The Post-War Era and The Catcher in the Rye

1
The Post-War Era and The Catcher in the Rye

• English 10
• REDDING

2
Historical Context WWII

• The Catcher in the Rye was published in 1951.
• August, 1945 first atomic bombs used in warfare
  dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• Reasons for the bombings controversial
• In Hiroshima, approx. 70,000 people immediately
  killed as result of initial blast, heat, and
  radiation effects. After five years, the death
  total was approx. 200,000 due to cancer and
  other long-term effects.
• In Nagasaki, approx. 40,000 people were
  immediately killed. After five years, the death
  total was approx. 140,000.

3
The Post-War Era

• After end of WWII (1945), growing confidence in
  U.S. military and economic might
• End of war rationing meant access to consumer
  items
• Opportunities for employment for many (although
  women employed in wartime factories often exited
  the workforce)
• Burgeoning consumer culture of luxury for the
  masses

4
The Cold War Era

• 1946 Churchill coins the term Iron Curtain
• 1950 North Korean Communist troops invade South
  Korea U.S. and U.N. intervene
• 1951 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are convicted of
  selling U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviet Union.
  They are executed in 1953
• 1950-1954 The Joseph McCarthy Erainvestigations
  into alleged Communists in the government

5
Culture of the Post War/Cold War Era

• Symbols and signs of optimism, wealth, and
  vulgarity
• the car (In the 50s, 20 of GNP of U.S. went
  to purchasing vehicles)
• gaudy colors chrome
• the supermarket (with an astounding selection
  of goods)
• home appliances (the mod cons)
• the suburbs
• Levittown considered first planned,
  mass- produced community in the suburbs built
  1947-1951 on Long Island

6
The Mainstream vs. The Artists

• While the mainstream was embracing the
  consumerism and prototypical suburban family,
  many artists felt isolated and disconnected from
  the mainstream.
• These artists were often seeking
• apolitical subject matter that was avant-guard
  (experimental or innovative)
• a divergence from past art forms
• reactions and meaning-making from the
  viewers/readers/listeners
• Can you think of ways your generation tries to
  stray from the mainstream?

7
About Salinger

• Born 1919 in New York City to parents Sol and
  Miriam father was Jewish, mother, Catholic
• Attended public and private schools in
  Manhattan then Valley Forge Military Academy in
  Pennsylvania (may be basis for Pencey Prep, a
  boarding school the main character attends)
• Attended college, but didnt graduate

8
About Salinger

• Distinguished himself as writer in second
  semester of night class at Colombia, but many of
  his submitted stories were rejected by The New
  Yorker.
• Served in WWII participated in D-Day Landings in
  1944 was one of first soldiers to enter a
  liberated concentration camp
• Was treated for shell shock, aka combat stress
  reaction, after the war
• Met and began correspondence with Earnest
  Hemingway while overseas E.H. called Salinger a
  helluva talent

9
About Salinger

• The Catcher in the Rye, featuring Holden
  Caulfield, was published on in July 1951
• Salinger on Catcher "My boyhood was very much
  the same as that of the boy in the book. It
  was a great relief telling people about it.
• Novel was immediate popular success but also
  faced criticism for profanity, irreverance, and
  other inappropriate content
• Attention after publication of Catcher led
  Salinger to move to a small town in New
  Hampshire he never published anything after 1965
  and remained a hermit until his death in 2010.

10
About Salingers techniques and themes

• Techniques/aspects of style
• internal monologue
• stream of consciousness
• sparse but revealing dialogue
• young characters as focus
• colloquialisms intermingled with elevated
  diction
• Themes in Catcher and other works
• youthful innocence and the loss thereof
• alienation and isolation of the individual
• failure to live up to parental and societys
  expectations
• Be on the lookout for these elements!

11
Highlights of the Modern Era

• Two devastating almost-global wars World War I
  (1914-1918) and World War II (1941-1945)
• Huge changes in industry and technology as
  compared to the 19th century
• The rise in power and influence of international
  corporations
• Interconnectedness across the globe cultural
  exchanges, transportation, communication, mass
  (or popular) culture from the West (with "West"
  being considered Europe and North America)

12
Modernism

• Uses images ("word pictures") and symbols as
  typical and frequent literary techniques
• Uses colloquial language rather than formal
  language
• Often, the intention of writers in the Modern
  period is to change the way readers see the world
  and to change our understanding of what language
  is and does  

13
Modernism continued

• Uses language in a very self-conscious way,
  seeing language as a technique for crafting the
  piece of literature just as an artist crafts a
  piece of art like a sculpture or a painting.
• Sees language as a special medium that influences
  what that piece of literature can do or can be
• Form, style, and technique thus become as
  important--if not more so--than content or
  substance.

14
Existentialism

• Philosophical ideology that became prevalent
  after WWII
• Individuals give meaning to life meaning cannot
  be found through society or religion
• In literature, the existential writer reacted to
  traditional storylines and character development
  the author of these traditional works would
  manipulate the plot and character choices so that
  everything resolved (life made sense)
• With existential plots, life doesnt make real
  sense---only the sense you choose to make of
  it. These stories deal with the absurd series
  of events that each person tries to make sense
  of.
• Three core existential thematic elements death,
  alienation, authenticity
• Many critics argue that Catcher in the Rye fits
  the definition of existential through these
  elements. As we read, you decide!