Transcript 1950's and Catcher in the Rye PowerPoint

Catcher in the Rye
& the 1950s
Adapted from Mrs. Kucaj at
wa.westfordk12.us
The Catcher in the Rye
Bringing you America’s most popular
loner teenager since 1951
The Catcher in the Rye
• Author: J.D. Salinger
• Publication date: 1951, although Salinger was working on
the novel for the last half of the 1940s, after he returned
from his service in World War II.
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
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?
What changed?
• After World War II ended (1945), the oldschool 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?
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
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)
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
1950s
Marilyn Monroe
2000s
Paris Hilton
Tom Brady
James Dean
2000s
Justin Timberlake
1950s
Elvis Presley
Cars
More accessible + more affordable
Detract from family
Sense of freedom
Images of “cool”
Emergence of fast food
Possibilities for drinking + sex
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.
Fill in the
captions
below with
what you
think Mrs.
Grundy and
Archie said
in this
comic from
the 1950’s:
Fill in the
captions
below with
what you
think was
said in this
comic from
the 1950’s:
What are the differences
that you see between
the 1950’s comic book
cover compared to the
modern comic book
cover?
• More conservative images of females in the 1950’s
• Females in domesticated roles (i.e. the setting in a
home economics class)
• The change in social customs: premarital sex, females
are not as submissive, men as objects of desire by
women today
• The idea of teen love acts as a major theme dating from
the ‘50’s and into today.
Key questions as we read Catcher:
• What are the pros, cons and responsibilities of each
age group?
• Why does Holden have such a difficult time fitting in?
• What makes Holden so relatable as a narrator?
• Similarities/differences between Holden’s issues and
the issues of today’s teens?
• What are Holden’s priorities? Why?
• How does J.D. Salinger use symbolism to help develop
his themes over the course of the novel?
Three Major Themes:
• Questioning Authenticity
• Belonging and Isolation
• Growing Up/Coming-of-Age
Questioning Authenticity
Essential questions:
• What does it mean to be real, and what does
it mean to be “phony”?
• How do we know what is genuine and what
isn’t?
• If a part of something or someone real is
phony, does that make everything about it
phony?
Belonging and Isolation
Essential questions:
• What does it mean to “belong” or “fit in” with
a group?
• Do you define who you are because you
belong to a group, or do you belong to a
group because of who you are?
• What happens to you when you change
groups or become removed from a group?
Growing Up/Coming-ofAge
Essential questions:
• What’s the difference between being a child
and being an adult?
• What kinds of experiences lead a person to
grow up? Is growing up more physical, mental,
or emotional?
• What does it mean to be “mature”?
Setting
New York in the 1950’s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa7WpL9d
_B4&feature=related