The Catcher in the Rye summary and breakdown

Everything changed for J. D. Salinger’s in June 1944. It's hard to explain and
to express the splash of D-day and the almost year of battle that trailed. The crazy
war, it's gruesome scenes that no man should carry with him, would become a part
of Salinger’s personality and become desperately apparent in everything that he did
including his writing. Salinger was only at Normandy because of the US entering the
war after the bombing of pearl harbor. Salinger had quite a few Catcher in the rye
short stories on his person during the war. Through his experiences from the
concentration camps and many other terrible places the story had found its place
onto paper in his writing. As one reads the Catcher in the Rye and the vanity fair
articles, one can make several similarities between Salinger’s personal struggles in
the war and events in the book and even the characters.

From 1939 to 1945 was the time in which World War II plagued the Earth.
World War II was fought between two groups of countries. On one side were the
Axis Powers, including Germany, Italy and Japan. On the other side were the Allies.
They included Britain, France, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India, the Soviet
Union, China and the United States of America. World War II was the bloodiest
war in history. It started with the storming of Normandy. Nearly 160,000 soldiers,
more than half of them from American decent, invaded Western Europe. They were
there to fight the Nazi. One of the soldiers in particular was a American writer from
New York. He stormed the beach just like his brothers in war. He was Mr. J.D
Salinger. This was a instrumental time in history in Salinger long life. He had the
threat of death that followed him all over Europe. Through his own efforts Salinger
wasn’t killed like so many others during the war. By the time the war reached the
jewish concentration camps they found more bodies dead than alive. As Salinger
would write the catcher in the rye during this time, he was given much inspiration
from the terrible sights around him.

In one of the Vanity Fair Articles entitled “A nightmare World “, Salinger’s

experience in the war helped form the characters and events that were in The
Catcher in the Rye. The experience of war gave his writing the amazing quality that
it didn't have before. The depth of that experience is very real even in his work
which the focus isn't on war in the slightest. Holden Caulfield, who is the main
character in The Catcher in the Rye, always found the phonies in his journey, which
is a trait that Salinger and Holden both seem to have.
 In the Catcher in the Rye, Holden a young man who to start of the story is
kicked out of yet another high school, resented adulthood, and believed that all
adults are phonies and boring. Holden felt suicidal in one or more scenes and
incredibly depressed throughout the entirety of the book. Holden was read as a
troubled youth saying things such as, “there wasn’t anything to do except smoke
and drink” (pg.86), and “ I almost wished I was dead ”(pg.48). Holden's character
in the narrative encourages the readers realization as to how Salinger felt at the
time of crafting the book. In the narrative, Holden paints a picture of what his
dream job would be when he murmurs the lyrics “if a body catch a body through
the rye”, which is to be a catcher in the rye and the protector of the innocent.

In the readings of The Catcher in the Rye and the vanity fair articles about
Mr. Salinger's life, readers are able to make connections as to how Salinger’s
experience in the war contributed to the characters and events in the book. The
struggles of Holden Caulfield are a cry for help of the author who created him. In
bits and pieces, they had been re-written, put aside, and re-written again, the nature
of the story changing as the author himself.