2. The Catcher in the
Rye: ch. 22-24The New York Times - 4/23/13
“Unraveling Boston Suspects‟ Online
Lives, Link by Link,” by Michiko Kakutani
Given the layers of irony, sarcasm and joking often employed on
Twitter, it can be difficult to parse the messages of a stranger. Yet
some of them can seem menacing or portentous, given what we
now suspect: “a decade in america already, I want out,” “Never
underestimate the rebel with a cause” or “No one is really violent
until they‟re with the homies.” But others suggest a more Holden
Caulfield-like adolescent alienation: “some people are just
misunderstood by the world thus the increase of suicide rates.”
Sometimes, Dzhokhar sounds downright sentimental (unless, of
course, he is being ironic): “There are enough worms for all the
birds stop killing each other for „em.”
3. The Catcher in the
Rye: ch. 22-24The New York Times - 4/23/13
“The Young Salinger, Mordant Yet Hopeful,”
by Dave Itzkoff
4. The Catcher in the
Rye: ch. 22-24
Totally
ubiquitous, some 62
years later
5. The Catcher in the
Rye: ch. 22“You don‟t like anything
that‟s happening.”—Phoebe
Caulfield
James Castle
Jesus Christ
Courageous
and innocent
martyrs
6. The Catcher in the
Rye: ch. 22
What Holden actually likes:
Allie
Phoebe
Innocence
and the
innocent
7. The Catcher in the
Rye: ch. 22
The innocent Holden
misinterprets, Robert Burns‟
poem, “Comin‟ Thro the Rye”
O, Jenny's a' weet, poor body,
Jenny's seldom dry:
She draigl't a' her petticoatie,
Comin thro' the rye!
Comin thro' the rye, poor body,
Comin thro' the rye,
She draigl't a' her petticoatie,
Comin thro' the rye!
Gin a body meet a body
Comin thro' the rye,
Gin a body kiss a body,
Need a body cry?
Gin a body meet a body
Comin thro' the glen,
Gin a body kiss a body,
Need the warl' ken?
Gin a body meet a body
Comin thro' the grain;
Gin a body kiss a body,
The thing's a body's ain.
8. Holden‟s Aspiration: to be
the “catcher in the rye”
“You know that song, „If a body catch a body
comin‟ through the rye‟? I‟d like—”
“It‟s „If a body meet a body coming through the
rye!‟ ” old Phoebe said. “It‟s a poem. By Robert
Burns.”
“I know it‟s a poem by Robert Burns.”
She was right, though. It is “If a body meet a
body coming through the rye.” I didn‟t know it
then, though.
“I thought it was „If a body catch a body,‟ ” I
said. “Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids
playing some game in this big field of rye and all.
Thousands of little kids, and nobody‟s around—
nobody big, I mean—except me. And I‟m
standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I
have to do, I have to watch everybody if they start
to go over the cliff—I mean if they‟re running and
they don‟t look where they‟re going I have to
come out from somewhere and catch them.
That‟s all I‟d do all day. I‟d just be the catcher in
the rye and all. I know it‟s crazy, but that‟s the only
thing I‟d really like to be. I know it‟s crazy.”
9. Holden‟s Aspiration: to be
the “catcher in the rye”
Innocence
Adulthood:
Meanness and
Phoniness
Holden
10. The Catcher in the
Rye: ch. 23
Mr. Antolini
“He was a pretty young
guy, not much older than
my brother D.B. …”
“He was the one that finally picked up that boy
that jumped out the window I told you
about, James Castle.
“Then I took my hunting hat out of my coat
pocket and gave it to her. She likes those kind of
crazy hats… I‟ll bet she slept with it on.
11. The Catcher in the
Rye: ch. 24
Holden flunks Oral
Expression
Digression!
“But what I mean is, lots of time you
don‟t know what interests you most till
you start talking about something that
doesn’t interest you most.”
“I mean he‟d [Mr. Vinson] keep telling you to
unify and simplify… you can‟t hardly ever
simplify and unify something just because
somebody wants you to.”
12. The Catcher in the
Rye: ch. 24
“I have a feeling that you‟re riding
for some kind of a terrible, terrible
fall.”
“The whole arrangement‟s designed for men who, at some
time or other in their lives, were looking for something their
own environment couldn‟t supply them with… So they gave up
looking.”
What it was, it was Mr. Antolini‟s hand. What he was doing
was, he was sitting on the floor right next to the couch, in the
dark and all, and he was sort of petting me or patting me on
the goddam head.
That kind of stuff‟s happened to me about twenty times since I
was a kid.
