By using strong and memorable occurrences of the actual novel, referring to either his depression or his view regarding death or suicide (e.g. his hospitalization, his discussion of there being a “nuclear war,” and his reflection on having “F--- you” written on his “tombstone”), I have been able to write a ‘never-before-found’ suicide note, written from Holden to Allie. ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ appealed to me as a novel from the very beginning because of its distinctive writing style. This is one of the reasons why I chose to focus on this novel and Holden, in particular. I was interested in the idea of final words from a character because I thought it was a creative way to put across the extremity of Holden’s despair and depression at this point in his life, without running the risk of him lying to the reader since it is a very personal account, meaning Holden would have no reason to be dishonest. This would also allow me to explore the deepness of Holden’s character. There is also a certain irony that the suicide note was never found because Holden failed to commit suicide.
43/45 (for 2 written tasks) IB grade 7
I was sitting in the lobby and I got old Jane Gallagher back into my head. I felt like giving her a buzz, but I wasn’t in the mood to talk to her mother again, as last time she had answered the phone. Still I couldn’t get her out of my head, so I decided to call her anyway. It rang a couple of times and I was about to hang up when Jane answered. I recognize it was her immediately and I started remembering all about the summers in Maine and all. But I was still kind of nervous, I don’t know really why, but still she made me kind of nervous. But nervous in a good way. Like that feeling you have when you are going down a roller coaster and you know something exciting is about to happen.
‘Hello?,’ she said. I love the way she asks a question when she says hello, it’s kind of funny. But I mean, why does she really ask, of course there is someone on the other end.
‘Jane is that you?’ I know it was really a stupid question, but I just wanted to make sure.
‘Holden!’ she said exited, ‘How are you doing? I’ve just heard about you the other day!’
Of course she had been talking with Stradlater about me. I didn’t understand why she said that as a good thing, I mean, what good can come out of her going out with Stradlater, he’s just a bastard, a poor bastard and I hate him for going out with Jane. But I couldn’t really tell her that, she’d think I was jealous or something, which I wasn’t. I meen he is probably with someone else now and does not even remember what Jane name is. That poor bastard.
‘Yeah I know, Stradlater told me he was going out with you.’
‘You should have come to say hi,’ she said calmly, ‘when he told me you were asking about me, I was really excited to see you. It has been so long.’
‘Well, I wasn’t really asking for you,’ I said, ‘he just told me he was going out with you, and I said I knew you. I mean, I was going out myself so I couldn’t come down.’ I don’t know why I told her that. I mean I didn’t want her to think I had nothing to do, or that I was angry at Stadlater for going out with her. I mean one time we got very close to necking, but it was really because she was upset with her step dad, that bastard. But like nothing really happened, she didn’t even let me get close to her mouth. But the idea of her and Stadlater being together is just disgusting, I mean he does even know that she always leaves are her kings in the back row because they look nice back there.
‘Don’t worry,’ she said as if I was the one making a whole deal about it, ‘I’m glad you’ve called. It has been ages since we’ve seen each other. So how are you doing? How is school? And how is Phoebe?’
There was a long silence. Where are you supposed to start when you have so many questions? She was different; there was something different about her. Why was she asking stupid questions about stupid things? Its like when you see family you haven’t seen in a long time and they just start asking stupid questions, like how old are you and why have you grown so much, or what do you want to do when you grow up. I hate that she was asking about that and I hated the fact it was her that asked.
‘Holden?’ there was a tone of guilt in her voice, ‘Are you still there?’
‘Yeah I’m here. Sorry I’m just kind of busy. Well I’m ok, although the school doesn’t think so.’
‘Oh no… what happened? Don’t tell me you got thrown out again!’
I didn’t want to tell her. I thought I was talking to my mother or I was back at Mr Spencer’s office. I told her because I thought I could trust her But she was different from the last time we spoke, she was worrying about nonsense, I thought she would understand. ‘Well, yeah I got the axe, but it wasn’t really my fault. I mean what’d they expect when you have old Thurner in charge and all.’
‘Oh, Holden, I can’t believe it. I was hoping we could get together this summer, it’s too bad. Well…I mean, do you think you would be able to go out?’
‘No,’ It kind of just pop out, ‘well I need to go.’
‘It was so good talking to you. We have to keep in touch so you can tell me where you are going next. We could even meet in spring break and all. Well, take care, and try to call again, bye.’
‘Bye.’ I wasn’t really in the mood to say much more after that. I hate phony conversations, were you talk but don’t really say anything. I couldn’t believe Jane was like that, I thought I was talking to one of those old ladies who drink tea and put on to much make up. It was her fault I didn’t tell her I was in New York, or that we could meet. I felt like if she’d call my mother or Pencey if I told her. I mean she hadn’t even complained about Stradlater in their date. Well maybe she should go out with him again, why would I care?
