Although Heinrich Boell is a very good author, I do believe that basically his translation of CR is not very convincing, the main reason being that quite often he doesn't hit Holden's slang level adequately. This may partly be due to the fact that he translated it in the fifties, and maybe he had to restrict himself then - I wouldn't know. As a matter of fact, some of my students tore the German translation to pieces, but I believe they overdid it a bit. 
   Here are a few examples: 

1. "... that David Copperfield kind of crap" is translated into "David Copperfield Zeug", and obviously "Zeug" would have been "stuff" and should have been "Scheiss", most likely.
2. There is a weird tendency (also in American films which were overdubbed here in Germany!) to translate the past tense into German Praeteritum, which is, however, usually stupid because in colloquial language we just don't use it most of the time. Thus, in the very first sentence of the novel, it says "... was meine Eltern taten...". Actually, nobody says that, certainly not a kid of 17; we would say something like "was meine Eltern (so) gemacht haben".
3. "Strictly for the birds." (p.2) is translated by "Reines Geschwaetz.". Probably that wasn't even very good in the fifties; these days I would suggest  "Reiner Schwachsinn.". However, I have to give Boell credit: my 1988 dictionary offers only the colloquialism "Das ist für die Katz" - now, that translation really is strictly for the birds...
4. cont

   PS.  Rumour has it that the Japanese translation was especially difficult - no kidding - because apparently that language does not have many swearwords. I wouldn't know about that - do you?

   On May 16, 2001, I received the following email:

   "I wanted to comment on the foreign translations of Catcher. You mentioned that the Japanese version was supposedly difficult to translate because of the lack of swear words. I cannot imagine why there would be any trouble. I have been studying Japanese for three years and I was surprised at the amount of profanity! Their words are very descriptive, and there is street slang to match almost any English swear words. 
   I have yet to run across a Japanese version of Catcher, but if I ever do I will be sure to write and let you know how the translation came out."

   Thanks, Collie-San!

   Wenn ihr das wirklich hören wollt, dann wollt ihr wahrscheinlich als Erstes wissen, wo ich geboren bin und wie meine miese Kindheit war und was meine Eltern getan haben und so, bevor sie mich kriegten, und den ganzen David-Copperfield-Mist, aber eigentlich ist mir gar nicht danach, wenn ihr's genau wissen wollt. Erstens langweilt mich der Kram, und zweitens hätten meine Eltern dann jeweils ungefähr zwei Blutstürze, wenn ich was ziemlich Persönliches über sie erzählen würde. Bei solchen Sachen sind sie ganz schön empfindlich, besonders mein Vater. Sie sind schon nett und so - da sag ich ja gar nichts -, aber sie sind eben ungeheuer empfindlich. Außerdem erzähl ich euch auch nicht meine ganze verfluchte Autobiographie oder so was. Ich erzähl euch bloß von diesem Irrsinnskram, der mir so um letztes Weihnachten passiert ist, bevor es mit mir ziemlich bergab ging und ich hierher kam und es ruhiger angehen lassen musste.

   Interestingly enough, Schoenfeld has translated YOU into IHR, in contrast to Boell's SIE (compare #14 below!)

   Right! The second word in the novel is YOU. So what? 

   Well, here's what might also interest people who do not know German:

   There are 3 possibilities of translating YOU in this context: 

• DU - which is used... 

a. by little children addressing anybody (also unknown adults) 
b. by young people talking to each other 
c. by adults who are close to each other, e.g. friends 
d. by adults talking to young people or children
   
• SIE - which is used...

a. by adults addressing other adults who are not their friends 
b. by young people addressing adults who are not relatives or very close friends (who would, however, use DU when answering) 
   
• IHR - which is the plural of DU, like in "Hey Sally and Jane, can YOU..."

   PS.  One thing is clear, though - although lots of critics got this wrong: Holden is NOT talking to a psychoanalyst, because in the last chapter (2nd paragraph) he talks about him...

