The Catcher in the Rye AP Literature and Composition Dawn McNew

The Gospel According to Holden You’re all a bunch of phony morons. J.D. Salinger author of The Catcher in the Rye

What does Holden look like? YouTube - Captains Courageous 1937 Death scene of Spencer Tracy

Holden is a world- weary and tortured soul trapped in the body of a prep-school student. The original cover of The Catcher in the Rye as J.D. Salinger ordered it.

Connections to The Catcher in the Rye in popular culture. Mark David Chapman, the 25 year-old- assassin of John Lennon, was arrested clutching a copy of Catcher. He had written on the inside cover “This is my statement.” He later told the New York Times that “this extraordinary book holds many answers” and “all of my efforts will be devoted towards getting people to read it.” Other killers have since used the book as a touchstone, John W. Hinkley, Jr., who attempted to asasinate Ronald Reagan, was also said to have a special fascination with Catcher. CRIME

Connections to The Catcher in the Rye in popular culture. Screw-up Moron Lousy Liberal use of profanity SLANG What Dante’s The divine Comedy was to 14-the century Italian… What Huckleberry Finn was to the Reconstructionist-era South... Catcher in the Rye, written in the 1940s slangy vernacular of Holden, is a historical linquistic record of postwar colloquialism.

Connections to The Catcher in the Rye in popular culture. J.D. Salinger famously banned the book from ever being turned into a film. Why? Ask Oona O’Neil Chaplin. The 1985 film Field of Dreams features a character that is a thinly veiled reference to Salinger himself. Beyond direct (or thinly veiled) references, Salinger’s Caulfield has inspired a slew of “disaffected teen” or “coming of age” movies from 1955’s Rebel Without a Cause to 2009’s Adventureland. FILM

Connections to The Catcher in the Rye in popular culture. Catcher is perennially an object of satire. The Onion One of The Onion's most enduringly humorous pieces was a 2005 homage to Caulfield: it centered on a 38-year-old man who decides to conclude his lifelong quest to "find himself." From the piece: "The search initially showed great promise, with Speth's early discovery of his uncle's old Doors records and a copy of The Catcher in the Rye. Over the next two decades, however, the 'leads just petered out.' Although Speth searched in a wide variety of places— including the I Ching, a tantric-sex manual, and a course in chakrology—he uncovered nothing." SATIRE

Connections to The Catcher in the Rye in popular culture. Holden Worship. Holden Caulfield Blog Movies inspired by Catcher Cartoon synopsis( Fisher-Price style) Walking in Holden's footsteps in NYC

Connections to The Catcher in the Rye in popular culture. 1950s Youth Culture HISTORICAL CONTEXT