Rationale – Telephone conversation “The Catcher in the Rye”
This is the recreation of a telephone conversation between Jane Gallagher and Holden Caulfield. Although in the book Jane never appears, she is referred to several times. She is presented to us when Holden remembers their summers at Maine, and although he tries to call her a number of times they are never able to talk. This conversation could be placed in chapter 11, when Holden goes down to the lobby and starts thinking about Jane. Instead of only thinking about her, the telephone conversation could be integrated into the story. Of course, if this actually happened the rest of the story would change.
Through this telephone conversation I wanted to first show how Holden tends to idolizes people, especially those who he hasn’t had much contact with in a long time. This group of people includes Allie, Jane, Mr. Antolini and Mr. Spencer. However both of the last characters prove the way in which Holden’s impressions changes after he reencounters each of them. He seems to be very judgmental of every person he meets, especially as he tells the story because he has grown now out of his childhood and is often asked about his present and future. As he says repeatedly, when he was a child his life was much simpler, and this is when he met and spend time with Allie and Jane, two characters that he has no connection with through out the book. That lack of relation between the character, is what makes us understand why Holden idealizes them so much, while criticizes the rest of grown ups.
Holden is always talking about how much he knows about Jane and how perfect she seems to be. Still, we like with the examples shown before, he ends up criticizing everyone he meets and considering them “phony”. I believe he would think the same about Jane, if he was to have any contact with her through the book, as he would realize that she is not only a normal girl, but probably because she would have grown physically as well as mentally, therefore making Holden uncomfortable. His opinion about people changes particularly fast when someone asks him about his future, and most probably Jane would ask him about this particular subject. During the conversation we may see how she is concerned about him, as she asks him “How is school?” Holden feels awkward by these remarks; talking about all these problems would not only make him remember about them, but also realize that part of growing up is dealing with them.
Another of the facets of Holden I want to show through this conversation is the way he relates to women. Different women have different effects on Holden. He is definitely attracted to many of them, even if he finds them phony. Yet, he is angry at himself for being attracted to people such as Sally Hayes. On the other hand, Jane is presented to us as an intelligent girl who has no trouble when it comes to dealing with life. Still, we may not relay much on what Holden tells us, as there are several clues that tell us that he may be exaggerating, first being the fact that we are only able to hear his perspective of the events, and also that by the end of the book he seems to be in a mental hospital. The Jane presented to us is much younger and has been idolized. However this does not disprove the fact that Holden seems to have strong feelings towards her, we often find him with “old Jane Gallagher back into [his] head”. Although, H. Caulfield seems to be interested with her in a romantic manner, many times we find that actually he cares for her more as a sister, and wants to protect her from “going out with Stradlater”. This is why he hates him so much. He is in some way jealous, although he tries to deny it, but his jealousy is due to the fact that Jane has gone out with Stradlater in the first place, and does not actually complain about him during their conversation. At the end we find that he wishes that she would go out with Stradlater again, like punishing her for growing up. Showing again the way in which Holden is afraid of change and growing up.
35/45 (for 2 courseworks) IB level 6
Dear diary,
Today I’ve started a new book. I know, I haven’t finished the last one but I have this new swell idea. I want to write to Holden about it but mom says he’ll be home on Wednesday so I’ll wait for him to be here. I want to talk to him, but I do not want to distract him from school. I think this time he’s doing alright or at least I hope so. You know how he always gets into trouble.
Yesterday, it was so weird… While I was praying for him, I don’t know why, I had this strange feeling that something was wrong and it has had me worried all day. I told Berenice about it, and she told me not to worry. She is one of my best friends. We watched The 39 steps again yesterday! I love that movie. I can get enough of it.
Well dear diary, mother is telling me to go to bed, it’s already 9.30 so I’d better get going!
I’ll write to you tomorrow!
Phoebe Weatherfield Caulfield
Diary,
Holden has just left. I’ll explain everything tomorrow first thing in the morning. I am very worried now. When mother arrived he hid and then he left, I gave him all my Christmas dough, I didn’t care. I can still ask daddy for some money. He told me he was leaving to the house of one of his old teachers. I hope he is alright there. He started to cry before he left. I had never seen him cry, or at least I do not remember. It made me want to cry too but I didn’t want him to see me, I didn’t want him to feel worse but as soon as he left, and even now, I cannot stop crying. I do not want him to leave as he has told me, he wouldn’t be able to go to my play and I think he will really like it, it could cheer him up. I wish you could answer me back. What can I do? I don’t understand why he suffers so much and gets into so much trouble.
Right now I am wearing this hunting hat he gave me. Maybe if I wear it for enough time, I’ll be able to understand him a bit better. I’ll try to draw you a copy of it.
Diary I have to go, my eyes are hurting.
