When he regains his senses he decides to visit his sister Phoebe, so he sneaks into his parents’ house. He goes to the lake in Central Park and stays there for a while wondering where the ducks are. Holden stays and has a lot to drink, getting very drunk. They have a drink together in a bar downtown, where they get into a fight and Carl leaves. After this, he becomes even more disillusioned and lonely. Sally says ‘no’ and calls him a ‘pain in the ass’ and leaves him. They could start an easy life, get a job, and marry each other. When they are alone, Holden suggests that they escape the city-life, so the two of them can live in the woods. During the date, Sally meets an old friend with whom she has an intellectual conversation. The next morning, Holden gives his ex- girlfriend Sally a call and invites her out to the theatre. Afterwards her pimp comes to his room, gives him a couple of punches, and steals some of his money. However that evening he doesn’t feel sexy enough for some reason so he simply gives her the money and sends her away. He is still a virgin and would like to change that. He accepts and a few minutes later the girl, Sunny, arrives. At the hotel an elevator-boy called Maurice offers him the services of a prostitute in his room. During this search he spends a great deal of money and loses his illusions. He is desperately searching for someone he can really talk to. He spends his time in New York drinking and walking through the city and has no idea of what to do. He takes the train to New York, where his parents live, but decides not to go to his parents straight away but to stay in a hotel until the beginning of the Christmas holiday. Holden decides not to wait until the end of the trimester but to leave Pencey straight away. Stradlater is dating a girl with whom Holden was in love the previous summer. When Holden goes back to his room, he starts a fight with his roommate Stradlater. It is just before Christmas, and Holden decides to say goodbye to his favourite teacher Mister Spencer, who tries to justify the note he gave to Holden, by summing up Holden’s faults. Before the end of the first trimester, Holden is suspended from the school for the third time, because of his indifferent attitude and bad grades. Holden studies at Pencey, a boarding school in Pennsylvania. The Catcher in the Rye is about a sixteen year old boy named Holden Caulfield. The story also describes what the character does in New York, and is also therefore a picaresque (adventure) story. It contains social elements, in which it talks about the critical attitude of adults towards the younger generation.
The modern social novel is all about a character, in this case Holden. The book belongs to the genre of the modern social novel.
The Twentieth century – second part (1945 to the present). Even today, the book still is popular, although some still find it controversial. Young people felt that Salinger put his finger on what was important in the struggle between the individual and established society. The Catcher in the Rye made him extremely popular, particularly among high school and college students. His books belong to the ‘minority novel’ written by Jewish and Negro writers in America. He is one of the most famous Jewish-American novelists after World War Two. He also wrote some short stories, the most famous one is Franny and Zooey. The Catcher in the Rye is his only novel.
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