News article #1

Famous authors mysterious death

World renownedd author found dead
By Marco Mäkiaho
American author Jerome David Salinger, 89, had been found dead by local authorities, yesterday afternoon in Cornish, New Hampshire.

Mr. Salinger was found lifeless outside his own residence after dialing for police assistance.

The police were unable to identify a leading cause of death and a deeper forensic investigation is now underway. It is believed Mr. Salinger died from two assailants attempting to breach Salinger’s property and steal his private documents.

Police in Cornish confirmed the author’s death and said his family and loved ones had been notified.

Mr. Salinger was well known for his novel The Catcher in the Rye and even his reclusive nature. The Catcher in the Rye was a very heavily criticized novel, both from its own content, but also from its sturdy influence on individuals, such as John Lennon’s assassin and even attempt on Ronald Reagan’s assassination.


After living in New York Mr. Salinger withdrew from public view moving to Cornish for its peace and serenity. He had been living there ever since the move from New York.

Holden and girls

Holden, the main character in the book, has got a quite uncommon view on love and relationship. He thinks that love and sex should always go together, a rather unusual opinion from a teenage boy.
One time he gets into a fight with his roommate Stradlater because of this fact. Stradlater is the type of guy who dates a girl just to have sex with her. When Holden finds out he is going out with his old childhood friend Jane, he cant hold his emotions inside and punshes Stradlater.
Another example of Holdens view on love is when he gets a prostitute up to his room. Instead of doing what most boys would do, sleep with the prostitute, he wants to talk to her and build up a healthy relationship. This doesnt interest Sunny, the prostitute, and she leaves him alone in his hotelroom.
This clearly showes that Holdens view on love and relationships is more mature and grown-up than most other guys in his age.

Relationships with Göörls

One theme in the book, as in the most books that are published, is love. Love and sex are big things for Holden. These two things are supposed to be connected to eachother according to him. In one case he gets a prostitute up to his hotelroom but he doesn't want to sleep with her. Instead he feel like talking to her. To get a little more involved before having sex. He wants emotions.
Stradlater, his roomie, always sleeps with different girls and when he has a meeting with Holden's old flame Holden gets upset because of the fact that Stradlater just wants to f#ck her.

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Are we supposed to put our articles here?

Escaping Responsibility and Youth

One of the main themes in this novel is Escaping Responsibility.
Holden is in his late teens and becoming an adult but is in denial. He doesn’t want to be a part of all the “phoniness” that he sees in the adult-world. Instead of growing up, Holden revolts by “not giving a crap”, as Holden would say, about school among other things. In complete denial he refuses to take responsibility for his own life and to repair his mistakes.

When he fails in school he escapes to New York and hides from his parents. He avoids breaking the news to his parents whatever the cost. He spends a lot of money on things such as hotel rooms, bars and cabs just to get away with his former failures. Even though he wants to meet his little sister he can not go home as his parents might be there as well.

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Another main theme is Youth,
which is a follow-up theme of escaping responsibility.
A lot of young people look forward to grow up and becoming independent, but not Holden; he doesn’t see the school as important as many other students. Graduating, finding jobs and move away from home is the first steps in many eyes to an own life, to an independent life. Holden is avoiding his upcoming adult life; he wants to stay in his youth it seems.

When Holden is kicked out of school he doesn’t seem to care at all, he just goes away and we think that is immature. Holden is about to grow up and he disregard the consequences.

Holden's relationships with girls

Holden has complex relationsips with girls and this becomes very clear in his relationships with Sally and Jane. He has dated girls in the past but has never had a real longterm relationship, because he thinks that most girls are phoney and then he can't really feel attraction.

Jane is younger than Holden and he feels that in some way he has to protect her. He sees her as very pure and inocent. We think he's in love with Jane due to the way he talks about her in the novel, especially in the part when he finds out that Stradlater is going on a date with her. His affection for Jane is continuing troughout the novel but he never manage to call her as he want to, so she is stuck in his past.
Sally on the other hand is someone who can satisfy his shallow needs, but she never reach to his heart the way Jane does. We think that the reason that he's not respecting her is because she's too available. She can't give him anything on an intelectual plan. She's not pure like the image of Jane that he has in his mind.

We think that the reason that Holden can't have a real relationship is that he has ho high ideals and as soon as he finds out something that he does not like about a girl he backs out. This shows that he is unpatient but also very unsecure.

By Sara, Harriet and Emma

What's it about?

