《麦田里的守望者》是J. D. 赛林格发表的唯一的一部长篇小说。这部小说写于20世纪40年代，在1951年出版发行。这段时期美国处于二战结束后社会政治混乱和道德价值观混乱之际。物质生活虽然富裕，人们的精神世界却一片荒芜，没有了支撑。美国梦也已经失去了往日的美好，徒留一片虚幻。小说巧妙地构建了众多典型意象，如潘西中学、霍尔顿、麦田等，将战后美国梦的典型代表、主人公对美国梦的拒绝以及梦碎后的归属展现了出来。其中，潘西中学和纽约象征着美国梦的浮躁与虚幻；霍尔顿对凯迪拉克的拒绝和霍尔顿一身经典装扮象征了霍尔顿对美国梦的拒绝；艾力、菲比以及麦田则是美国梦碎后的精神归属。

 The Catcher in the Rye is J. D. Salinger’s only published full-length novel. The novel was written in 1940s and published in 1951. During this period of time, American was in the bad condition that society, politics and moral values were all in chaos after the end of World War II. Although the material life was very rich, people’s spiritual world was seriously empty. The American Dream has lost its former beauty. The novel skillfully constructed many typical images, such as Pansy, Holden, the rye, etc, to explore the epitome of American Dream in the novel, to reflect the disillusionment from the refusal to American Dream, as well as to show the belonging after the disillusion of American Dream. Pencey Prep and New York as the typical symbols of the American Dream show the impetuosity and unreality of the stale American Dream; the Cadillac and Holden’s classic dress express Holden’s rejection of American Dream; Allie, Phoebe and the rye are the spiritual belonging after the dream shattered.  

The Catcher in the Rye is distinguished for its great literary structure and deep worthwhile meaning as well as great moral and psychological insights. Once published, it attracts many critics. They wrote many critical essays respectively on the discussion and research on their exploration of the American Dream from the perspective of traditional literary criticism. For example, WH Sun wrote The Theme of American Dream and Its Research in The Catcher in the Rye. (Sun 90-92) YQ Huang had an article Holden’s Personality and Its Causes in The Catcher in the Rye. (Huang 25-27) Jin Hengshan analysed some images in the article The Symbolic Meaning of Containment in The Catcher in the Rye: The Contradiction in Holden and Its Solution. (Jin 87-95) Shui Caiqin also had a paper Symbolism in The Catcher in the Rye to expound the images in The Catcher in the Rye. (Shui  82-85) However, very little articles combine the specific images with American Dream in The Catcher in the Rye. So this paper wants to try to do some research on this aspect.

In the wake of developments in science and technology, the unprecedented prosperity of economy and the great abundance of material life, great changes have also taken place in the connotation of American Dream: moral idealism was completely reduced to material hedonism, and even worse. The life that “sit in the office, earn a lot of money, and drive a limousine Cadillac” (Salinger 14) has become an ideal of ordinary people, since they lost the spiritual pursuit that their ancestors assiduously seek from the begining of the emigrant to America. That spiritual pursuit judiciously combined the ideal with the reality. Ultimately, they become the slaves of the matter. This shocking reality is completely revealed in The Catcher in the Rye. This paper will show the glittering facade but heavily damaged reality in American society from the two typical representatives : Pencey Prep and New York.

Employing a variety of images, The Catcher in the Rye shows a 16-year-old boy’s brief experience during a day and two nights from the school to New York City, which vividly demonstrates the modern wasteland-like spiritual world under the shackles of American Dream and a brave young boy’s rebellion. The seemingly simple story is indeed a vivid annotation of the strong revolt against the false American Dream, which is a modern echo that advocates simplicity and spiritual life.

The novel, whether from its creative age or the works itself, both reflects the deterioration of the false American Dream. The utilitarian and materialistic school and the vulgar and degenerate society, both of them force Holden to flee and decide to become a  catcher in the rye. This character symbolizes the rejection and exclusion of material civilization by American writers, those who still adhere to the humanistic concern and the nostalgia for the original beautiful American Dream. Because by contrast, the rye is obviously  warmer, more poetic and more humane than the bustling New York.