| Chapter 1: | The Catcher in the Rye |
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1.
The Catcher in the Rye. Moby-Dick. Hamlet. These three challenging works of literature are bound together much more closely than generally has been perceived, with ties that run in both directions across time—ties that will serve to guide us well as we enter each of their seemingly familiar worlds. By tracing those guidelines, we will be able to look more closely at The Catcher in the Rye and then at Moby-Dick to see how Salinger and Melville meticulously crafted these noted works with Hamlet firmly in mind. And, by way of exploring their crafting of the works, we will be led, in turn, to a greater understanding of Hamlet, for Shakespeare's influence upon the two authors will bring more clearly into view the presence of Shakespeare's controlling hand as he shaped his own most remarkable work.
There will be those who scoff at the idea of placing Salinger in the company of Shakespeare and Melville, since Salinger's writings, as well as his life, have raised clouds of confusion across more than half of a century now. His audience is still essentially divided into opposing groups: those who simply and intuitively enjoy, if not adore, his works, and those who react against such indiscriminate literary responses by critically attacking and,