THE FIRST SENTENCE OF THE NOVEL 
in foreign languages

The following languages are referred to below:

1. Finnish
2. Afrikaans
3. Greek
4. French
5. Babelfish German
6. Babelfish English
7. Spanish
8. Norwegian
9. Portuguese
10. Dutch
       
11. Japanese
12. Russian
13. Hebrew
14. Italian
15. Chinese
16. Filipino
17. Turkish

   Today I was informed how YOU was translated into the FINNISH language (no kidding!):

   Plural 'te' (Jos TEITÄ tosissaan huvittaa kuulla...= If you really want to hear about it) , presupposing that Holden is talking to a larger audience.

   Just got an email from South Africa:
   "As you mentioned, a lot of the meaning gets lost in the translation. It made me wonder whether someone has ever attempted translating CR into Afrikaans (a native language to SA). It would have similar problems that the German translation is facing. Concerning the second word ‘you': the Afr. Version would be ‘jy', ‘julle' or ‘U', depending on who Holden is talking to. ‘Jy' would be used if he were chatting to a friend (someone his own age); ‘julle' if he were talking to a larger audience and ‘U' is used when a child converses with an adult [this is however only used in formal grammar (if I could call it that!), I guess it would have a similar impact on the translation as the German praeteritum!] or when reference is made to God.
   Since you had a Finnish (wow!) translation to the first phrase, I thought it would only be apt to give an Afrikaans translation! "As julle regtig daarvan wil hoor..." presupposing, once again, that Holden is talking to a larger audience."
   Thanks a lot, Etienne!

     The first Greek sentence ( using Latin characters) is : "An  thelete loipon st' alithia na t' akousete,...." and the translation in English is : " Well,  if you really  want to hear about it,..." 
   As you can see the Greek translator added the word "well" (in Greek "loipon" ) as if the narrator  continues a previous talk. I don' t know why she ( the translator ) did it. Anyway, in the Greek language we don' t  usually use the "Furwort" because the verb itself shows the person and the number ( since you know German here is an example from that language : we don't say "du wirst" we just say  "wirst" and we mean you, the one ). The verb is in the plural, and I think it is right since at the end Holden says he regrets he told his story to so many people. 

                                                               Olga Tsangaraki, Crete

Thanks a lot, Olga!

   Si vous voulez vraiment que je vous dise, alors surement la premiere chose que vous allez demander c'est ou je suis ne...

Note that the French translator opted for "vous" and not "tu", so Holden seems to be speaking to an adult he does not know too well - or he might be talking to a group of people...

   WENN SIE REAL mögen zu hören über es, d erst Sache Sie werden wahrscheinlich wünschen zu wissen sein wo ich sein gebären, und was mein lousy Kindheit sein wie, und wie mein Muttersubstanz sein besetzen und all bevor sie haben mir, und all dies David Copperfield Art von crap, aber ich nicht glauben wie gehen in es, wenn Sie wünschen zu wissen d Wahrheit.

Nun, kein der Kommentar...

   If you want to really hear my history, then you would like to know probably above all, where I was born and as I mean verflixte childhood spent and which my parents did, before they were busy with me, and which would give to tell it otherwise still at David Copperfield things, but I did not have desire to tell all this.

Holden, whaddaya mean, for Chrissake?

   Si de verdad les interesa lo que voy a contarles, lo primero que querran saber es donde naci, cómo fue todo ese rollo de mi infancia, qué hacían mis padres antes de tenerme a mí, y demás puñetas estilo David Copperfield, pero no tengo ganas de contarles nada de eso."

Karla Savignon Luttrell (México City) adds on Feb 20, 2002:

  Muchas gracias to Victoria from Argentina y Karla from Mexico!

Neither Sunni nor I have any idea why they did this. Have you?

"The first sentence in Portuguese is: 'Se querem mesmo ouvir o que aconteceu, a primeira coisa que vão querer saber é onde eu nasci, como passei a porcaria da minha infância, o que meus pais faziam antes que eu nascesse, e toda essa lenga-lenga tipo David Copperfield, mas, para dizer a verdade, não estou com vontade de falar sobre isso.'"

