Reading the novel The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, students trace the themes of fear, innocence and corruption as they follow the narrator through a pivotal three days in his unraveling teenage life.
icon/ela/whiteThe Catcher in the Rye has been archived. You are welcome to use the resources here, but there are no Fishtank Plus features offered within this unit. If you’d like to implement one of our complete Fishtank Plus units, including all in-lesson and unit-specific Plus features, check out 10th Grade ELA.
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is a coming of age novel in which readers follow the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, through a pivotal three days in his unraveling teenage life. The novel is set in post-World War II Manhattan and Holden, who has been expelled from several prep schools, is struggling to find meaning and truth in a world he sees as full of “phonies.” Holden’s struggles with becoming a young adult make the book a particularly appropriate choice for the beginning of the tenth grade year. Students will grapple with the theme of fear as it is developed in the novel, wrestling specifically with the consequences of making decisions based on fear and anxiety. Additionally, students will trace the themes of innocence and corruption, exploring the impact of corruption on our lives. This first unit of the year will be immediately followed by a unit on Arthur Miller’s The Crucible in which students will explore these same themes in a different setting and in a more complex allegorical text.
Throughout the unit, the teacher should pay particular attention to developing students’ abilities to analyze author’s craft, specifically how to discern tone and investigate how specific choices of diction create tone, character, and theme. The writing focus of this English unit will be connected to this emphasis on diction. Students will be asked to create their own analyses of the text and express them through theme statements supported by brief moments/partial quotations (i.e. specific diction) from the text rather than more extended pieces of evidence. Relying less heavily on extensive quotations from the text is a step in helping students to develop their own arguments and style, rather than following a formulaic approach to writing.
At Match, students have a Composition class 4 days per week in addition to English class. Below, we have included Supplementary Composition Projects to reflect the material covered in our Composition course. For teachers who are interested in including these Composition Projects but do not have a separate Composition course, we have included a “Suggested Placement” to note where these projects would most logically fit into the English unit. While the Composition Projects may occasionally include content unrelated to English 10, most have both a skill and content connection to the work students are doing in their English 10 class.
Both 10th grade English and 10th grade Composition at Match focus on students developing their own style and approaches to expressing their unique insights into the literature they are reading. In the English lessons, students will focus on analyzing author’s craft, investigating how authors use various techniques to create mood, tone and theme. In these parallel composition projects, students will learn to craft effective literary analysis essays expressing their thoughts on J.D. Salinger’s use of literary techniques to create mood, tone and theme in The Catcher in the Rye. Additionally, students will work to improve their own narrative writing by using these same techniques to create mood, tone and theme in their original pieces. While the writing described in the English unit are exclusively on-demand pieces of writing, the Composition projects are a blend of on-demand writing and process writing so students have exposure to writing for a range of topics, time frames, and purposes.
Note of caution: You made find that some students relate very strongly with Holden, the protagonist of The Catcher in the Rye, to a point where it is painful or difficult for them to read the book. Before beginning the unit, you should consider how to preview this issue for students and possibly alert the mental health counselors at your school as well.
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