ABSTRACT
The Catcher in the Rye is one of the most famous novels written in the United States of America in the twentieth century. With sales of more than 60 million copies, it has made Holden Caulfield famous to generations of readers and made a reluctant star of Jerome David Salinger. This chapter begins with Salinger’s career, exploring his writing technique and principal concerns, and making connections between Catcher and his other works of fiction. The chapter goes on to place Catcher into its original context of post-war America, by considering the political and social character of the 1940s and 1950s. It also discusses the controversy that still surrounds Catcher in the USA, where it has consistently achieved the status of being simultaneously one of America’s best-loved and most-frequently banned novels. Finally, the chapter offers a detailed reading of the whole novel, discussing its structure, characters, language and themes.
