Abstract Jerome David Salinger is a famous writer in the American literary history. The Catcher in the Rye is the only long novel of Salinger and it gains a huge success once published. The Catcher in the Rye’s writing background is America after the second World War. At that time, the economy of America developed very fast and Americans had a rich life. But when Americans were immersed in material comfort, their spiritual life became emptier and emptier. In this novel, the author portrays a successful image of a different teenager, Amanda Louise Holden and describes his three days of lousing around in New York. Some themes in this novel, such as returning to nature and pacifism, are similar to the thought of Taoism in China. This thesis aims to reveal Salinger’s thought of Taoism through the analysis of some details in the novel.55049
Key words: Taoism; J. D. Salinger; returning to nature; pacifism; The Catcher in the Rye
摘要杰罗姆·大卫·塞林格是美国文学史上著名的小说家。《麦田里的守望者》是塞林格唯一一部长篇小说，它一经出版就获得了巨大的成功。《麦田里的守望者》的创作背景是二战后的美国。当时美国经济高速发展，人们过上了富裕的生活。但是当人们沉浸在物质享受中时，他们的精神生活变得越来越空洞。在小说中，作者形象地刻画了叛逆少年霍尔顿，描述了霍尔顿游荡于纽约街头三天两夜的所见所闻。小说中体现出的一些主题，如回归自然与和平主义，都与中国道家思想很接近。本文旨在通过对小说中一些细节内容的分析来展现塞林格的道家思想。
关键词：道家思想；杰罗姆·大卫·塞林格；回归自然；和平主义；《麦田里的守望者》
Contents
1. Introduction 1
1.1 An introduction to the author 1
1.2 An overview of The Catcher in the Rye 1
2. Literature Review 2
2.1 The major research findings of The Catcher in the Rye 2
2.2 An introduction to Taoism 2
3. Taoism in The Catcher in the Rye 3
3.1 Holden's pursuit of a simple life 3
3.2 Holden's belief of pacifism 4
3.3 Holden's ideal of returning to nature 5
4. Taoism and Salinger 6
4.1 The writing background of The Catcher in the Rye 6
4.2 The influence of Taoism on Salinger 7
5. Conclusion 8
Works Cited 10
1. Introduction
1.1 An introduction to the author
Jerome David Salinger is a famous American writer, born on January 1, 1919 in New York. His father was a Jewish importer. Although Salinger was born in a rich family, he had an unhappy childhood. When he was 15, he was sent to a military school in Pennsylvania. In 1936, Salinger graduated from the military school and got the diploma which is said to be the only one in his life. Then he got in some schools, but he could not finish any of them. In this case. Salinger was sent to Poland to learn ham business in 1937. Although Salinger went around, he still persisted in writing. But World War II interrupted it. In 1942, Salinger joined the army and in 1944, he went to the battlefields of Europe engaging in counter-espionage work. In 1946, Salinger retired and returned to New York to start to concentrate on writing. His first novel The catcher in the Rye, published in 1951, obtained a great success. 解读《麦田里的守望者》里的道家哲学:http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_59309.html