Thanks a lot, Carlos Augusto Mine!

"Hello Bernd,
I have three different Dutch translations (by three different translators), the first (1958) uses the singular "je", in the second (1967) "u" is used (same use as in Afrikaanse translation, a language very similar to Dutch), the latest translation again uses "je". Interesting is that David Copperfield kind of crap is never translated using the name DC. The translation in Dutch is: "van dat soort sentimentele gelul" (that kind of sentimental crap)."

Thanks so much, Jente Algoed!

*

On Aug 22, 2008 I received the following mail:

There are in fact three translations of The Catcher in Dutch, the first of
which was twice reissued under a new title. In all there are five
different titles:

Puber - translation by Henk de Graaff, 1963
puber = adolescent - the word denotes more specifically the younger
adolescent - poor Holden: he sometimes acts a lot older than he is - he
really does - but people never notice it

De kinderredder van New York -  same text as Puber, 1967
= New York's Child Saviour

Eenzame zwerftocht – same text again, no year
= Lonesome Wandering

De vanger in het koren – Max Schuchart 1978
= The Catcher in the Corn ('corn' comprising all cereal plants)

De vanger in het graan – Johan Hos 1989
= The Catcher in the Grain

The finest of these translations I find Max Schucharts. Yes, his second
word is 'u', but in Dutch this is less formal than German 'Sie'. I am one
of many in my generation (1955) who always said and say 'u' to their
parents and who consistently use it as the default form when speaking to
strangers. Had Holden been a Dutch corporate lawyers son he would
(notwithstanding all his goddams, for Chrissakes etc.) until recently
naturally have said 'u' when adressing the reader(s) or an imaginary
Gegenüber.

Schuchart has replaced David Copperfield by A.M. de Jongs Merijntje
Gijzen. This is an attempt at inculturation I am not very pleased with.
For all their merits the four Merijntje Gijzen books are no David
Copperfield. There is nothing like Dickens and in the invention of CR
David Copperfield probably played a significant role. Just read Dickens
preface, on the saddening effect of publication, and then reread CR's last
chapter. Or lay DC's table of contents alongside CR's first page. DC was
written in 1849-1850... Salinger must have been well aware that exactly
one hundred years later he was trying to give to the 20th century not only
a New York Christmas Carol, but also a counterpart to David Copperfield
(and Pip, of course). Dickens brought his glorious grand scale novel
technique to the job, Salinger his equally magnificent short story
technique. The result was quite a different book, but I think there's no
denying the element of emulation.

Thanks so much, Max Staudt!

"The Japanese title of CR is "Rye-mugi Batake de Tsukamaete". The first sentence in Japanese is as follows:

'Moshimo Kimi ga Honto ni Kono Hanashi wo kikitai nara, Mazu Boku ga Doko de umareta toka, Chachi-na Yonen-Jidai ha Don-na datta toka, Boku ga umareru Mae ni Ryoshin ha Nani wo yatte-ita toka, So-itta David Copperfield-Shiki no kudaranai Koto kara kikitagaru kamo Shirenai-kedo sa, Jitsu wo Iu-to, Boku ha Son-na Koto ha shaberi-taku nain-dana.'

According to the Japanese translation I have, a singular form is used. In Japanese, "Kimi" means YOU and this is singular. "Anata" is also singular, which is formal style. When you want to use plural form, you can add "-tachi" at the end, like "Kimi-tachi" or "Anata-tachi"."

Thanks a lot, Motoko!

Here is the Russian translation (in Latin characters):
Esli vam na samom dele hochetsia uslishat' etu istoriu...
With a plural, or respectful 'you'.

additional info from Olga  Semyvolos on 28.11.2001:

In Russian you is used as the one to address a larger audience. Another interesting point is that the verb to express 'want' is used in the so called impersonal mood. It creates a distance between the narrator and the audience, makes it easier for the audience to opt out.

