Not much is known about the influences Salinger drew upon to write
The Catcher in the Rye. It is known that during World War II he met with Ernest Hemingway in Paris, which suggests that Salinger admired Hemingway’s work. Even if that’s true, it’s difficult to trace any particular author’s influence in
Catcher because the novel is written in such a fresh and unique voice with a degree of candor and brashness perhaps unprecedented in American fiction. Having said that, similar themes arise in books like John Knowles’s 1959 novel,
A Separate Peace, which, much like
The Catcher in the Rye, is a coming-of-age novel set against the backdrop of an East Coast prep school.
The Catcher in the Rye is ranked among other great coming-of-age stories such as James Joyce's
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Cormac McCarthy's
All the Pretty Horses. Furthermore, it’s worth mentioning that Salinger published a short story that mentioned Holden Caulfield six years before
The Catcher in the Rye appeared as a book. The story was published by
Esquire under the title “This Sandwich Has No Mayonnaise,” and suggests that Holden eventually goes “missing-in-action” as an adult. This information precedes the novel’s focus on Holden Caulfield’s depression and suicidal thoughts as he navigates the grey area between childhood and adulthood, similar to books like
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath,
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides, and
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, which all focus heavily on mental illness. Though initially intended for adults,
The Catcher in the Rye has become an iconic book for young-adult audiences due to its teenage protagonist and themes of alienation, identity, mental health, and growing up, which resonate with adolescents. It has served as an inspiration for innumerable YA works such as John Green’s
Looking for Alaska, which is also about a disillusioned teenager at a boarding school; Ned Vizzini's
It’s Kind of a Funny Story, which centers on a suicidal young man who checks himself into a mental health ward; and Stephen Chbosky’s
The Perks of Being a Wallflower, whose protagonist, like Holden, is a high school student who recounts the events that lead up to his mental breakdown.