The Catcher in the Rye By J. D, Salinger; The Mysteries That Lye Beneath

The Catcher in the Rye, by J. D. Salinger, is my fiction novel of choice for this week’s topic to ponder and discuss. Along with the other blog topics, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, and Girl Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen, this book is also an autobiographical work. The setting of this work is located in New York between the late 1940’s and the early 1950’s. The point of view is captured in first person relaying a unique journalistic style to the reader, which I personally am mesmerized by. Yet another interestingly fun fact is that the book is narrated through the length of only about one long and eventful weekend. I learned in class last week that this work is known to be in the genre of a bildungsroman; a German word meaning, the coming of age or a book following the protagonists’ journey into maturity and growth.
This Journey is led by the infamous Holden Caulfield; the protagonist and narrator. Holden’s entire attitude portrays a cynical, pessimistic and jaded young sixteen year old boy, who has just failed out of 4 swanky private schools. Holden has two brothers and a sister that he seems to be quite close to. Allie was his favorite sibling and Holden’s younger brother who died at the age of nine of leukemia. D. B is his oldest sibling that helps to keep Holden in line. Phoebe is Holden’s younger and adorable little sister who seems to prove, at least to me, that she is quite mature for her age.

There are a few mysterious fun facts revolving around issues of importance outside of the realm of the book. This issue involves the crisis of the John Lennon murder. To clue any and all viewers in, Mark David Chapman, the man pictured to the bottom right is the man who assassinated John Lennon. The interesting part though is the uncanny fact that Mark David Chapman just so happened to be oddly infatuated with this particular novel, and more astonishingly believed truly that the book was written for him and he was the character, Holden Caulfield. Note as well that after an entire night of reading and re-reading Catcher in the Rye the night previous to his ultimate plan of destruction, Mark left in the morning to execute his disastrous plan and ended up forgetting the book back in the hotel, so he stopped in this little shop and bought another copy of The Catcher in the Rye and read it once more after the deed was done and Lennon was dead. Keep in mind that Mark Chapman was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, so knowing this bit of information it is clear what Chapman’s motives were and where his mind was at before, during, and after killing John Lennon.