Olga

Ann 9.12.2001:

my name is Ann, I'm from Ukraine.  I've got the first sentence of the novel in Russian:

"Esli vam na samom dele khochetsa uslishat' etu istoriyu, vi, navernoye prezhde vsego zakhotite uznat', gde ya rodilsya, kak provel svoye duratskoye detstvo, chto delali moi roditeli do moyego rozhdeniya, - slovom, vsiy etu David-kopperfildovskuyu mut'. No, po pravde govorya, mne ne okhota v etom kopatsa."

The second word 'you' is translated as 'vi' (sometimes it changes to 'vam') that means that the guy is talking to some older man or a group of people. I can also translate it back to english...

"If you really want to hear this story, maybe you will first of all want to know where I was born, how I spent my silly childhood, what my parents had done before I was born, - for short, all that David Copperfield dregs. But frankly speaking, I don't want to rummage about it."

SPASSIBA!

he applies his speech to a large audience, speaking in multi-form
Best regards, Amir Dolev

additional info: 13.12.2001:

Im atem be'emet rots'im lishmo'a al kol ha enyan, az ma shebetach terzu lada'at kodem-kol, ze eifo noladeti, ve eich haita ha yaldut sheli, ve ma asu hahorim sheli lifney sheholidu oti, vekol ha zevel haze me hasug shel "David Copperfield", aval lo mitchashek li ledaber al ze yoter midy.

If you (plural) really want to hear about the whole deal, then what you definately want to know first, is where I was born, and how was my shitty childhood, and what my parents did before they gave birth to me, and all that "David Copperfield" type of trash, but I don't feel like talking about it very much.

The you (atem) is written in a plural body, where "ata" would be it's singular form. I'm looking forward to reading the original english version. 
Yoav Jacobi.

THANKS!

here's the Italian translation:" Se davvero avete voglia di sentire questa storia,magari vorrete sapere prima di tutto dove sono nato e come é stata la mia infanzia schifa e che cosa facevano i miei genitori e compagnia bella.."

well,as you can notice ,plural is used(avete)....i also have to say that the italian translation really sucks,i mean...a lot of the meaning gets lost and it's definitely less funny!!

c-ya, bianca

addl info by Luciano:

"Se davvero avete voglia di sentire questa storia, magari vorrete sapere prima di tutto dove sono nato e com'è stata la mia infanzia schifa e che cosa facevano i miei genitori e compagnia bella prima che arrivassi io, e tutte quelle baggianate alla David Copperfield, ma a me non mi va proprio di parlarne."

the "you" is implied, not written

MILLE GRAZIE!

Hi, I came across your website and found it very interesting, especially the translation part. The Chinese translation of Catcher seems a little incomplete, however, so here is my own.

如果你真的想了解這件事的話,你最先想要知道的應該會是一些例如我的出生地,我無聊透頂的童年時光,還有我父母在生我之前做過哪些事...諸如此類的東西.說實在的,我不太想講.

I don't know if your computer shows Chinese characters, so these characters might just be like a bunch of blocks to you. This is what it would mean:
If you really want to understand this incident, the first you'll want to know is probably things like my birthplace, my boring childhood, in addition to what my parents did before I was born...that kind of stuff. To be honest, I don't really want to tell.

In Chinese the plural form is differentiated from the singular form by adding a character "們" (pronounced "menn"). For example, the Chinese "me" is  written "我", and to make it "us", we would add "們", making it "我們". Since Chinese is a completely different branch of language than English, when translating, the words have to get shifted around for it to make sense.

I hope this helps- Sarah Lian

Thanks a lot, Sarah Lian!

  "...i was exploring through your site and i saw that you were looking for translations. well, i'm not an expert but i did try to translate it to FILIPINO. here it goes...

     "Kung nais mo talagang marinig ito, malamang ang unang bagay na gusto mong malaman ay kung saan ako ipinanganak, at kung gaano kawalang kwenta ang aking kabataan..."

