Catcher in the Rye

English: What’s Wrong With Holden?

Internet Resource Links

Web Link:http://www.shimonoseki-cu.ac.jp/~uekura/reviews.html
Web Link:http://www.geocities.com/exploring_citr/

Stage 1: Identify Desired Results

Standards Addressed: MA Literature Strand Learning Standards 11-13

Understandings:

1. Novelists often provide insights about human experience and inner life through
fictional means
2. Holden Caulfield represents common adolescent experience but masks deep-
seated personal problems about growing up and relationships with others
3. Holden is a modern anti-hero, in the Huck Finn tradition
4. Adolescents often have great difficulty in getting close to other people and seeing
their problems for what they are

Essential Questions:

• How ‘typical’ is Holden as an adolescent?

• What is the relationship between “fiction” and “truth?”
• Is Holden a ‘hero’? What do we learn about our culture through our ‘heroes’?

Knowledge and Skills:

Know –
• storyline of the text;
• highlights of Kubler-Ross theory from On Death and Dying;
• the allusions to Burns’s poem, “Comin Thro’ the Rye.”

Be able to –
• Develop a well-reasoned hypothesis through a close reading of a text.
• Work collaboratively to produce and defend a product.
• Demonstrate ability to better recognize their own unexamined ideas
• Better use key reading strategies , writing process, Socratic seminar

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Stage 2: Determine Acceptable Evidence

Performance Task: What's Wrong with Holden?

Students serve on an advisory committee to the hospital where Holden Caulfield
is telling his story. [This vital detail will often be overlooked or forgotten by students!!]
After a close reading and discussion of Holden’s account of the events of the preceding
December, the committee will produce: 1) a report for the hospital; and 2) a letter to
Holden’s parents. Finally, they will appear before a panel to explain and justify their
explanation of Caulfield’s behavior and recommendations on how he might be helped.
Student Directions:
You are a psychiatric social worker who has been hired to give an explanation of a
young man’s behavior at a particular time. The records that you have about this young
man are set out in his biography/memoir. His name is Holden Caulfield. You are asked
to look at his explanation of his behavior before December and write your analysis to
both the hospital which is treating him, and to his parents. The analysis need to both
explain the behavior and set out how he can best be helped. Your reports must be clear,
insightful and justified.

Rubric
Persuasive Reasoning
Analysis of text
Conventions

Writing Prompt:

1) Phonies (Essay)
“He was the kind of phony that haveto give themselves room when they answer
someone’s question...” Holden comments all the time that people are phonies. What
does he mean? Why does this matter to him? Which people in the book threaten his
categorizing of people and why? In a essay, with support from and analysis of the text,
explain Holden’s concern for authenticity and why his characterizations (and the people
who donít quite fit in his categories) give us insight into Holden.

2) A Letter about Holden

Each student will write a one-page letter about/description of Holden,
from the point of view of another character in the novel.

OTHER EVIDENCE

1) Journal on Catcher in the Rye

Ask the students to respond in the journal at the end of each reading assignment
and before the next class to two questions:
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a) what is the most important thing you learn about Holden in this section of the novel?
and
b) what is the most important unanswered question about Holden at this point in the
novel?

Student responses to these questions will begin and end daily class discussions. In
addition, the students are asked to address in writing a third question with each
assignment.

The final journal entry is a reflection on the journal and the unit. Guide questions are: 1)
What changed for you in the way you saw Holden as this book went along? 2) If, as some
people claim, "misunderstanding is inevitable” what were your misunderstandings at
any point during this unit? 3) If you were to teach this novel to next year's students,
what would you do to ensure they understand the novel as opposed to just know it?"

2) Quizzes on the reading

Stage 3: Learning Experiences

Day One: Prologue/ Introduction. It is best to talk about The Catcher in the Rye in class
before the first homework reading assignment.

Read aloud at least the first two paragraphs. What do the students notice? Who is
speaking? What are the circumstances? What about language? The key is to be sure all
the students know from the start that Holden is telling his story from a "rest home" or
psychiatric hospital in California and to compare notes as a class on "what sort of guy is
this?" Right from the start, set the tone of a puzzle to be solved -- a character and a
situation which will be revealed to us gradually.

The other important job in this first class is launching the journal. (Unless it is already a
standard part of the course, in which case, it just needs to be customized for this novel.)
Ask the students to respond in the journal at the end of each reading assignment and
before the next class to two questions: a) what is the most important thing you learn
about Holden in this section of the novel? and b) what is the most important
unanswered question about Holden at this point in the novel? Student responses to
these questions will begin and end daily class discussions.

In addition, the students are asked to address in writing a third question with each
assignment (see below).

