Catcher in the Rye Study Guide - duxbury.k12.ma.us

Cheat Sheet

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Essential Questions:
• How can alienation serve as a form of protection?
• To what extent should we protect the innocent from evil?
• What do one’s thought or behavior patterns reveal about their
character?

Themes: Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.
• The Phoniness of the Adult World
• Lying and Deception
• The Pain of Growing Up / Loss of innocence
• Alienation as a Form of Self-Protection
• Reality vs. illusion

Motifs: Motifs are the recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop
and inform the text’s major themes.

• Loneliness
• Relationships, Intimacy, Sexuality

Symbols: Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or
concepts.

• The ducks in the Central Park Lagoon
• Holden’s red hunting hat
• The Catcher in the Rye
• Allie’s glove
• The Museum of Natural History

READING SCHEDULE

Assignment Due Date

Ch. 1 -3 ____________

Ch. 4 – 6 ____________

Ch. 7 – 9 ____________

Ch. 10 – 12 ____________

Ch. 13- 15 ____________

Ch. 16 – 18 ____________

Ch. 19 – 21 ____________

Ch. 22 -24 ____________

Ch. 25 & 26 ____________

The Catcher in the Rye Character Map
 
 


 


 

Setting of The Catcher in the Rye


 

New York City

Although The Catcher in the Rye begins in the fictional town of Agerstown, Pennsylvania, at the equally
fictional Pencey Prep, most of the book takes place in 1940s post-war New York City, where Holden goes
"to rest" in a hotel before returning home, and ends up wandering around midtown for three days.

The affluent Manhattan he encounters reflects the post-war scene, with New York the unquestionable
center of finance and trade (many of the great European cities were in ruins). At night, the city's music clubs
and bars are packed with people: New Yorkers, visitors, college kids, and returned soldiers and sailors.

By day, Holden takes us to some of city's most famous landmarks. Grand Central Station (properly called
Grand Central Terminal, as train lines end there) is the largest train station in the world (by number of
platforms: 67). Although slated for "improvement" (i.e. destruction) in the 1960s, Grand Central was saved
and has recently been renovated into a hub for fine dining and expensive shopping (in addition to its railway
duties).

Grand Central Station - Credit: David Iliff

Broadway in the theater district, where Holden walks before meeting Sally for their date at the Biltmore's
Sunday matinee, is perhaps the most famous part of town, and the image most people have of New
York. For many years it hosted an incongruous mix of tourists seeing shows and somewhat less cultural
visitors purchasing the services of prostitutes. The theater district was recently "cleaned up," and it now
boasts a Disney Store and a pedestrian plaza in the center of the street where New Yorkers drink coffee and
read the paper.

Rockefeller Center

Rockefeller Center, where Holden and Sally go to skate (very badly), is a 14-building city-within-a-city,
envisioned and built by John D. Rockefeller Jr. as a business, cultural and artistic hub. Rockefeller Center is
especially popular at Christmas time, when the famous tree is lit and skaters grace (or not) the outdoor ice
rink.
Holden also spends a lot of time thinking about, and walking around in, Central Park. The park occupies
more than a square mile in the center of Manhattan, and is a major attraction for both New Yorkers--who
walk, run, rollerblade, ice-skate, picnic, play softball, eat, sail radio-controlled boats, meet, row on the

reservoir, go the to zoo and generally hang out--and visitors, who might add to the above list a ride in a
horse-drawn carriage.

Central Park in Summer

The park was designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and the architect Calvert Vaux. It
opened in 1859 and was completed in 1873.

Catcher in the Rye Vocabulary Words

Ch 1-14 Sentence from book Definition Use it in a new sentence
The whole team ostracized excluded; avoided
Word me the whole way back on the talking to
Ostracize train. (p.3)
"Do you have any particular Uneasiness (worry);
Qualm qualms about leaving misgivings (doubt about
Pencey?" (p.14) the future)

exhibitionist All I need’s an audience. I’m Attention seeking

an exhibitionist. (p. 29) behavior.

Pacifist I'm a pacifist, if you want to Opposed to
know the truth. (p. 46) war/violence

Modest Because he's so darn shy and having a humble
Incognito modest and all. opinion of yourself
(p. 57)
Without revealing your
“I'm traveling incognito," I identity; disguised.
said. (p.60)

Suave I said it suave as hell. (p.65) Smooth

Putrid The band was putrid. (p. 69) Stinking; rotting

Nonchalant I just got very cool and Casual; unconcerned
nonchalant. (p.90)

Ch 14-26 Sentence from book Definition Use it in a new sentence
Word I'm a goddam spendthrift at a big spender
heart. (P. 107)
Spendthrift

Bourgeois He kept saying they were too middle-class
new and bourgeois. (p. 108)

Sacrilegious Sally said I was a sacrilegious Disrespectful toward

atheist. (p. 137) what is sacred

Inane “Must we go on with this silly; mindless

inane conversation?" (p. 146)

Digression That digression business got Rambling/straying from

on my nerves. (p. 183) the point

Harrowing "Apparently before he phoned Disturbing; tormenting
me he'd just had a long, rather
harrowing letter from your
latest headmaster, to the effect
that you were making
absolutely no effort at all.” (p.
186)

Additional Literary Terms

Word Sentence from book Definition Use it in a new sentence
Characters that are
Round Examples from book: complex, possessing
conflicting traits.
Character • Holden Caulfield

Flat Character Examples from book: Characters with few
• Those Holden traits, all of them
Hyperbole describes as “phonies” predictable, none
creating genuine
Colloquialism “It took him about five hours conflicts.
to get ready.” (p. 36) Exaggeration for
Allusion effect; effect may be
“Strictly for the birds.” (p.2) humorous, satiric, or

  sentimental.

  Meaning: “Something that A word or phrase

  only appeals to the simple appropriate to

  minded.” conversation and other

  Examples from book informal situations.
• Shirley Beans Record
• Poem “If a body meet a A brief reference to a
person, event, or place,
body coming through the real or fictitious, or to
rye” a work of art.

Symbolism
 in
 Catcher
 in
 the
 Rye
 

 

Symbol
  Meaning
 

Red
 hunting
 hat
  Holden’s
 alienation/isolation
 and
 
Museums/
 mummies
  attachment
 to
 childhood;
 Protection
 

Movies
  Constancy/permanence;
 Holden’s
 desire
 
to
 stop
 time
 and
 remain
 a
 child
 
 

Phony
 adults/fakeness
 

Unmade
 phone
 calls
  Fear
 of
 rejection;
 Holden’s
 inability
 to
 
reach
 out
 to
 those
 he
 cares
 about
 

Allie’s
 baseball
 glove
  Holden
 missing
 dead
 brother,
 Allie
 
 

Erasing
 profane
 graffiti
  Holden
 doesn’t
 have
 ability
 to
 protect
 
Ducks
 in
 Central
 Park
  children—or
 himself—from
 profane
 

Suitcases
  adult
 world
 
Holden’s
 struggle
 with
 change
 and
 

growing
 up;
 an
 offer
 of
 hope
 
 
 

Materialism/Financial
 inequity
 
 
 

Carousel/
 gold
 ring
 
  Holden
 no
 longer
 feels
 a
 responsibility
 to
 
The
 catcher
 in
 the
 rye
  protect
 children’s
 innocence;
 Holden’s
 
acceptance
 of
 his
 upcoming
 adulthood
 

 

Holden’s
 desire
 to
 capture
 children
 
before
 they
 “fall”
 into
 the
 phony
 adult
 

world