join her at her table so he made some excuse.

Chapter 13 The beginning of this chapter we see Holden walking back to the hotel which he describes as “Forty-one gorgeous blocks” ( pg 115) he debates on going into another bar but after seeing a couple of guys stumble out and ask for directions he changes his mind. He gets back to the hotel when the elevator guy asks him if he is looking for a good time, he replies es and the elevator guy sends a prostitute to his room. While he is waiting for the girl to get to his room he is reminiscing on his “experiences” or lack of experiences. He tells us how he gets close with a girl and then something happens like they get interrupted by parents or someone else. He kept calling himself a yellow guy. Meaning he is a pacifist and compassionate. Mentions how if he got into a fight with someone he couldn’t look at the persons face. Girl gets to the room, Sunny, and he decides he just wants to talk and she gets mad about that. She ends up leaving and that’s where the chapter ends.