The novel is divided her into six reading assignments. The teacher may adjust, of course,
to fit local circumstances. The assignments are as follows, along with suggested third
journal questions:
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• Reading assignment #1: Chapters 1-4 (pp. 1-35): What observations do you have
about Holden’s use of language?
• Reading assignment #2: Chapters 5-9 (pp. 35-66):What observations do you have
about Holden’s fight with Stradlater?
• Reading assignment #3: Chapters 10-14 (pp. 66-104):On p. 87, Holden says, “The
Navy guy and I we were glad to’ve met each other. Which always kills me. I’m always
saying Glad to’ve met you to somebody I’m not at all glad I met. If you want to stay
alive, you have to say that stuff, though.” Based on your own life and experiences, do
you think this last observation is true? Be specific….

Day Two: Holden is at his funniest in these early chapters describing Pencey Prep, but
even here students will notice how he uses language and humor to distance and protect
himself.

In discussing student answers to the three journal questions, the following may come
up; if not, it is a good idea to remind students to watch for, and write down as they go
along in their reading:

1. Any details about Holden’s family;

2. What things Holden says “depress him.”

It is also useful to introduce students to the concept of the “unreliable narrator,” if they
are not yet familiar with it. What are we supposed to make of a narrator who tells us he
lies? Discuss and/or do small group work on: Where do his words and his actions seem
to be at odds?

One of the questions about Holden will almost assuredly be “What’s wrong with him?”
This may be the best time to introduce the Performance Task coming up at the end of
their reading. The teacher does not have to put the students in groups yet, but they
should know by the end of this first full discussion of the book the three dimensions of
the task ahead: report to the hospital; letter to Holden’s parents; oral defense of both to
the hospital panel.

Day Three: Give Quiz #1. Class discussion in response to quiz questions and journal
writing. Make list of characters on board in preparation for later writing exercise
(written from perspective of one of them).
• Ask students about their experiences with the journals: Is it working? What
problems are they having, if any?
• The use of the word “phony” will have come up in both days two and three. Use this
as introduction to the additional journal question accompanying the next reading
assignment, which asks them to apply Holden’s experience and reactions to their
own lives. Tell them that tomorrow they will get some time to meet in their
“committees” of four.

Day Four: Discuss reading assignment #3, using journal responses. Present the full
assignment for the performance task, “What’s Wrong with Holden?” Put students in
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their teams of four and let them do some preliminary talking and planning on the
“diagnostic” part of their assignment -- the report to the hospital. Remind them of
previous work on collaboration, using rubric(s) if necessary. Urge them to be specific in
their small groups about what they will be looking for in the second half of the book.

Day Five: Discuss assignment #4. Give time for groups of four to meet. Ask them to
consider what criteria and standards they will apply to the second half of their
assignment -- the letter to Holden’s parents. Ask each group, “What don’t you
understand yet?” and have each group report back on their answers.

Day Six: Discuss journal responses to assignment #5. Use text of Burns poem if time
allows; at least point out that it is available to them on their “reserve shelf” of readings.
Last part of class spent in the teams of four.

Day Seven: Socratic Seminar – after most of the book has been read. [See Socratic
Seminar Guide for further details]. Give prompt #2 as homework assignment: Each
student will write a one-page letter about/description of Holden, from the point of view
of another character in the novel. The four students working together as a team would
each write from the perspective of a different character, with one coming from a
member of Holden’s family, one coming from one of his teachers, and two coming his
friends/peers.

Day Eight: As whole class, read excerpts from homework assignments. Collect the
assignments. Rest of time in small groups outlining responses to the performance task
and assigning specific duties.

Days Nine to Eleven (or Twelve): Scheduling of the last days of the unit will depend
upon: the size of class; length of meeting time; flexibility in the daily schedule; ability of
teams to meet together outside of class time. The goal is that during this time, students
will accomplish the following: 1) for the performance task: written responses to the two
parts of the assignment, and an oral report to the panel, followed by a chance to revise
their products before turning them in; 2) an analysis of their own journal.

Guide questions are:

1) What changed for you in the way you saw Holden as this book went along?
2) If, as some people claim, "misunderstanding is inevitable “when you encounter new
material, what were your misunderstandings at any point during this unit?
3) Given your experience as reflected in your journal, if you were to teach this novel to
next year's students, what would you do to ensure they understand the novel as
opposed to just know it?"

Students will not necessarily hear all of the other groups report to the panel, though they
should hear at least one other. The journal will be turned in to the teacher along with the
analysis of it.

Note: The book title comes from a misreading of Burns’ poem. The teacher may or may
not want to review the text of the poem, which is included below. In contrast to the
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“catcher” image which seems to involve “saving” children, the poem is about seduction
and physical love:

Coming Through the Rye Gin a body kiss a body -

Coming through the rye, poor body,
Coming through the rye,
She draiglet a’ her petticoatie,
Coming through the rye.
Jenny’s a’ wat, poor body,
Jenny’s seldom dry;
She draiglet a’ her petticoatie,
Coming through the rye.
Gin a body meet a body -
Coming through the rye,
Need a body cry?
Gin a body meet a body
Coming through the glen,
Kin a body kiss a body
Need the world ken?
Jenny’s a’ wat, poor body,
Jenny’s seldom dry;
She draiglet a’ her petticoatie,
Coming through the rye.