Love,
Phoebe
Dear diary,
Now I can explain to you everything. Holden got kicked out! Again. I knew something was wrong. First he didn’t want to admit it, but I knew it since he woke me up yesterday. Mother had told me he would be home by Wednesday and it was Monday. Daddy is going to kill him! Holden told me he won’t because he’ll go away. He is such a coward, he tries to convince me he is not scared, but diary, I know he is. When he starts swearing a lot, I know he is scared. And it scares me too. I do not want him to go away. If he decides to leave, I’ll go away with him. It would kill me not to know about him, not knowing how he is. But I don’t know what his problem is. I mean, I love him and all, but sometimes he acts like all the phonies he always talks about. I don’t really understand him and what is worse I think he thinks I do. I have to go, mother is calling me. I don’t want her to find out.
I am writing you inside of my closet now, for mother not to find out. Holden hid in here yesterday. It makes me kind of sad to think about yesterday. I told him he doesn’t like anything and that that is his problem. I told him to name one thing he likes a lot and he first answered he liked Allie. Then I told him how Allie was dead so it didn’t really count. He got all mad at me and made me feel really depressed. It is difficult to keep thinking of someone you loved so much like Allie because every time I think of him I get sad and all. But what I mean is that I feel bad because sometimes I feel kind of guilty when I don’t think of him, I feel like I am making him feel sad, wherever he is in heaven. I would like him to know that it is not that I do not care or I have forgotten about him, but it hurts thinking about him all the time, and even more thinking I could loose Holden too. I hope Holden realizes how much I care about him, although yesterday I was really mad at him because he got kicked out and all. But he told me he liked to sit with me just chewing the fat and horsing, that’s what he said. I liked that he said that.
Yesterday he also mentioned something about wanting to be the catcher in the rye. He is nuts, that isn’t even a real job and he got the song all messed up. I had heard it before but I do not know what it actually means. I like it when he talks nonsense things like that and when he does silly stuff like dancing with me. I wonder how it would be if Allie was still alive. Maybe he just misses him and that is what has him so upset.
Gotta go,
Hugs and kisses,
Phoebe W. Caulfield
RATIONALE:
The objectives I had before doing this written task were:
- Provide a further, more detailed insight of Phoebe, a very important character in the novel “The Catcher in the Rye”.
- I aimed to present a better understanding of the relationship between Holden and Phoebe.
- Present what is Phoebe’s perception about his brother and his situation, as in the book we are told everything by Holden, being the book written in first person.
- Make a convincing and credible piece of writing.
In order to achieve these objectives I had to re-read the novel carefully, paying a lot of attention to the parts when Holden refers to and interacts with Phoebe. To be able to sound authentic I tried to put myself in the shoes of a ten year old girl, while using colloquial expressions to convey the idea of intimacy, which is an important characteristic of a diary. Also, I referred to the content of the book in order to be convincing, showing the same events that occur in the book but under the perspective of Holden’s sister.
For instance, I made Phoebe sign in a lot of entries like “Phoebe Weatherfield Caulfield” as we are told in the book that she constantly changes her middle name. I also used a lot of the elements referred in the book like the movie of “The 39 steps” and situated these diary entries in an actual part of the book, which is when Holden goes home after being kicked out from school and talks with Phoebe about it.
In this diary I presented Phoebe as mature and reflective as well as innocent like the majority of the children of her age: “Right now I am wearing this hunting hat he gave me. Maybe if I wear it for enough time, I’ll be able to understand him a bit better”. I wanted the audience to sympathize with her in order to understand her relationship with Holden, and why he feels such a great affection towards her: she represents childhood. However, I wanted to emphasize the idea that Phoebe might be already growing up as she is worried about him and trying to understand the source of his conflictive behavior, looking as she is older than Holden: “He is such a coward, he tries to convince me he is not scared, but diary, I know he is. When he starts swearing a lot, I know he is scared”.
I think I was very successful achieving my objectives although I did encounter some problems. There are not much direct dialogues of Phoebe in the book, as although she is a central character she appears almost at the end, making it difficult for me to have a clear idea of her rhythm and style of speech. Also being a second language speaker it was difficult to me to adopt a very colloquial way of communicating. Before reading this book I did not know about words and expressions like “swell”, “phonies” and “chewing the fat”, which I had to use in this written task.
What I understand about the character of Phoebe is that although she is very innocent and a child, she is very mature and bright, being to an extent protective towards her brother and at times seeming older than him. She represents the process of growing up, which Holden refuses to accept. She also has dealt in a better way the death of Allie than Holden, although she is also still hurt about it. I decided to write a diary as I considered interesting to show how the same things can be perceived differently by different people. The diary is written in first person, providing the same sense of intimacy as the actual book. It also emphasizes themes of the book like childhood, growing up, relationships, intimacy and loneliness.
