Preview

Jerome David Salinger Research Paper

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1727 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Jerome David Salinger Research Paper
Jerome David Salinger

The famous American writer Jerome David Salinger is a representative of the existentialism and neo- realism styles in the literature.
Existentialism is a term which has been applied to the work of a disparate group of late nineteenth and twentieth century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject - not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual. In existentialism, the individual's starting point is characterized by what has been called "the existential attitude", or a sense of disorientation and confusion in the face of an apparently meaningless or absurd world. Many existentialists have also
…show more content…
Although details about Salinger are notoriously vague because of his reclusive nature, he has become the subject of a great deal of speculation. He refuses to give interviews or to deal with the press. Personal information about Salinger is therefore limited but in great demand. He married Claire Douglas, a student at Radcliffe, in 1955. They had two children, Margaret Ann (b. 1955) and Matthew (b. 1960), and were divorced in 1965... Salinger had a love affair with author Joyce Maynard in the early 1970s, which Maynard described in her 1998 memoir At Home In the World. She auctioned her personal letters from Salinger for nearly $160,000 in 1999... . In these letters, written in 1972, Salinger writes to Joyce Maynard, then an eighteen year-old student at Yale University who later left college to live with Salinger for nine months. These letters trace his growing attachment to Maynard and deal with the necessity of guarding and protecting the writer's source of creativity from the glare of the outside world. Maynard later became a published writer herself, publishing the comic novel To Die For and, in a controversial move, publishing a memoir concerning her relationship with Salinger. In her memoir, Maynard implied that Salinger's demand for privacy stemmed from his awareness that his activities, such as his several relationships with young women such as Maynard, would ultimately mar his

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Existentialism is a term applied to the work of certain late 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual.…

    • 361 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Salinas Research Paper

    • 500 Words
    • 2 Pages

    There is no exaggeration to say Salinas is the most beautiful, sophisticated and largest municipality of California. It is also known as the salad bowl of the world because of its lettuce crops. Salinas, which means salty marshes ( in Spanish ), is located roughly eight miles from the Pacific Ocean, just outside of the southern portion of the Monterey Bay on California’s Central Coast, at an elevation about 6om high from the sea level.…

    • 500 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    J.D. Salinger Biography

    • 329 Words
    • 2 Pages

    J.D. Salinger died on January 27th of 2010 at 91 years old. The author arises on the…

    • 329 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    • What is existentialism, and how does this philosophy relate to the time period in which it became most popular (the 1940s)? Use examples from the writings of Camus and Sartre, discussed in class, to help explain your definition of the concept of existentialism.…

    • 345 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The end of World War II, a time in the beginning of the 1950’s when prosperity and success was on the rise; the glorifying death of The Great Depression, less than a decade of the United States allied with Great Britain and the Soviet Union, the most powerful of all forces this world has ever seen. The U.S. was so deeply entrenched in a nuclear arms race and the birth of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. It was clear to Salinger that the Americans, equipped for the first time in a long while with a good amount of money, flooded to the suburbs and replaced any sorrows they might have had with material products and consumerism; creating an America of conformity and extravagance that Salinger would devote much of his writing to critiquing. There is a strong resemblance of Holden Caulfield to J.D. Salinger in which one could say it is quite autobiographical about Salinger's views of the world. Whereas Holden gave up the dream of ditching society and living by himself away from everyone else, Salinger didn't.…

    • 1306 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Anthonlogy J.D Sallinger

    • 991 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Jerome David Salinger was famous for his writing skills and known from his famous novel, The Catcher in the Rye. However though, before becoming a successful man, he faced numerous problems and struggle in life. For example, he wasn’t much of a student and struggled to stay in school. Salinger’s parents was forced to send him into a military school, Valley Forge Military Academy, in Wayne, Pennsylvania after getting kicked out of Mcburney School in New York. In addition, he was traumatized after serving for 2 years in the army when World War II occurred. Salinger was hospitalized due to his nervous breakdowns and had various treatments to restore his health. When he was fully healed, Salinger started to make his way into publishing stories. In fact, he published the novel, The Cather in the Rye, and it became an immediate success, yet it led to public attention and deliberations. Due to unwanted attention, Salinger became reclusive, and started to publish new work less frequently. He followed the novel, The Cather in the Rye, with a short story collection, Nine Stories (1953), and a short story, Franny and Zooey (1961), all with the same themes of Children and Love.…

