Exploring the Themes in Catcher in the Rye

1. Catcher in the RyeDAYS A-C PPT English 11 Engelbert LHS School Credit: Robert Caughey, TPHS

2. DAY A 1/23: Think on this… • “Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules.”-CITR • THINK ABOUT WHAT THIS MEANS FOR 30 SECONDS.

3. Why is life being described as a game?

4. To what extent do you think you are in control of your “game” of life?

5. As a teenager, how do the invisible rules or expectations put on you by society, your parents, your teachers, and your friends, make you feel?

6. Take a moment.

7. ROCK ACTIVITY: \Well all have stressors and pressures in our lives such as family, our looks, love, money, good grades, and friendship. Each rock represents the heaviness that this pressure has on you and your collective group. Please correlate the size, shape and weight of each rocks with the stressors listed above. Write those stressors on the post-its, arrange the rocks smallest to largest, and then take a picture of the rock line and label. Write one more post-it with your period number and group names. Email the picture to me at: engelberta@cvuhsd.org

8. HOMEWORK: 1.) Read chapters 1 and 2 (19 pages) of CITR. 2.) Highlight or tab four passages or quotes that interest you as you are reading. 3.) Also, record on a separate sheet of paper (not in your notebook) or write in or on a post-it note, three questions you have about the characters, plot, or about the world as inspired by the chapters.

9. Task 1:Cover Page. • 1.) Start a new page in your notebook and make a cover page for Catcher in the Rye. See sample below.

10. Task 2: Warm 1 ONE: Rock Reflection • -Post pictures of rocks here. Have kids share and write why they said what they said. • What did your group feel was the biggest stressor? Why?

11. TASK 3: Student-Driven Discussion • 1.) Record student questions on board. • 2.) Listen in as kids discuss their own questions. • 3.) Model Pro Talk and stating claims, citing evidence, etc.

12. TASK 4: Dialectical Journal • Distribute journal page • Write journal entry for Chapters 1-2 together.

13. HOMEWORK: DAY B 1/24 1/25 • 1.) Read chapters 3-5 (25 pages) of CITR. • 2.) Highlight or tab four passages or quotes that interest you as you are reading. • 3.) Also, record on a separate sheet of paper (not in your notebook) or write on a post-it note, three questions you have about the characters, plot, or • About the world as inspired by the chapters.

14. CITR DAY C AGENDA • 1.) CITR Quiz • 2.) Distribute article “Losing a Sibling” and annotate as a class. Staple in journal. • 3.) Trace baseball mitts in journals and complete activity. • 4.) Whole class discussion • HOMEWORK: Read 6-8, highlight quotes, complete journal entry on own

16. Jerome David (J.D.) Salinger • Birthplace: • 1 January 1919 • Manhattan, New York • Education: • Valley Forge Military Academy; Ursinus College, Philadelphia; Columbia University, New York. • Salinger never gained his degree.

17. J.D. Salinger • While in Europe in 1937, he worked as an apprentice in a slaughterhouse in Bydgoszcz, Poland • He served in the Counter Intelligence Corps during the second world war, where he participated in the D-Day landings and fought in the Battle of the Bulge • He was later discharged due to a nervous condition

18. Random Fact of Interest • In 1941, Salinger fell in love with Oona O'Neill, daughter of playwright Eugene O'Neill • After entering the army in 1942, it is said that he wrote her long letters daily • However, while Salinger was serving in Europe, O'Neill got married - to Charlie Chaplin. Salinger was devastated, and this episode is thought to have permanently jaundiced his view of the motion picture industry • "If there's one thing I hate, it's the movies" says Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye. "Don't even mention them to me."

19. Influences • Salinger saw himself as the successor to the great American short story writers F Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway • Brett Easton Ellis and Douglas Coupland are two of the best contemporary writers dealing in teenage angst (alongside Catcher, Ellis's Less Than Zero is acknowledged as one of the finest first-person narratives about being young in America)

20. As a Writer • Salinger is a famously - and determinedly - reclusive author • A notoriously litigious man, he has consistently blocked attempts to publish any of his writings which were not available before 1965, and deliberately hindered all attempts to produce biographies • Perhaps predictably, this withdrawal from the public gaze has merely served to heighten his fame

