There are many ways that authors can show their readers the time period that their stories take place in. They can say it outright in the narrative, include obviously dated references, or attempt to vaguely hint at the time’s culture and events. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is set in the late 1940s, early 1950s. Salinger paints an image for the readers, giving hints to let them figure out the time setting on their own. He mentions events just a few years past, references things that only would make sense in such a time, and goes even deeper, writing characters that most plausibly would have existed in such a culture, in such a time. When examining the historical aspects of The Catcher in the Rye, a reader can see how J. D. Salinger conveys the essence of the late 1940s; he does this through basic, obvious references to forms of entertainment, as well as through the more complex depths of the time period’s social constructs and the impending counterculture revolt of the 1960s.
In the novel, many references are made to things that limit the possible time period for this novel. Many of these references dealt with forms of entertainment, from bar pianists to old-timey movies. Holden talks about his visit to a night club called Ernie’s which “was jam-packed…[but] it was pretty quiet, though, because Ernie was playing the piano” (Salinger 83). Compared to the nightclubs of today, this is pretty bland. Modern night clubs are overflowing with sweaty bodies dancing suggestively on top of one another. Today’s clubs are beaten with the loud sounds of DJs blasting music. Holden’s descriptions of Ernie’s show a nice, calm scene, everyone hushed as they listen to Ernie’s piano playing. There is a big difference between DJs and fat black pianists, and if both are to be considered components of a night club, they must be from different periods of time. Only in a time set in the past would Holden’s description be classified as a night club. Salinger’s night club setting shows the reader a 1940s-1950s scene, rather than telling the reader outright what time period the night club is from.
Not only were the night clubs different, but the movies were as well. Most people today are accustomed to the previews advertising upcoming movies that are aired before they are shown the movie that they came to see. When Holden “went to the movies at Radio City…the goddam stage show was on. The Rockettes were kicking their heads off” (Salinger 137). Holden gets the chance to see a live stage show before viewing the ‘phony’ movie he had come to see. Live shows in the novel seem to be much more common and cheaper than they are today; a more accessible form of entertainment. Now, in the 21st century, one would never expect to see a live stage show before a movie. Movie theaters don’t even have stages. Through stage shows and pianos, Salinger tells the readers that his story must take place after the inventions of movies, but before a time when those movies followed previews, and before a time when DJs ruled the nightclub scene. The entertainment in The Catcher in the Rye is different than it is today, limiting the time period where the novel could possibly take place.
Many of these forms of entertainment were mainly enjoyed by the upper class that Holden is a part of in this story. The novel shows the separate social classes of the 1940s, which differ from today’s expectations. During Holden’s visit to the Lavender Room, a hotel night club, Holden runs into three tourists from a small-town outside of Seattle. It is made obvious through Holden’s disdainful thoughts that he judges these women as not up to his level, not part of his posh, city-grown crowd. In his crude descriptions of the girls, he seems to “suggest that he sees himself as of a higher social class” (Graham 24). Through seemingly simple observations, Holden holds himself above the three women. His basis of judgment is superficial, on aspects such as their hats which were “the kind of hats that you knew they didn’t really live in New York” (Salinger 69). The strict separations of classes and the judgments between are reminiscent of earlier times, the rigid social constructs of the mid-20th century. There are other examples of the importance of social class seen in The Catcher in the Rye, such as Holden’s memory of his old roommate Dick Slagle. Dick was embarrassed of his low quality suitcases and had Holden leave his fancy, leather luggage out, as if to lead any visitors that those were in fact his own suitcases. This small trivial thing represented the larger issue that the two were not on the same level, and it caused a resentment to form between them and keep them from being friends. The two couldn’t stand to live with one another for more than two months, despite Holden’s opinion that Dick “had a helluva good sense of humor and [they] had a lot of fun sometimes” (Salinger 109). Salinger shows that “objects as mundane as suitcases communicate that the boys live in a society in which Holden belongs to the strata of privilege and Dick does not” (Graham 14). The suitcases are symbols of the much larger issue of status and the difficulty for people of varying status to intermingle, an issue prevalent in 1940s-1950s society.