Thanks, Gisela O!

"Anlatacaklarimi gercekten dinleyecekseniz, herhalde once nerede dogdugumu, rezil cocuklugumun nasil gectigini, ben dogmadan once annemle babamin nasil tanistiklarini, tum o David Copperfield zirvaliklarini filan da bilmek istersiniz ama ben anlatmak istemiyorum. Herseyden once, ben bu zirvaliklardan sikiliyorum."

The "you" in the first sentence is to a plural audience. Well, in Turkish, the subject is added as a suffix to the verb, so it's kind of complicated, but this you Holden's referring to is either, a plural form of you, or like the respectful Sie in german, when you are talking formal. But I suppose it's to a large audience.

   Recently I got an email from someone who had been assigned a school project where he had to hand-make a gift for Holden which has some significance. He was wondering whether I had any suggestions, and I thought the whole thing was a pretty neat idea in the first place, so I started to think about it...
   Suppose it is you that Holden speaks to in the resthome in California, and for some reason you want to give him a present. What would he be pleased about? Obviously the gift one would choose for him would have a lot to do with the (personal) view one gets of Holden throughout the novel.
   Anyway, I came up with 2 ideas:

• In chapter 15 Holden meets the nuns, and they belong to the very few people whom he spontaneously likes and admires. So how about making a STRAW BASKET (I don't know what they look like because we don't have these Salvation Army people here in Germany) with a copy of ROMEO AND JULIET in it? (You might want to read those pages again so as to get an idea why he likes them and what he likes about them...)
• How about a little WOODEN CAROUSEL? In chapter 25 Holden watches Phoebe on the carousel, and that's one of the most symbolic scenes in the entire novel. (On my LINKS subpage there's a link to a site where you can see a photo of the actual carousel in Central Park...)

• Give Holden a really nice suitcase - Justin Berger, Sept 99
     
• You could give Holden the record that he broke that he was going to give to Phoebe.
     
• Give him a new camels hair jacket... to make up for the one that got stolen
     
• a good gift for Holden would either be getting his brother Allie resurrected (he loves his brother obviously) or to get Jane for him : )  -Allison, Mar 2000
     
• I'm not sure if what I have in mind could be considered a "present." It's definitely not a tangible, material object, but more of a feeling or a state-of-mind. Kind of like the small gifts that Phoebe gives to Holden that make him understand the individual significance of being a child and being an adult, and appreciating the two as separate entities to cherish instead of a droll routine of life. With that said, the one thing I would like to give Holden, that I feel would be significant to his life, is a job. Not any job, however. I would like to give Holden the job of a Little League Coach. It symbolizes his need to be a role model for children who will experience the same coming of age that he did. Instead of standing at the cliff and catching the children as they play about, he can teach and coach them during a very memorable part of childhood. He can be an active part of each child's life and "guide" them through the hard parts, as opposed to shoving them back into the proverbial "rye" of childhood. He can be, to other children, the inspirationthat his father failed to be in his life.
  (Brandi Wills, April 2000)
     
• Randy Caouette, Aug 2000:   Easy - a book on duck migration!
  (Randy, you've hit the nail on the head!)
     
• I would suggest to give Holden a checkers game board. However, I would permanently glue kings to the back row to remind him of Jane. (anonymous, Jan 2001)
     
• Anne from Medina, MN (Jan 2001):   
  I say give Holden a mirror.  He needs to find himself.
  Give Holden a chance to say goodbye to Allie.  He still hasn't let him go.  
  Give Holden a child's blanket.  he needs a little innocence back.
  Give Holden a life at home.  A family who loves him. And a chance to restart his life.
     
