Reasons and meanings of choosing this topic The Catcher in the Rye was the American writer J.D.Salinger’s first full-length novel, which had brought him a great reputation. During the 1950s, a phenomenon known as the “Generation Gap” developed in America. And in The Catcher in the Rye we can have a specific idea of what the so called “Generation Gap” is. The protagonist Holden is the typical image of the 1950s American teenagers. They behaved in a way opposite to the way of their parents; they lost their kindness and innocence in their adolescent year; they were doing everything possible against the society because none of them was satisfied with the society... And for Holden, he was suffering from his own spiritual problems: on the one hand he had to face the hopeless reality; on the other hand, there was a beautiful dreaming world deep in his heart. Therefore, even though he was interacting with people lacking in innocence, he himself was trying to keep his purity.5197
However, we tend to make a comparison between Holden in The Catcher in the Rye and the troubled teens nowadays. As it is known to all, the “Generation Gap” is still widening now in almost every country. Thus, reading and analyzing the way how Holden reacted and the way he interacted with different groups of people can be of great help in finding solutions for the generation gap problem. More than that, in a more general sense we can also know more and know better about the adolescents’ psychological world.
（2）Current research of The Catcher in the Rye
Ever since the publication of The Catcher in the Rye, a lot of researches have been done by scholars from all over the world. In China, The Catcher in the Rye was translated into Chinese and introduced by Shi xiaorong, circulating internally. In 1983, the translated version was published and after 1992, the publication of this book was expanded. However, at that time, there were not so many comments on the book. The academic world remained silent until the publication of the critical thesis: A Repeating Scene: Life Choices on the Cliff by Yu jianhua. Since then, more and more comments and introductions of this book began to appear on the academic journals and newspaper.
    In China, the critics try their best to reveal the multiple values and meanings of the novel. Also, in the aspect of psychological analysis of the protagonist Holden, there are a lot of papers covering different methods and different aspects to analyze. Finally for the image of Holden, there are also various ideas too. For example, Zhang jieming holds the idea that Holden’s image is an unusual rebel; while some critics assert that Holden is the catcher of the spiritual purity of that time
    Apart from the analysis developing in China, there are a lot of researches done abroad too. The first influential analysis of The Catcher in the Rye was finished by Arthur Heiserman and James E. Miller. In the eyes of Heiserman and Miller, Holden has become the center of the critics since the novel has been published. However, they seem to have ignored the causes that contributed to the complicated characteristic of the protagonist Holden.
    Moreover, there are also some analysis of the symbolism and techniques employed by the author J.D.Salinger. Taking all the complementary papers mentioned above into consideration, The Catcher in the Rye is a classic novel worth reading all the time.
（3）Literature Review
    The analysis on the Protagonist’s spiritual world will be finished with the help of some
papers or passages concerning the characteristics of Holden, the psychological analysis of
children in The Catcher in the Rye and some materials related to the social background of
America in 1950s.
    Is J.D.Slinger’s ‘The Catcher in The Rye’ Moral or Immoral analyses kindness, love
and purity of Holden. It shows us another side of Holden’s spiritual world, for example, his love for his sister. Also, from this analysis we can notice that religion, in his mind, should be simple, not gawky and profit-making.  All in all, after reading this passage we can find another side of Holden easily. 《麦田里的守望者》英语论文开题报告和文献综述:http://www.751com.cn/kaiti/lunwen_2148.html