CRITICISM IN REFERENCE BOOKS
The
Reference Area is the place to begin your research. Use some of
the books listed below to get in touch with what literary people are
saying
about the novel.
Many of the following print materials are
also available in electronic format in the Literature
Resource Center or the Gale Literary Databases.
Students can access these databases from off campus by logging in with the
barcode number on the back of their student ID or library card.
- REF PN771 .G27, vol. 56 - Contemporary Literary
Criticism - This multi-volume set contains excerpts from
critical essays in books and journals. Use these volumes to 1) select a
topic or theme, 2) find the full article or essay in the library, or
locate other articles from the "Further Reading" section.
- REF PN 3385 .N68, vol 1 - Novels for Students
- Entries in this multi-volume set include information on the
novel, major themes, characters, and criticism.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
J(Jerome) D(David) Salinger was born
Jan. 1, 1919, in New York City, the son of a Jewish father and an Irish
mother. In 1932, his family, after living in several different
apartments in fashionable upper Manhattan, moved to a building located
at the corner of Park Avenue and East Ninety-First Street. It was
in this section of New York that Salinger was to locate the apartment
of the Caulfields in The Catcher in the Rye. In 1940, he
published his first story and continued providing stories for such
magazines as Colliers and The New Yorker throughout the
40's. In 1942, he was drafted into the army and took part in the
D-Day landing and five subsequent campaigns in World War II. In
1945, Salinger's first marriage to a French woman he met while
hospitalized for a nervous condition ended in divorce. He was
married for a second time from 1955 to 1967 to Claire Douglas
with whom he had two children. From 1940 to 1953, he published
thirteen short stories and one novel, The Catcher in the Rye
(1951). There were two volumes of pirated short stories in the
1970's, but he personally published his last work in 1963. He now
lives in Cornish, New Hampshire where he moved in 1953. There he
zealously guards his privacy and continues to write but not to
publish. Though his literary output has been sparse, he is
considered one of the most influential authors of the twentieth
century. The Catcher in the Rye has remained a
novel taught in classrooms across the country despite its distinction
of being one of the most censored books of the last fifty years.
Sources for more biographical information
include:
- REF PN41 .D5, vols. 2 and 173 - Dictionary of Literary
Biography - DLB is a multi-volume work which provides detailed
biographical sketches of the authors' literary writings as well as
general critical commentary.
- REF PS129 .A55, vol 3 - American Writers
- This set of books provides information about the lives,
careers, and works of American writers.
CHARACTERS |
THEMES | SETTING
Setting: The Catcher in the Rye
takes place shortly after WWII, during the Christmas season in New York
City, Agerstown, Pennsylvania, and a sanatorium.
Characters:
Holden
Caulfield- a recently
suspended sixteen-year old preparatory school student
Phoebe Caulfield - Holden's
ten-year old sister
Mr. Antolini -
Holden's favorite
teacher
Sally Hayes -
a slightly older friend of Holden who is his date
Robert Ackley
- a resident in
Holden's dorm at Pencey
Ward Stradlater - Holden's roommate
at Pencey
Themes
to
Consider:
- Suicide
- Adolescent Behavior
- Cynicism
- Idealism
- Censorship
- Brother-Sister Relations
|
- Pressure to Conform
- Social Change
- Social Class
- Use of First Person Narrator
- Influence of Buddhism
- Antiheroes
|
Character
Information in Books
Note: most of the books listed
throughout this page will have information about the characters in the
book.
- REF PS374 .C43 M35 - Major Characters in
American Fiction - Long-ish entries on the most important
characters.
- PN56.4 .H37 - Characters
in 20th-Century Literature - Brief information on the characters
in
this book under
the entry on Salinger.
- PS3537.A426 C328 - Holden Caufield
- from the series on Major Literary Characters. This book is also
available in NetLibrary,
a database of full text books available online. Create a Free Account in order to save favorite book titles or personal notes on books you read.
Learn to search NetLibrary for literary criticism!
BACKGROUND READING
The following books will help you find
additional information. Use them and find others on your own that
are appropriate for your topic. Once you find a book on your
subject, browse through the Reference and Circulating shelves nearby to
find other books on the topic.
- REF PN 50 .L574, vol 4 - Literature and Its Times
- The entry on The Catcher in the Rye fixes it in the
context of the historical events at the time of the novel.
- PS 65 .C46 C46 - Censored Books:
Critical Viewpoints - Contains an essay on The Catcher in the
Rye.
FINDING JOURNAL
ARTICLES
 Librarian Talk . . . About Finding
Journal and Newspaper Articles!
Electronic
databases are purchased by the libraries for your research use. To find articles
in newspapers and journals, letters, reference books, illustrations, photographs
and more, use your updated library card to login to the following databases.
If you find an interesting article that is not full-text, please give the
correct bibliographic information to our Reference Librarians and they
will see that you get the article. They will need full bibliographic information
- and your name and address. Send your phone number as well, so they can contact
you if they need to. There is some overlap of articles in the following databases.
However, we encourage you to use more than one. All are excellent sources
for this topic.
HINT: For a full list of article databases, go to http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/db-alpha.html and use your library card for login.
|
Literature
Resource Center
- Scholarly journal articles, many full text. Also articles
in reference books. The best search to find criticle articles is
the title search. Type in Catcher
in the Rye and select "all words entered" before clicking the
Search button. This search will also find literary criticism in
the MLA
International Bibliography, the oldest and most authorative index
to scholarly literary journals. Many of the scholarly journal
articles or critical essays in
the MLA index are not full text, but they can be found in other
databases, in journals in the library, or on microfiche in the
library. Ask the Reference Librarians if you need help with the
microfiche reader/printer.
JSTOR Arts & Sciences
Search and browse the complete back issues for over 117 scholarly, including many journals in literature.
Proquest Research Library
- This full-text multi-discipline database includes articles on
literature. Limit your search to Scholarly
Journals, including Peer reviewed. A suggested search is Catcher and Salinger.
- Academic Search Complete
- This is another full-text multi-discipline database from
Ebsco. Limit your search to Scholarly
(Peer Reviewed) Journals.
Note: To access these databases
from off campus, students may login
with the barcode number from their library card using the links above.
INTERNET SITES
| Librarian Talk . . . About the Internet!
The Internet will be a wonderful source
of original documents. Browse the sites we have suggested below. Remember, you do want to find
reputable sites. Look at:
- Accuracy - The information should be researched and
show proof that it has been.
- Source - Who wrote the information? Look at the domain. .edu .gov. org .net are valid research sources.
- Authority - What are the author's credentials? (Don't quote from another college freshman's paper.)
- Coverage - Does the page have the information you need
for your research?
- Objectivity - If a work is biased, use it - just make
sure your professor knows YOU know. And offer both sides of issues, where
applicable.
UNACCEPTABLE SOURCE EXAMPLE:
http://www.rit.edu/~nrcgsh/bx/bx04b.html - This appears to be part of a book, and the information is probably
excellent. But there is nothing we can see that tells you title, author, dates,
publisher or any of the other needed information. As it stands, it
should not be used in an academic research paper. |
- J.
D. Salinger | Google's annotated list of Catcher sites in
order of popularity
Catcher in the Rye | a study guide from homework-online.com. Includes summary and explanations, character analysis, and a discussion of themes, symbols, and motifs.
GETTING HELP FOR YOUR ASSIGNMENT
Citing Sources Using
the Library MLA Style Guide | Kingwood
College library guide. Examples of both paper and electronic citations.
Learning Center | Offers tutoring services for Kingwood College students in most subjects as well as other services.
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| Page by Bettye Sutton, 2002. Updated 07/2007jfr.
