The Catcher in the Rye Question 5

Question five here I come!  The Catcher in the Rye was written by J.D. Salinger in the late 1940s-early 1950s in New York.  The setting in the novel takes place in the same time period.  I found a couple of references to history throughout the novel.

Do you like to play card games? I know I do! Have you ever heard of Canasta? Well Holden and Ackley knew what it was and loved to play it.  “Do you feel like playing a little Canasta?” (Salinger 47).  Holden was asking Ackley this at around eleven thirty.  Ackley did not want to play because he was too tired and Holden had woken him up.  I decided to research what Canasta was.  It is a card game that was brought to the United States from Uruguay.  “The game quickly became a card-craze boom in the 1950s” (Canasta).  This card games allows us to see that the characters in The Catcher in the Rye did take part in the popular games of the time period.

At one point in the novel, Holden mentions the Radio City Music Hall.  “Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue located in Rockefeller Center in New York City” (Radio).  Holden was at a bar late at night trying to find a girl to keep him company.  He did not have very good luck…The bar was getting ready to close so he bought some drinks for some women there dancing.  After they finished their drinks, “They said they were going to get up early to see the first show at Radio City Music Hall” (Salinger 75).

The one symbol that I find really symbolic is Holden’s red hunting hat.  At the end of The Catcher in the Rye, he gives his prized hunting hat to his sister, Phoebe.  It brought tears to my eyes, just kidding! Holden and Phoebe had a  great time that day and he ended it with giving her his most prized possession.

"Canasta." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 07 Feb. 2012. Web. 19 July 2012.

"Radio City Music Hall." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 17 July 2012. Web. 19 July 2012. 

Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown, 1951. Print.