The Rebellion Against The Mainstream Culture--In The Catcher In The Rye

J.D.Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye is a "modem classic". As one of the most controversial novels in the contemporary American literature, many reviews say CR is a sensational achievement while others object to its immorality and obscenity. It is "a perennial No. 1 on the censorship hit list" while at the same time "the most avidly read"novel. However, most critics who often focus on the critical analyses of CR fail to provide a reasonable interpretation to this contradictory phenomenon.Chinese scholar Shi Xianrong has ever mentioned that CR shows its rebellion against the mainstream culture, but he doesnot go further to illustrate it in detail. My paper, based on the achievements that the predecessors have made, helps to develop this interpretation to CR: that is, in a cultural macro-structure, CR openly shows its rebellion against the mainstream culture in 1950s. My paper, in connection with the then social, political and economic background, mainly analyzes the connotation of the mainstream culture at that time. It first discusses the definition of mainstream culture and then the analyses of the connotation of the mainstream culture include the social, political and economic situation at that time, an overwhelmingly suffocating era in American history with the universal conformity and the mad pursuit of materialism as its distinctive characteristics; the postwar other-directed American character, stressing the influences of the peer group, institutes and mass media; the core expression of the mainstrean culture-the American Dream and the language of the mainstrean culture at that time. The precise analyses of the connotation of the mainstream culture clearly reveal the heavy burden which the mainstream culture lays on the individuals.In such an overwhelmingly suffocating era, our hero Holden indignantly rebels against the mainstream culture in 1950s. In accordance with my analyses, my paper illustrates Holden's rebellion in a comprehensive structure, mainly analyzingHolden's rebellion in four aspects: as a nonconformist hero, Holden rejects the clique spirit-form personal-interest clique and discriminate against dissenters, which Pencey Prep embodies and rebels against the consumerist mass society that the nightmarish New York city represents, hating bitterly the rampant materialism; he completely denies the core part of the mainstream culture-the pursuit of the American Dream, ie. the pursuit of the material success, thoroughly exposing the deceptiveness and corruption of the American Dream and shattering its requirements of him into pieces; his acts show the characteristics of "escape"-he considers the social status and material success, which the masses are fascinated with, worthless and runs farther and farther away from the mainstream culture, and his violent language shares the common characteristics with that of the counter-culture movement: various kinds of language expression whose existence cannot be permitted by the mainstream culture-loose danglings and perpetual insistences, grammatical errors, o bscenity and profanity in his speech and the slangs are like daggers thrown at the heart of the mainstream culture.CR clearly shows its rebellion against the mainstream culture in 1950s. Also with this comprehensive interpretation will the contradictions in the comments on CR be correctly understood.