A Sword Penetrating Reality

The Catcher in the Rye is the only full-length novel written by the famous American reclusive writer Jerome David Salinger. Since its publication in 1951, it has appealed to a great number of adolescents and also provoked great controversy among critics. Though a psalm in some opinions while an obscenity in others, it is generally regarded as a reflection of the psychological transformation of the post-war generation. Therefore, it has become a "modem classic" in post-war American literature.Traditional reviews have analyzed the protagonist Holden either from his bitter odyssey of growth or his psychological mode of quest and research. These analyses, however, focus more on Holden's mental state, whereas it is somewhat ignored that while examining the protagonist's complex inner world, the writer was exploring the source of the conflict---the complex society and cultural environment in which Holden lives.This thesis will interpret the novel from the perspective of psychological realism (a way of interpreting the outwardly realistic world through a character's psychological perception and observation. The character's psychological world is within an externally ordinary world, and psychological states can project intense feelings on the outside world and reestablish an objective world in his mind). It will explore the changes of Holden's psyche in order to manifest the complicated inner world of this character and the real and reliable realistic world including his family, the prep school and the society. Moreover, some creative artistic techniques employed in combining the subjective and objective worlds will be discussed. The whole thesis is divided into six chapters.Chapter one is about the thesis statement, research aim and a brief summary of the novel in question and its reviews. Chapter two serves as the general introduction to the theory psychological realism and its characteristics and artistic techniques. Chapter three to five present detailed analyses of the dialectical unity of the subjective and objective worlds displayed in the novel. As a representative of middle class adolescents, Holden lives an affluent life but he loses himself and feels spiritually barren, perplexed or even world-weary. This complicated subjective world is a real reflection of the complex objective world. Holden's psychology, in turn, serves as a mirror, so a realistic world is reestablished from his spiritual odyssey. To interweave the psychology and realism or to unite the subjective and objective worlds, Salinger adopts the first-person narration and symbolism, which makes his works a great success. Chapter six points out the significant importance of Salinger's Creation of The Catcher in the Rye and his depiction of the world of Holden and brings the thesis to a conclusion that it is of great significance to read the novel from the perspective of psychological realism.