Another social issue of the time was the anticipated gender roles, the family model. With World War II having ended, men came home and regained control of the house, and women resumed their positions as housewives, taking care of the children and making the home suitable for their husbands. Salinger exemplifies this through the character of Sally Hayes. Sally, who Holden dates many times, is a conventional girl with conventional tastes. Though educated, Holden judges her as stupid, and that is how he judges women who seem to just be preparing themselves for their future roles as housewives. Though she attends school and does well, Sally “anticipates having a stable married life – rather than a career – in the near future” (Graham 14). These feminine expectations that Sally fits into are a symbol of the time period, in which the family model and its typical gender roles are forcefully prevalent. Salinger realizes the social inequality of the time between genders and classes and illustrates that through his writing. Though social inequality has existed farther back in time and continuously since, the extent of the separation and judgments were somewhat unique to the time period, helping set the frame of the setting of The Cather in the Rye.
People are not only separated in society by class, but also by culture and ideals, such as those who follow mainstream culture and those who choose the opposing route of counterculture, which is in itself a culture in its set attitudes against the social norm. In his novel, Salinger manages to foreshadow the upcoming counterculture revolt of the 1960s, led by hippies and their 20th century Transcendentalist views. A lot of the novel’s Transcendentalist influence is hidden in otherwise insignificant moments. At first glance, Holden’s spur of the moment plan to run away with Sally just seems crazy, but at closer look, the life he envisions closely resembles the life led by Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau at Walden Pond. Holden goes on a rant, babbling on about the life he suddenly wants to have. He tells Sally that the two of them could “stay in these cabin camps and stuff like that till the dough runs out…[they] could live somewhere with a brook and all and, later on, [they] could get married or something. [Holden] could chop all [their] own wood in the wintertime and all’” (Salinger 132). As Sally objects, she tells him that his dream is not reasonable, and she shows the impossibility of recreating the ideals of 19th century Transcendentalists in modern times. Even if Sally and Holden went to Massachusetts, the birthplace of the Transcendentalist movement, there was no way in modern times that they could reconstruct Holden’s dreams “of life close to nature, away from urban reality which crushes the individual and stifles the best in him” (Piechucka 34). Holden wishes wholeheartedly throughout the novel to escape reality’s phoniness and live innocently and purely, mimicking Emerson’s philosophy of individualism, freedom, and non-conformity. (Piechucka 34). Holden’s Transcendentalist views can also be seen in his strong belief in the innocence of children and how civilization corrupts them as they grow. Throughout the city, the museums and schools, he finds little scrawlings of “fuck you” in the nooks and crannies of the walls, and rants about how kids like Phoebe would find them, find out what it meant, and lose their innocence, corrupted by the impurities of society. Holden loves children and their innocence, speaking softly of his younger siblings Allie and Phoebe. He even tells Phoebe of his big dream, the only thing in life he could see himself enjoying. He would stand in a field of rye and make sure no kids fell of the cliff, and he’d “just be the catcher in the rye and all…that’s the only thing [he]’d really like to be” (Salinger 173). Holden admires virtue, purity, and innocence, a true Transcendentalist. These Transcendentalist ideals are taken up in the next century by hippie counterculture, which Salinger seems to predict. Salinger gave his main character the principles of the upcoming revolt, almost foreseeing how the 19th century beliefs would soon come back with such a force as they did.
J.D. Salinger places his story in the late 1940s-early 1950s through many means, from the surface references to things such as forms of entertainment to the depths of social constructs and even going so far as to almost foreshadow the impending Transcendentalist counterculture revolt. Through these hints-some so subtle a reader has to dig to find them, some coming out and slapping the reader in the face-Salinger makes it so that his story could only take place within a certain time period while remaining realistic. He does all of this without ever telling the reader outright the year in which Holden is living out his story. Salinger displays several of the many methods an author can use to show the setting of their story, helping the readers understand while still retaining that mystery that keeps readers curious and makes them want to dig farther in and understand the story at all depths.