• I would give him some type of stone duck.  He never finds them in the book. (Chris Harvey, Jan 2001)
     
• ..i'd have to give him a baseball glove with poetry written on it. "nothing
  gold can stay" by robert frost is a good start...
  (john weaver, Mar 2001)
     
• cont

   There is a lot of symbolism in CR which enhances the meaning of the novel. First, though, here is a good definition of 'symbol':
   

A symbol is something CONCRETE - an object, an action, etc - that stands for something ABSTRACT, i.e. an idea.

   Holden's love for his sister Phoebe is reflected in his effort to get "Little Shirley Beans", the record that "was about a li|tle kid that wouldn't go out of the house because two of her front teeth were out and she was ashamed to" (chapter 16). He says it was made about 20 years ago and explains why he thinks the singer, Estelle Fletcher, is so exceptional. When he succeeds in getting it in a record store on Broadway, he is very happy - for a change.
   Then, in chapter 20, he drops it when entering Central Park, and he almost cries.He puts the pieces into his pocket, although he claims "they weren't any good for anything", but that's Holden, of course. In fact, they are still a symbol of his love for Phoebe, and when he gives her the pieces in chapter 21, Phoebe in her reaction is as exceptional as the record, because she wants to save the pieces and puts them into a drawer, which "kills" Holden.

   Some critics have claimed that there is no real change in the novel, i.e. that the scenes are basically interchangeable (cp. also #11 about the picaro).
   In my opinion, this is certainly not true regarding a crucial scene in CR: Phoebe riding on the carrousel in chapter 25, which represents the main turning point in the novel.
   Up to this point, it has been Holden's dream to be the catcher in the rye. That means he would like to stand on the edge of the cliff and keep the kids from falling over the cliff. This becomes perfectly clear in chapter 22 when Holden explains his wish to Phoebe. Obviously, this is a metaphor for Holden's desire to keep innocent children from being destroyed by the phony adult world, by the "Fuck you"s on the walls, etc. (Ironically, Phoebe tells him that he got the words of the song wrong in the first place, because it is not "catch" but "meet". Thus his dream already crumbles a bit because there is no catcher in the song.)
   Then, in chapter 25, Phoebe gets on the carrousel, and Holden just watches her (!). (In fact, he emphasizes this 3 times!) He is afraid that she might fall off when grabbing for the gold ring. HOWEVER, he suddenly realizes that you just have to let kids do it. "If they fall off, they fall off, but it's bad if you say anything to them." Thus, on a symbolic level, the reader gets to know that Holden has realized that his dream is unrealistic: you/he cannot keep children from growing up and making their own (negative) experiences. (Incidentally, falling off a horse is certainly less dangerous than falling off a cliff.)
   The idea that this is definitely a turning point in the novel is also underlined by the fact that Holden feels "so damn happy" - which he says twice - and that he wishes we could have been there.

Did You Know?

   In the heyday of carousels, each came equipped with a device, mounted a few feet away from the carousel, that could dispense metal rings about the size of a bracelet. If you were sitting on one of the horses on the outside row, you could lean way out and grab one of these rings. Most were just gray lead rings, but if you got a gold-colored brass ring, you were allowed to ride again for free. This is where we get the phrase “to reach for the brass ring,” meaning to go all out to win. The practice was eventually discontinued because kids would often fall off the carousel while reaching out to grab the rings. 
   This is what Holden is referring to near the end of chapter 25. J.D. Salinger uses this to suggest that Holden has accepted that he can’t protect everyone, and has to let them learn from their own mistakes.

   You must have noticed it already: The summary I wrote on this page (see #1) is a complete fake. There are 24 mistakes in there - most of them highly absurd - which I put in there deliberately for 3 reasons:
   1. People who know CR very well must have realized it immediately and should have some fun identifying the absurd distortions of certain details - e.g. Mrs Antolini's spaghetti.
   2. People who know CR fairly well must have thought, "Really?! What's this guy talking about? I don't recall anything like that...". These people could still use this "summary" and test themselves by trying to figure out which aspects are wrong.
   3. People who actually "used" this summary instead of reading this terrific book itself -  in spite of my introductory warning that it was " NOT supposed to replace a thorough reading of the novel itself" - well...

