What people, ideas, and events probably influenced this author? Salinger

J.D. Salinger is the author of The Catcher in the Rye and when writing a novel like this you have to get your inspiration from somewhere. Some authors get the inspiration from a memory, something they see on the street, or from their imagination. It is possible that Salinger experienced something similar to what Holden goes through, so in this case he would have gotten the inspiration for this novel from his own experience as an adolescence learning to grow up into an adult. Sometimes an author can be influenced by another author. He may have been thinking about another author's piece of work when he thought of The Catcher in the Rye.

I think that companionship is important to Salinger. Holden has few true friends in this book or ones that he does not think are phony. As an author you would probably have to spend a lot of time by yourself to think about what you are saying. I do not know for sure but it is possible he had only a few close friends and that is the same case for Holden. His only true friend that he never talks bad about is his little sister Phoebe(Salinger, 211). If a person could choose from one or two true and close friends from many people they know, I think that they would choose the few close friends and I think that this is what Holden chose also.

Freedom and opportunity probably influenced this author also. Holden decides to go out into the world by himself and he can make this decision because of how free he is. He does not feel that anyone is telling him what to do and he knows what he wants. He wants to be free to go around and just do whatever he feels like, which is why he is afraid of adulthood. Holden does not want to get caught doing the same thing day after day. Salinger wrote this book because it is what he felt like doing and he could do it because of our country's and his personal freedom.

Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown, 1951. Print