The Catcher in the Rye.pdf

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Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn The Age of Innocence Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland All Quiet on the Western Front As You Like It The Ballad of the Sad Café Beowulf Black Boy The Bluest Eye The Canterbury Tales Cat on a Hot Tin Roof The Catcher in the Rye Catch-22 The Chronicles of Narnia The Color Purple Crime and Punishment The Crucible Darkness at Noon Death of a Salesman The Death of Artemio Cruz Don Quixote Emerson’s Essays Emma Fahrenheit 451 A Farewell to Arms Frankenstein

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The Grapes of Wrath Great Expectations The Great Gatsby Gulliver’s Travels The Handmaid’s Tale Heart of Darkness I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings The Iliad Jane Eyre The Joy Luck Club The Jungle Lord of the Flies The Lord of the Rings Love in the Time of Cholera The Man Without Qualities The Metamorphosis Miss Lonelyhearts Moby-Dick My Ántonia Native Son Night 1984 The Odyssey Oedipus Rex The Old Man and the Sea On the Road One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest One Hundred Years of Solitude Persuasion

Portnoy’s Complaint A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Pride and Prejudice Ragtime The Red Badge of Courage The Rime of the Ancient Mariner The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám The Scarlet Letter Silas Marner Song of Solomon The Sound and the Fury The Stranger A Streetcar Named Desire Sula The Tale of Genji A Tale of Two Cities The Tempest Their Eyes Were Watching God Things Fall Apart To Kill a Mockingbird Ulysses Waiting for Godot The Waste Land White Noise Wuthering Heights Young Goodman Brown

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Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations J. D. Salinger’s

The Catcher in the Rye New Edition

Edited and with an introduction by

Harold Bloom

Sterling Professor of the Humanities Yale University

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Editorial Consultant, John Unrue Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations:

J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye—New Edition Copyright ©2009 by Infobase Publishing Introduction ©2009 by Harold Bloom All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any informa­tion storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For more information contact: Bloom’s Literary Criticism An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data J.D. Salinger’s The catcher in the rye / edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom.—New ed. p. cm.—(Bloom’s modern critical interpretations) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-60413-183-3 (alk. paper) 1. Salinger, J. D. (Jerome David), 1919– Catcher in the Rye. 2. Caulfield, Holden (Fictitious character) 3. Runaway teenagers in literature. 4. Teenage boys in literature. I. Bloom, Harold. PS3537.A426C3292 2009 813’.54—dc22

2008045784

Bloom’s Literary Criticism books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. You can find Bloom’s Literary Criticism on the World Wide Web at http://www.chelseahouse.com. Cover design by Ben Peterson Printed in the United States of America Bang BCL 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is printed on acid-free paper. All links and Web addresses were checked and verified to be correct at the time of publication. Because of the dynamic nature of the Web, some addresses and links may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid.

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Contents Editor’s Note

vii

Introduction 1 Harold Bloom Rhetoric,