Oct 5, 2008:
If you want to hear someone read out that atrocious summary (with a slight German accent), go to

this video at youtube

Then again, you can also watch it here:

   Feb 7, 2000.   This special sub-section was created because one of those students who emailed me for advice on a CR essay later sent me her essay and suggested presenting her and other people's essays on this website. (Thanks a lot for that idea, Karika.) 

Topics so far:

1. Theme and Setting in CR
2. To Study or Not to Study (a poem)
3. Language in CR
4. Innocence
5. A New Ending of the Novel
6. (cont)

21.

Ideas for Papers, Creative Writing, etc

   Here are some ideas or suggestions for essays, papers, etc. Some of them, by the way, also refer to external aspects.
   If you also have suggestions, why not send me an email or two?

1. How precocious can you get?  OR:  A comparison between Phoebe Caulfield and Esmé (from "For Esmé - with Love and Squalor")
      

2. Holden's ambivalent attitude towards Sally Hayes
      

3. A comparison of the various front covers of CR
      

4. The significance of James Castle (chapter 22)
      

5. A comparison between CR and the two short stories the novel is partly based on: "I'm Crazy" (1945) and "Slight Rebellion off Madison" (1946)
   (with special emphasis on the point of view technique)
      

6. CR:  more than 50 years after its publication - entirely out of date?!
      

7. The significance of the nuns (chapter 15)
      

8. The significance of the Museum of Natural History (chapter 16)
      

9. "We were too much on opposite sides of the pole":   Holden and Spencer (chapter 2)
      

10. Points of View: A comparison between Salinger's CR and Charles Webb's The Graduate (with some observations concerning the movie version)
       

11. CR and satire:  Holden's ironic comments on society
       

12. Salinger and Internet copyright: The Holden Server and Stephen Foskett's Bananafish
       

13. Banning CR: a sensible decision?!
       

14. Comparing Heinrich Boell's old German translation of CR with the new one
       

15. Is a new Bavarian translation of CR overdue? (sorry, just kidding)
       

16. Holden and the cab driver (chapter 12): a very hilarious conversation with a deeper meaning
       

17. Salinger and The Catcher in the Rye in Kinsella's novel Shoeless Joe
       

18. "...that David Copperfield kind of crap": comparing the exposition of CR with the one in Dickens' David Copperfield
       

19. Similarities and differences: comparing CR with "I am a Rock" by Simon and Garfunkel
       

20. The Catcher in the Rye describes both a literal and figurative journey. Discuss. (Hilton Shak, South Africa)
       

21. Reading between the lines: Analyse Holden's note to Spencer (chapter 2) in terms of what it reveals about his character.
       

22. Why does Holden not get in contact with Jane? 
    (Is it because he is afraid "she could be a chain smoking, lesbian prostitute by now"?!  ;-)   (quote by Tommaso Sciortino, see section 5 above)
       

23. Holden and Jane's relationship is very similar to the one between The Lady and The Tramp (you know, that famous Disney movie about the two dogs...). Discuss.
    (Thanks to John Lohmoeller for this  crazy idea!  ;-)
       

24. Pencey and "Hell-ton": A comparison between CR and Peter Weir's film DEAD POETS SOCIETY
       

25. Holden lost between the adult world and his childhood
       

26. Have students take photos of something which is somehow connected with CR.
    (Here is an example: I took the following photo in Jan 2005. It shows a playground in my hometown here in Germany, just 200 yards from my house. In my opinion, the connection to the writing on the wall ("fuck you", chapter 25) which Holden wants to rub out is striking (and depressing)...
    
      

27. When Stradlater tells Holden to go down and see Jane Gallagher (chapter 4), Holden does not do it.
    Rewrite the novel at that point: Holden does go down, meets Jane, and they talk (Holden might for example ask Jane to go to Vermont with him - Jane's reaction could be entirely different from Sally's in chapter 17!)
     

28. cont
    

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