The Catcher in the Rye
SOME QUICK BACKGROUND
The Catcher in the Rye was written by J.D. Salinger and published in 1951.
PLOT
The Catcher in the Rye is the story of Holden Caulfield, sixteen and cynical, confronting his own entry into adulthood as he also tries to come to terms with the "phony" nature of the adult world. Holden recounts the events of the weekend between being expelled from his boarding school and Christmas break, remembering the people and places that have both shaped and challenged his worldview in the process.
GENRES, STYLES, AND THEMES
Salinger creates a metafictional not only through the way in which Holden's story is told, from the first person point of view directly to the audience, but also in the ways that the novel explores the world of writing, particularly in the Caulfield children, who are all connected to the world of writing and storytelling.
Historiographic Metafiction: The novel operates as a work of historiographic metafiction, as it can be seen as Holden's testament, a story being told directly by Holden to an audience that would exist as a non-fictional work within the world of the novel.
Meta-reference: Holden is directly addressing an audience that is reading the work, and often comments on the nature of writing and stories in his own narrative as well as when he expounds on the world of other people's narratives.
Self-reflexive fiction: Salinger, a post-World War II writer, like many of his generation had a jaded point of view about the world around him. This world view is morphed into that of a privileged sixteen year old, still mourning the death of a brother and his own innocence as the adult world around him still continues on unaffected by the loss Holden feels all around him.
Unreliable narrator: Everything we hear and know is from Holden's own narrative and point of view. Having a very cynical view of the people around him and their motivations, recollection of events, and the ideas he states as facts cannot always be trusted.