1. Wednesday, March 4th American Literature
Finish Watching The Great Gatsby
Review for Test on Modernism and The Harlem Renaissance
Quiz next class
Check out The Catcher in the Rye
JD Salinger Background Information
Shy Guy
Read the first two chapters.

2. Test Review
Modern Literature: “Winter Dreams” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
“Babylon Revisited” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
“Hills Like White Elephants” Ernest Hemingway
“If I Told Him: A Completed Portrait of Picasso” by Gertrude Stein
“The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock” by TS Elliot
“The Great Gatsby” by F Scott Fitzgerald
Harlem Renaissance:
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
“The Heart of a Woman” by Georgia Douglas Johnson
“If We Must Die” by Claude McKay
“The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes
“Harlem” by Langston Hughes
“I, Too” by Langston Hughes
“The Black Finger” by Angela Weld Grimke
“Thank You Ma’am” by Langston Hughes
“Dust Tracks on a Road” by Zora Neale Hurston
This is everything we have read so far this semester. Know how at least one text exemplifies modern literature and how one text exemplifies the Harlem Renaissance.

3. Notes to study: American Modernism The Lost Generation The Jazz Age
Disillusionment
Hemingway’s Iceberg Theory
The Harlem Renaissance
Great Migration
The notion of “twoness”
Prose poetry
Free Verse
Stream of Consciousness
Syntax
Dramatic Monologue

4. Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
“Among other things, you’ll find that you’re not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You’re by no means alone on the score, you’ll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You’ll learn from them—if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It’s a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn’t education. It’s history. It’s poetry.
Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger

5. J.D. Salinger Born in 1919 to a prosperous Manhattan family
After flunking out of several prep schools, he eventually graduated from Valley Forge Military Academy in Pennsylvania in 1936
He studied briefly at Ursinas College, New York University, and Columbia University
After taking a short story course at Columbia, Salinger began writing short fiction that appeared in a variety of publications including Collier’s, Saturday Evening Post, and The New Yorker

6. J.D. Salinger
Salinger was drafted after the attack on Pearl Harbor and served in the U.S. Army from 1942 to 1945, earning five battle stars.
He fought during the Normandy Invasion and Battle of the Bulge.
It was during this time he began writing Catcher in the Rye.
He also suffered a nervous breakdown around this time.
In addition to The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger is best known for three short story collections: Nine Stories (1953), Franny and Zoey (1955), and Raise High the Roof Beams (1963)
The mysterious Salinger lived in seclusion on 90 acres in Cornish, New Hampshire from the 1960s until his death in January 2010
Rumor has it that there are still five unpublished works written by Salinger.

7. The Catcher in the Rye Published in 1951
While many parents objected to the main character’s obscene language, erratic behavior, and antisocial attitudes (not to mention the presence of sex, alcohol abuse, and prostitution in the novel), it became the “forbidden fruit” for many young readers, and was listed number one on The New York Times best-seller list and stayed at that position for thirty weeks
With more than 60 million copies sold, it is one of the world’s top sellers

8. The Catcher in the Rye
The book is the account of three disoriented days in the life of a troubled sixteen-year-old boy, Holden Caulfield, after he is expelled from his Pennsylvania prep school, Pencey Prep.

9. Key Thematic Concepts Alienation and Loneliness Emerging Sexuality
Difficulty of Becoming an Adult

10. Trivia
The man who shot John Lennon, Mark David Chapman, was carrying a copy of The Catcher in the Rye when he was arrested. He said Holden Caulfield represented the better part of his personality, while Satan represented the other part.
John Hinckley, Jr., the man who attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981 was also an avid fan of the novel.
There were numerous requests to create film versions of The Catcher in the Rye, but Salinger turned them all down.
Some believe that the 2002 film, Igby Goes Down, is based on The Catcher in the Rye
In Conspiracy Theory, Mel Gibson’s character is put on a watch list because he buys a copy of the book.

11. Catcher in the Rye & the 1950s

12. The classic American family
Family roles were fairly traditional in Salinger’s day:
Dad was the sole provider and the head of the household
Mom was most often a homemaker – cooking, cleaning and taking care of her husband and kids

13. And the kids? Education was much less of a priority than it is today.
If the kids finished high school, college was a relatively rare option.
Getting a job and getting married straight out of high school were much more common.
How does this compare to your plans?

14. What changed?
After World War II ended (1945), the old-school family structure and roles started to change a bit
Victorious war effort left the U.S. much more financially stable…people had money again! Woohoo!
And what do people do when they have money?

15. Spend it!
In the late 1940s/early 50s, there were two consumer products that helped to create our modern concept of the teenager:
The television
The automobile

16. Hmmmm…
So, how would an increase in TV and car purchases change American families?
And more specifically, how would these purchases impact teenagers?
(insert brainstorm here)

17. TVs/Hollywood
Advertising split Americans into demographics (men, women, old, young, teen, etc.)
“Family time” changed
Different shows appealed to different ages
Attractive people – the pin-ups

18. 1950s
2000s
Marilyn Monroe
Paris Hilton
Tom Brady
James Dean

19. 2000s
Justin Timberlake
1950s
Elvis Presley

20. Cars More accessible + more affordable Detract from family
Sense of freedom
Images of “cool”
Emergence of fast food
Possibilities for drinking + sex

21. The new teenager
So all in all, the 1950s saw the birth of “the modern teenagers,” as we think of them
Holden Caulfield, the narrator of The Catcher in the Rye, is arguably the first modern teenager of literature.