Cliffs Notes on Salinger's the Catcher in the Rye

by J. D. Salinger Robert B. Kaplan (Author), J.D. Salinger

Since his debut in 1951 as The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield has been synonymous with "cynical adolescent." Holden narrates the story of a couple of days in his sixteen-year-old life, just after he's been expelled from prep school, in a slang that sounds edgy even today and keeps this novel on banned book lists. It begins,

"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them."

His constant wry observations about what he encounters, from teachers to phonies (the two of course are not mutually exclusive) capture the essence of the eternal teenage experience of alienation.

214 pages, Paperback

First published August 10, 1988

Reviews

[Snorri Stefánsson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Does what it says on the tin

[Victoria Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really didn't think I'd learn anything new about J.D. Salinger's novel "The Catcher in the Rye" when I started reading Robert B. Kaplan's "Cliff's Notes" for the book, but I was wrong, because I learned quite a bit. Through his "Biographical Note" section I felt he really helped me get to know who Salinger was, where he came from and how fame affected him. Then in the "Introduction to the Novel" section his revelations about the book's "controversial" reputation because of the profanity and Holden Caulfield's role as a "hero," caused me to approach the story with a different mind set, than when I'd read it before without the "Cliffs Notes."
By studying each chapter's "Summary" and "Commentary" sections after reading the coordinating chapters in the book also made me focus on parts of the writing I wouldn't have been aware of otherwise.One of the most memorable was in the "Commentary" to "Chapter 1" where Holden's speech is indicative of a "modern teenager."
Contemplative, but intriguing, I found the novel was enriched by the "Cliffs Notes" and gave me added appreciation for a book I already love.

[Tracy Hansen · Rating 3 out of 5]

so I totally missed the fact that Holden was in psychiatric care, and he is telling this story to a dr. I didn't think Holden was crazy or going crazy,. I took it as he was talking to me the reader and that he was a 16 year old boy trying to figure out the world. I am so glad I read the cliffnotes. I can't wait to read Salinger's other works.