The main theme throughout The Catcher in the Rye is a teenager's revolution. A revolution against school, adults, adulthood and the so called phonies. The main character, the teenager Holden Caulfield, doesn't seem to be able to adapt to the school system. He thinks that school is only to prepare the students for the fake grown up life of materialism, which in his words is adulthood. He thinks adults are unreliable and without freedom. He feels that kids, on the other hand, are honest and that they've got a free life in front of them, until they enter adulthood. They're special and unique during their childhood, and they're not just only a part of the society.

The meaning of the novel's title is that Holden feels that he's the catcher in the rye for the persons on the border of becoming adults. In his opinion, he tries to save them from the phonieness in life.

Smaller themes in the book are love and relationships. Holden feels insecure about relationships with girls, because he has never experienced an intimate one. He hasn't got any strong friendship with any boy either, and he seems to be quite lonely.
His relationship with his family is different from member to member. He thinks it's easiest to relate to his younger brother Allie (who died at a young age) and his little sister Phoebe. His older brother, D.B., is a person he looks up to. He idolizes him, more or less. His parents are not mentioned much by Holden, it seems like they haven't got a special and important relationship.

Shortly, we can say that the themes in this book are revolution, love and relationships (in case you don't want to read all of the text).

By: Jocke, Moa and Kajsa.

The Catcher in the Rye

The title of the novel The Catcher in the Rye is meaningful as to the themes in the novel. The phrase comes from the main character's misinterpretation of an old poem called Comin Thro' The Rye. He believed the poem to be about a saviour who saved children from falling off a cliff. We believe that the rye in which they play symbolizes innocence and mind of a child while the cliff is a metaphor for adulthood, materialism, shallowness and to use Holden's own word; phoniness.

One example of this is when he meets up with three girls at a club. He tries to start a conversation with them, it fails since their minds are focused on looking for celebrities. This of course upsets him. In contrast, we have the young child singing while walking down the street. The child's innocence touches and pleases him.

The cliff represents things that to some degree disgust and repel Holden. Even though he will soon be a part of the adult world, he becomes so unwillingly. He doesn't want to give up all of his innocence. Nevertheless, he has already adopted several aspects of being a grown-up, such as heavy smoking and drinking.

//Marco, Pontus & Jonathan

Relationships which don't include love

The main theme of the novel is the dislike of a teenager called Holden Caulfield against adults and their phony world. By reading this novel we can come to the conclusion that Holden Caulfield despises the materialism of the adult life. Childrens are not aware of all this materiakism and therefore he likes them better than adults. He believes that they are innocent and adults are not. He doesn't however dislike every single grown up. In one occasion he meets a couple of nuns which he doesn't despise because of their non-materialistic way of living.

Main theme of the "The Catcher in the Rye"

The main theme in "The Catcher in the Rye" is the rebellion against adulthood. This effects the book and the story in many varios ways.
One example which shows Holdens opposition againt the adult world is his relations with other people. Throughout the book his relations with younger are considerably better than the ones with people in the same age as him. The person he bonds most to and has the warmest feelings towards is his younger sister Pheobe. She is still young and inasiant and Holden does everything he can to protect her.
Holden has been kicked out of a long row of schools and his inability to adapt is very distinct. He often finds a lot of people arond him phony because of their appearance and the the way they act. One time he even gets into a fist-fight with his former roommate, Ward Stradlater, because of this.
His relations with people in the same age as him and older are througout the book strained with a few exceptions such as his former teacher Mr. Antolini and a few nuns at the train station. This is something significant for the plot of the book and an important part of the personality of the main character.

Children VS Adults

Holden Caulfield is between childhood and becoming an adult. In this novel we can read, among other things, about his view of kids and adults.

His view of children is that they are innocent and he can relate with them. Sometimes it seems like he's trying to save them from the changes he's going through himself and keeping them from falling off the "cliff" down to adulthood. He sees himself as their "catcher in the rye."


Adults come of as mean, materialistic and "phony" and compared to the picture of kids that Holden is giving to us that's almost the opposite. They trick him, lets him down or makes him upset.
One example is when Holden is fooled by the "pimp" in the elevator.

'Why should I give her another five bucks? (...) You're trying to chisel me.' - Holden.

Then Holden gets beaten by the "elevator pimp", Maurice.

He is finding something wrong in every adult he likes, so that he don't have to like them anymore.

The people he likes the most are the ones who are children or people who are frozen young in his memory, for example his dead brother, Allie.