1) The question of whether to set the performance task in the present or in 1950 is a legitimate
one. The former seems preferable, since it does not require a knowledgeof cultural history. At
the same time, particularly if students are taking an American History course, it will be useful to
pose questions about how Holden’s (and his parents’) world is different from ours. If Holden’s
attitudes or experiences seem dated to students, it is worth noting that the issues his story raises
--isolation and loneliness; loss of innocence; the hypocrisy of social behavior; family dynamics;
confusion over sex and death, etc. -- are not.

2) Discussing these issues requires considerable tact on the part of the teacher and students.
What about the student who is feeling as alienated as Holden is? Or who has lost a sibling? Or
who cannot communicate with his or her parents? What about aspects of your own school that
are too recognizable in Holden’s descriptions of his own? But of course this ability to approach
potentially “dangerous” subjects through literature is why Robert Coles believes the most
effective moral education takes place in the English classroom. Suffice it to say it is important to
pay attention to whether students are feeling “safe” enough to risk a higher level of questioning
and understanding; rubrics on collaboration and/or behavior in Socratic seminar will help, but the
teacher must intervene if the tone is not right.

3. The orchestration of the final days of the unit are difficult; it reminds us why most assessment
of student understanding still takes the form of tests given to all the students at the same time,
with students working by themselves. But it is worth the time and effort to work this out. The
key is to schedule time for the teams of four to present their conclusions, and particularly in the
case of the letter to Holden’s parents, their writing, to a panel. This can be done over a period of
days during regular classtime, or, better, through a modification of the daily schedule, well
planned in advance and coordinated with other teachers. Each team should have at least fifteen
minutes with the panel.

4. Putting together the panel of adults acting as the hospital review board should be a lot of fun.
Three people should be sufficient, with the teacher being one. The obvious candidates for the
other spots are other teachers and parents, and the panel need not be the same for all students. I
assume panelists will haveread the book carefully and meet together before the reviews of the
committees’ work. During the actual review, they will concentrate on how well the students
justify their conclusions and recommendations.
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5. It is always worth asking what is being assessed at different stages of the unit. As part of
performance task, students should get feedback on their ability to collaborate, using a rubric
designed earlier in the course. The teacher will be able to use the performance of the team as
part of the assessment of individual understanding , but the primary evidence of individual
understanding will come from the journal and the analysis of the journal.

6. The Catcher in the Rye is full of details and phrasings that may be significant, and any short
listof what “not to miss” will be incomplete. Nevertheless, here are a few notes on content: A)
Holden’s reaction to people leaving the graveyard when it rains (p.155-56) and leaving Allie
behind suggests that, despite his protests to the contrary, he has not accepted Allie’s death as real.
The inclusion of Kübler-Ross and her work on the stages of acceptance of death in the material
available to the “committees” at the hospital is to encourage students to see this pattern. Holden
is not allowed to show anger/rage; when he breaks the glass in the garage, his parents want to
have him analyzed. He is plagued with guilt, remembering the time he did not include Allie in
an outing. Allie’s baseball mitt becomes linked with the “catcher in the rye” metaphor. When
Phoebe asks him what he likes, he says, “I like Allie.” And Phoebe, on whose innocence Holden
dotes, is the same age Allie was when he died, etc. Holden has been unable to move through the
emotional stages of acceptance of death; like Huck Finn, he seems at times to be yearning for his
own. B) It is worth paying attention to Holden’s love/hate relationship with the movies, and an
important scene is on page 139-140, when the woman next to him weeps over the movie and
neglects her child. C) the sceneat the end (pp. 211-13) when Phoebe is grabbing for the gold
ring, bears close scrutiny. Students may link it with his willingness to reconsider what happened
at Mr. Antolini’s apartment and his ability to joke about the obscenity at the museum as evidence
that Holden is growing up.

7. In case the conversation gets into speculation about Salinger, the students may be interested in
this quote, reported by David Leitch, in Grunwald’s book:

“I’m aware that many of my friends will be saddened and shocked, or shocked-saddened, over some of
the chapters in The Catcher in the Rye. Some of my best friends are children. In fact, all my best friends
are children. It’s almost unbearable for me to realize that my book will be kept on the shelf out of their
reach.” -- J.D. Salinger

Belcher, William F., and James W. Lee, editors, J.D. Salinger and the Critics, Belmont,
California: Wadsworth, 1962
Grunwald, HenryA., ed. Salinger: A Critical and Personal Portrait. NY: Harper & Row, 1962.
Rosen, Gerald. Zen in the Art of J.D. Salinger. New York: Odyssey, 1963.

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