The Catcher in the Rye - Question 8

How accurately does this novel reflect events in history? What responsibilities does the author believe exist between various groups of people in society? What people, events and ideas probably influenced this author?

This question is really tough to answer because the novel isn't centered around an event in history. It really isn't even centered around a time period. No major aspects of the story are really specific to a certain time period in history. The story's message is universal, so this question is difficult to come up with a good answer. Honestly, the only answer is that the author did not do a good job in accurately reflecting events in history, because he didn't focus on any specific aspect of history. As far as responsibilities between groups of people, that is also pretty difficult to answer. The entire story is told through Holden's eyes, through Holden's perspective. It is so hard to get a true grasp on the personalities of people because the reader only knows what Holden tells them, and that's really controversial. The reader can't get a true look at the other characters in the story to assess their character. Holden constantly says that the characters are all "phony," so are we to assume that every character in the story really isn't a good character? Probably not, which is why this question is difficult to accurately answer. Influences are pretty much the only obvious question to be answered from the entire discussion question. Authors have to draw their material from somewhere, and I have concluded that Salinger was a lot like Holden when he was a child. Like I've said so many times, the message in this story is timeless, so events that occurred when he was a child could just as easily be translated into his story that occurs later in time. It is also possible that Salinger had a friend or child that was like Holden, but the main point is that he witness Holden in someone that was close to him and inspired him to write this story.

Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown, 2001. Print.