What does J.D. Salinger have in common with The Catcher in the Rye?

Answer 1

I think it may be a metaphor for the complex relationship between Holden and Jane in the novel. The fact that the idea of a highly romanticised Shakespearean love story could be Holden looking back on the memories of the past with rose-tinted glasses, and that he is using it to gloss over the cracks and less desirable parts of the memory, making more of a story than there really is. If you look closely, one can see that the metaphor does fit. However, it could also merely show Holden's interest in English.

Answer 2

Holden, the main character, is chatting with his little sister, Phoebe, and she asks what he wants to do with his life. He replies saying that he wants to be the image he gets from the song "Comin' thro' the Rye". Everytime he hears this he thinks of a field of rye on a cliff where there are kids playing around, and he wants to be the person catching them as they fall off of it. Phoebe then points out that Holden has misheard the lyric...he thinks that it says "when a body catch a body coming through the rye" rather than "when a body meet a body coming through the rye".

Answer 3

It is believed that "Catcher" was in no small way partly biographical on Salinger's part. His skill in writing it was such that every young man - even generations later - instantly recognizes it's authenticity.

Answer 4

In catcher in the rye, holden goes on a quest to justify his life and escape the confines of conformity and what was expected of him at his prestigious prep school. His dead brother is a huge factor, and the fact that he can no longer identify with himself. (Many people say that the story is all a narrative that he is telling to a psychologist of some sort). In Dead Poet's Society, their teacher urges the boys to escape yet explore their lives of conformity through writing and poetry, similar to holden as he wrote down many of his encounters through his journeys. Both stories also hugely explore losses of innoncence, and a longing to regain that innocence. hope that helped you a little

Answer 5

This may not be what you are looking for, but the titles of both books are based on poems by Robert Burns.

Of Mice and Men is a reference to the poem "To A Mouse" and The Catcher In The Rye comes from the poem "Comin Thro The Rye" both by Robert Burns.