    • 991 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Catcher In The Rye Banned

    • 1423 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Salinger is based on The Catcher in the Rye on himself. Salinger started to write this novel as soon as he was released from a mental hospital. He had written a few chapters here and there, but he started this unforgettable story then. It had been a significant influence on society and their conservative values in the 1940's-1950s. Salinger used Holden (the main character) to make a point and break barriers to the American people. This story made a significant impact mainly because no one had read anything like it before. It was different from most, and it was evident it was a book out of the…

    • 1423 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Existentialism is a philosophy that explains the journey to discover the true self and the meaning of life by free will, choice and personal responsibility. By their conscious or unconscious actions, the protagonists, Siddhartha and Meursault are examples of existentialists and radical individuals, who refuse to conform to the norms of their respective societies.…

    • 1544 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Psy/4065

    • 298 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Existential theory is a philosophical stance that stresses the importance of freedom of choice, free will and personal responsibility. This perspective stresses the unique experiences of each individual and the responsibility of each person for their choices and what they make of themselves. The practices of existential theory is often misperceived as some arcane, dark, pessimistic, impractical, cerebral, esoteric orientation to treatment. In fact, it is an exceedingly practical, concrete, positive and flexible approach.…

    • 298 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Jerome David Salinger, born January 1, 1919 of father Sal Salinger, a successful Jewish meat importer, and mother Miria Jillrich Salinger, an Irish immigrant, lived with a very bright yet rebellious disposition (Garrett 201). Salinger’s history remained hidden from public eyes, for when interviewers pressed for information on his childhood, “he has been known to spread rumors: he was a goalie for the Montreal hockey team” (201). Salinger attended a private preparatory school in Manhattan called McBurney. At the end of his first year at this school, he flunked out. His father, very concerned for his son’s education, enrolled Salinger in Valley Forge Military Academy in Pennsylvania (202). “One of his classmates remembered crawling through the fence with him after lights out to poach local beer taps” (202). After Salinger graduated the military academy in 1936, he attended New York University, Ursivus College, and Columbia University (Nassa 389). Salinger’s writing career took off in 1939 by writing short stories in Whit Burnett’s writing group at Columbia University.…

    • 1552 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Existentialism is a philosophy that emphasizes a few main points, such as free will, and choices should be made without the assistance of another person or standard. From the existentialist point of view you must accept the risk and responsibility of your choices and follow the commitment wherever it leads. There are many ways to view life. The way life is viewed by an individual is the way his morals are set. The existentialist, believes that life is absurd and meaningless. Existentialists believe humans live and humans die, they state that death is just a matter of time for everyone, a reality that is inescapable.…

    • 651 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Existentialism greatly supports free will, the idea that we are responsible in ourselves for our moral behaviour and it is our choices and actions that give us purpose. “It is only in our decisions that we are important.” Jean-Paul Sartre was a great believer in this: that everything depends on the individual and the meaning he gives to his life. He argued that all physical objects have an essence that…

    • 956 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Analyzing Theories

    • 1790 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Existentialism built on the respect for the individual and added the dimensions of ontology, experiential awareness, and responsibility…

    • 1790 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Humanistic Theories

    • 335 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Existentialism emphasizes the uniqueness and isolation of the individual experience in a hostile universe, regards human existence as unexplainable, and dresses freedom of choice and responsibility for the consequences of one’s own actions (Farlex, 2013). Humanistic and existential theories deal with human nature and matters that concern human motivation and human behavior.…

    • 335 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Camus Vs Kierkegaard

    • 1552 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Literature and philosophy are often intricately entangled with one another to influence a written piece of work. In the years following the Second World War, the works of European philosophers despite doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophy begins with the human being, also known as existentialism. Existentialism claimed a significant presence within the literature of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Within the overarching existentialist movement there was a plethora of ideas that overlapped but were oppositional. Existentialist thinkers such as Soren Kierkegaard and Albert Camus at first glance may not express compatible ideas, but the two share similar views on the absurdity of life. Kierkegaard held the…

    • 1552 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays