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This rich source of social, cultural, and historical
documents and commentary will illuminate the reading of The Catcher
in the Rye, a novel that has become an important rite of passage
for many young adults. In addition to a literary analysis,
this casebook acquaints students with the larger world in which
Holden Caulfield moves: Hollywood films, Broadway plays, and
jazz music. It also presents a detailed account of the censorship
challenges to the novel and provides primary documents on
child development and psychology that illuminate Holden's contradictory
behavior. Interviews with prep school students of the 1950s
and materials on the prep school world of that time place the novel
in its cultural and social context. Each section of this sourcebook
contains study questions, topics for research papers and class discussions,
and lists of further reading for examining the issues raised by
the novel.
In addition, this online sourcebook provides
the user access to:
- Linked Chronology of Landmark Supreme Court Censorship Cases
- Linked Chronology of Cultural and Social Events: 1945-1951
- Post-World War II American Literature and Culture Database
- Salinger Interview: "J.D. Salinger Speaks About His Silence"
- E-texts to early reviews of The Catcher in the Rye
- Online Censorship Exhibit and e-texts of historical documents
that relate to freedom of speech
- Catcher in the Rye Photo Tour; Central Park Virtual
Tour, and links to Greenwich Village and The Museum of Natural
History
- The History of New York City Jazz: biographies, audio, photos
- E-texts of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Fanny
Hill, Ulysses, The Scarlet Letter, Moby
Dick, Bartleby the Scrivener, Lady Chatterly's
Lover, Oedipus Rex, Robert Burns' poem, Coming
Through the Rye
- Reviews of Olivier's Hamlet, and 1930s and 1940s gangster
movies
- Video interview with Salinger's daughter, Margaret, on her
father and her book, Dream Catcher
- Glossary of cultural references and historical idioms from
Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye
- Web-based study questions
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