The Catcher in the Rye and Philosophy

Few novels have had more influence on individuals and literary culture than J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. One premise of The Catcher in the Rye and Philosophy is that the ease and sincerity with which readers identify with Holden Caulfield rests on Salinger's attention to the nuances and qualities of experience in the modern world. Coupled with Salinger's deft subjective, first-person style, Holden comes to seem more real than any fictional character should. This and other paradoxes raised by the novel are treated by authors who find answers in philosophy, particularly in twentieth-century phenomenology and existentialism-areas of philosophy that share Salinger's attention to lived, as opposed to theorized, experience.