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Jerome David Salinger's The Catcher In The Rye

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Jerome David Salinger was a world-renowned American author, mostly known for his novel The Catcher in the Rye (1951). His first major success, however, was the short story ‘A Perfect Day for Bananafish’, first published in a 1948 issue of The New Yorker magazine. It was later published as a part of the short story collection Nine Stories (1953) among eight more stories, one of which is called ‘For Esmé—with Love and Squalor’ (1950). Both of the stories include characters who are apparently suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, also known as PTSD, a mental disorder Salinger himself was a victim of, perhaps. Salinger wrote several books and stories and his writing style is quite unique—using swear and slang words not only in dialogues but also as a part of the narrative, and depicting character actions and their environments in detail in order to make them seem realistic. His life was widely affected by World War II—after seeing the horrors of combat and concentration camps, he stated ‘You never really get the smell of burning flesh out of your nostrils, no matter how long you live.’1 The author mentioned his wartime experiences several times in his published works, suggesting that he was indeed troubled by them. He was not able to confront the intense media coverage following the success of The Catcher in the Rye and chose to live in solitude, in contrast with his younger persona who would revel in company of others. Such a change in character could be, considering
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