35/45 (for 2 courseworks) IB level 6
Extra section: The Catcher in the Rye
I was down in the goddam subway, holding my ticket and waiting for my train to pass by, what a waste of time this was. New York is a rather fun city with a bunch of cool guys that I know, although you find phonies everywhere. Being at the subway was a pretty annoying situation, it was like 4:00 pm, kids were just leaving school to head to their homes, all their yelling was driving me crazy, I couldn’t wait to get on the goddam carriage. On top of all this, I was in charge of all the foils and equipment and stuff of the fencing team.
Tired of waiting, I started to think of someway in which I could literally speed up the time. I lit a cigarette and leaned on the wall, I saw a little girl walking by, she reminded me of Phoebe – it was a nice moment I must say. Next thing I remember I was walking by the little shops looking for a soda, the goddam dry atmosphere down at the station was killing me. Once finished, I headed to the bathroom, it was kinda urgent. The door was rather open, but I sort of knocked on it anyway, just to be polite and all. Once done with that I went back to my waiting spot, damn it was boring.
‘Holden!’ someone yelled out, it was Frederick. ‘We gotta get into the train quickly’
‘Finally!’ I cried out. ‘Give me a hand with this stuff while I finish my cigarette’
‘Ok’ said Frederick. ‘I’ll see ya there’
I finished my cigarette, picked up all the goddam fencing equipment and went into the train; I grabbed my seat and sat down wanting to sleep. I couldn’t even take a nap cause I had to take care of the equipment, if something went missing I was dead meat. The coach came by and we had a chat, he seemed kind of excited with the next competition.
‘Hey Holden, how’s everything going?’ he said
‘I’m bored, can’t wait to get back to Pencey’ I replied
‘Ready for the next game?’
‘Sure, but I need to rest somehow otherwise I won’t last long’
In the space below, provide the following information:
- Your objectives and how you have attempted to achieve them
The new chapter developed was written based on an extract from the book The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. To be more precise, the purpose was to give more importance to the problem that Holden faced when he lost the fencing equipment, as well as mentioning how all this occurred, referring to events previous to the loss. Basically, it describes how Holden feels when he is down in the subway, talking about his mood at that moment and what he thinks about the rest of his partners. This creative piece of writing not only tries to adapt to Holden’s situation but also to Salinger’s style of writing in first person.
It is directed to any audience who is interested in reading The Catcher in the Rye, which is usually read by young teenagers and above, although specially students since this book is often used for educational purposes. The only problem present, which might have limited the content in some way, was having to adapt to Holden’s way of expressing himself, which includes informal language and slang. To overcome this limitation, I started to re-read some chapters of the book. Since it is written in first person and Holden is the narrator, this was the easiest and most effective way of getting use to his language.
- Specific examples showing how this was done
- First example: I read different parts of The Catcher in the Rye, this way I could study his narrative and be able to write in the same way, using his slang which involved words like “phonies” and “goddam”.
- Second example: By reading different chapters of the book, not only could I adapt to the language used by Holden, but also learn how he behaved and what things he tend to do when he was by himself, for example smoking.
- Third example: Since this written task is based on developing a new chapter that adds a missing scene inside the book, I was free to select any environment or place in which the story was going to happen; this gave me the option to refer to a situation or place that I am familiar with, this way they description was properly made.
- Comments on how the task demonstrates an understanding of the cultural or literary option on which it is based.
In order to imitate Salinger’s style of writing, it was essential to pick out the slang used by Holden, since these are the main words that make a difference in between his language and the other character’s. Examples of these are word such as “goddam”, “phonies”, “wanna” and “dammit”. Holden in someway represents a rebel teenager, always trying to break the rules and do the things he likes the most, no matter what the consequences are.
30-45 (for 2 courseworks) IB level 5
7 = 38-45
6 = 31-37
5 = 25-30
4 = 18-24
The note being written to Allie is ironic since Allie is dead.
‘The Catcher in the Rye’ begins exactly like this.
This is a character that comes up in several of Salinger’s works. One of them is ‘A Perfect Day for Bananafish;’ one of the ‘Nine Stories.’
This is the date of Allie’s death.
Holden is 16 years old at the time of narration of the novel.
This is what exactly happened the day of the carrousel.
This is the symbolic hunting hat Holden carries throughout most of the novel.
Holden refers to his brother D.B. as a “prostitute” at the very beginning of the novel.
This is a reference to the conversation Holden has with Phoebe about this song. This is where the title of the novel comes from.
This is a reference to Holden’s reflection on nuclear wars.
This is a reference to the conversation Holden has with Mr. Antolini about falling off a cliff (i.e. falling into depression)
“‘Caul’ is a membrane that covers the head of a fetus during birth.” 09/08/07). Holden ironically signs “Holden Caul-field,” thus indirectly creating the idea of him committing suicide but at the same time experiencing a type of rebirth.
This is a reference to Holden’s reflection on someone writing “F--- you” on his tombstone.
