The Catcher in the Rye gains reputation both home and abroad, and becomes a popular book at that time, which has been reprinted eight times during two months。 At the same time, it has gained a lot of critical attention both positive and negative, and caused hot disputes whether it is good or not, Some reviewers praise the novel as a significant success while others think it is a terrible and disappointing failure。 Harrison Smith, in the The New Yorker, said it was “ a brilliant, funny, and meaningful novel” and “ a book to be read thoughtfully and more than once”。 And Ian Hamilton said it had “ become the book all brooding adolescents to buy, the indispensable manual from which cool styles of disaffection could be borrowed”。 From the statistics and the reviewers’ words, we learn that the novel caused a great sensation in the adolescents at that time, because they thought the author used a sixteen-year-old boy’s mental monologue and unrestricted behaviors to express their depressed and gloomy feelings in the society which is full of corruption and phoniness。 They did not care about their school,life and future, and were lost, dissipated and addicted in games, so they were called the Beat Generation。 At the same time, a loose group, which united 论文网

by the young poets and authors who suffered from the blow in the dark society have to use unrestricted behaviors to hide their loss。 Nowadays, the teenagers and special groups also meet the same problems, and their gaps among family, school and society are enlarging。 Their mental problems drew attention from many aspects, so the analysis for the adolescents and special groups is necessary。

The Beat Generation refers to the emotional and spiritual conditions of the adolescents after the Second World War 。 Influenced by the Second World War , the Cold War, and modern industry, the youths were in the period of spiritual emptiness and degenerate, who were addicted to material enjoyment, drugs and sexual desires。 They did not have great expectations for their future and were beaten by the phoniness society, so they were called the Beat Generation。

Also, the Beat Generation was a loose unit of young poets and authors whose literature explored and influenced the American culture in the post-World WarⅡera。 This term was introduced by an America writer Jack Kerouac in 1948。 The adjective “beat” could colloquially mean “tired” or “beaten down” within the African-American community of the period and had developed out of the image “beat to his socks”, but Kerouac appropriated the image and altered the meaning to include the connotations “upbeat”, “beatific”, and the musical association of being “on the beat”。

    Post-modernism literature is defined as a literature style or a trend which emerged in the post-World War II, and culminated in the 1970s and 1980s。 And post-modernism literature is characterized by reliance on narrative techniques such as paradox, fragmentation, and the unreliable narrator, so the post-modernism literature is the extending and developing of the modernism literature。 In addition, post-modernism works are seen as a response against dogmatic thinking and modernist approaches to literature。

Post-modernism literature does not include every works in the postmodern period, but several post-war developments in literature have significant similarities, such as the Beat Generation, the Magic Realism, and the Theatre of the Absurd。文献综述

II。 The Characteristics of Holden in The Catcher in the Rye

2。1 Holden’s Personalities in The Catcher in the Rye

    No matter the adolescents, teachers, reviewers, or professors, The Catcher in the Rye raises a hot discussion after its publication because the protagonist Holden Caulfield’s special characteristics。 Teenagers think Holden is their spokesmen while teachers and parents at that time have different opinions, and they think Holden has a negative effect on students and children for his low grade, dunk, and foul-mouthed。 Although the completely different reviews on Holden represent the different values that come from different classes, we can still learn the complicated characteristics of Holden。