Academic Review 2024

2 ST EDWARD’S, OXFORD

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How, and to what extent, do Sunny’s interactions with Holden reveal his “loss of innocence” in J D Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye ? By Adriane Yeung No doubt considered a timeless classic, J D Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye follows 16-year-old Holden Caulfield. Both the narrator and protagonist, Holden tells his story from a mental ward in California with a jaded honesty as he recounts his week in New York City during Christmas break, after expulsion from his preparatory school, Pencey Prep. Throughout the week, Holden’s disenchantment with society escalates as he slumps further and further into a seemingly perpetual state of loneliness. He attempts to combat it by compulsively seeking out human interaction, for example old flame Sally Hayes; former schoolmate Carl Luce; sister, Phoebe Caulfield; and prostitute, Sunny, who he pays to have sex with on the first night of his stay at the Edmont Hotel, but ends up only speaking to her instead. As his narration progresses, his thoughts become increasingly frantic – bordering delusional – as he decides to run away to live in a little cabin in the woods. Ultimately, his mind is swayed by Phoebe and we see him deciding to stay and eventually seeking mental help as he gazes at Phoebe on a carousel in the iconic closing scene.

Introduction

its prominent themes of teenage angst, alienation, and loss of innocence, ‘paralleled the rapid rise of the teenager as a new social category’ (Golub, 2010). In 1951 the critics were praising the book with vigour – the Saturday Review calling the work ‘remarkable’ and ‘absorbing’ (Smith, 1951) and respected literary critic Clifton Fadiman penning a positive review in the Book-of-the Month Club News (Fadiman, 1951).

In the first two weeks after its publication in 1951, The Catcher in the Rye rocketed to the top of the New York Times bestseller list (Time, 2008). Adam Golub writing in 2010 said, ‘In the years [following] World War II, an autonomous youth culture emerged with tastes in music, fashion, film and language that differed starkly from those of the older generation.’ Catcher , a critique on the superficiality of society with