21. As a Writer • Primarily a short story writer, published in periodicals such as The New Yorker and Story, Salinger's reputation as one of the most talented writers of his generation was sealed in 1951 with the publication of The Catcher in the Rye, a touchstone of modern American literature • Greeted rapturously by critics on its initial publication, it made an instant celebrity of its author and still sells over a quarter of a million copies each year worldwide • A tale of alienation, dissolution and disappointment told through the eyes of iconic adolescent Holden Caulfield, the book is now seen as almost a rite-of-passage read for young people

22. As a Writer • The astonishing success of The Catcher in the Rye overwhelmed Salinger, who stopped publishing and withdrew from public life in 1965. • Aside from Catcher, Salinger's published work consists of short stories (the 1961 novella Franny and Zooey comprises two short stories which were originally published separately, in 1955 and 1957), a form in which he excelled • Many of these stories feature one or more members of the Glass family - a brood of young prodigies struggling with their ascension to adulthood • Franny and Zooey is the best introduction to the Glasses; they also feature prominently in Nine Stories and Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters / Seymour: An Introduction

23. As a Writer • It has been decried variously as obscene, nihilistic, pro-communist, cynically satirical, reactionary and dangerous, and was cited in the defence of both John Hinkley Jr and Mark David Chapman, the would-be and actual assassins of Ronald Reagan and John Lennon respectively • Still regularly topping lists of banned books in schools, its power to transfix young malcontents has not diminished over time

24. Catcher in the Rye • Holden's quest is the quest for maturity, for the passage from childhood to adulthood • As is true for Holden (and for you), this passage requires the annihilation of his known world (the child's world) and an assimilation of the adult world • This transformation means that Holden must surrender those "perceptions, attitudes, awarenesses, modes of behavior, and certainties" which have been the foundation of his life heretofore • Thus Holden must undergo an ordeal wherein he discovers that his world - the child's world - is a false world • The nature of this ordeal must bring him into a situation whereby he discovers that the world he believed in just does not exist.  The annihilating Chaos of this ordeal shall destroy Holden’s Old Self.  • His return to an ordered world—to Cosmos—will wait upon the Epiphany whereby he assimilates the realities of the Adult World

25. Child’s World vs. Adult’s World CHILD'S WORLD    ADULT'S WORLD absolutes/ dualities paradoxes / complexitiesimmortality / denial of death    mortality / acceptance of deathanimal sexuality    human sexualitythe World of "I"    the World of "Others"ignorance    knowledge"do your own thing"    duty / roles / responsibilitieshedonistic    moralconfused about oneself    self-aware / knows "who" and "what" he is ideals    imperfections an illusory world    the real world“self”-defined duties and obligations    externally defined duties and obligationsgives excuses   gets results

26. Some Basic Concepts • The passage out of childhood is what we refer to when we speak of “growing-up.” • In the most basic sense, what we are trying to capture in meaningful, descriptive words is just what “growing-up” means • We are after some tangible measures that have meaning beyond such arbitrary, empty conceptions as legal maturity (18 years of age) or physical maturity (puberty)

27. Some Basic Concepts • One’s existential status (child or adult) is measured by the behaviors, attitudes, sentiments, values, attachments, and understandings displayed by the person. • Here we use the logic of that timeless folk wisdom whereby “If you walk like a duck and quack like a duck and look like a duck and fly like a duck, by god, you’re a duck.”      • Very simply, if your behaviors, attitudes, sentiments, values, attachments, and understandings are childish, you’re a kid. As your behaviors, attitudes, sentiments, values, attachments, and understandings are adult, you’re an adult • Distinguishing a child and an adult is simply a matter of matching observable behavior with the characteristics which define the given role: child or adult   • This recognition makes the matter simply a task of defining what constitutes the constellation of childish behaviors, attitudes, sentiments, values, attachments, and understandings and defining what constitutes the constellation of adult behaviors, attitudes, sentiments, values, attachments, and understandings

28. Some Basic Concepts • The transition from childhood to maturity is necessarily a “passage.” • Insofar as this passage is, in the most genuine and profound sense, transformational, this passage requires the annihilation of the “old self” and the creation of the “new self.” • Therefore, the passage from childhood to adulthood should manifest the patterns, motifs, and archetypes of Passage: Call to Adventure, the Adventure, and The Return (and all the other hallmarks identified in the notes “Rites of Passage”)

29. Some Basic Concepts • An individual (in general) cannot exist without a healthy and healthful sustaining Society • Yet society can exist without any particular individual • Society cannot exist, however, without some healthy and healthful individuals