The Freemason in the Rye
J D Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye is a work with many mysteries attached to it. Perhaps the least of these is that, though the story is both incoherent and morally destructive, it has been forced-fed to adolescents by America’s public school system for sixty years. A mystery more often cited by the public press, however, has been the book’s odd association with assassinations.
In fact, among the assassins purportedly in possession of Catcher in the Rye were three of the most famous in history. Mark David Chapman, after he had shot and killed John Lennon, calmly opened his copy of Catcher in the Rye and proceeded to read it before being apprehended. John Hinckley was also carrying the book while attempting to kill Ronald Reagan. It is alleged that Lee Harvey Oswald had a copy in his apartment and that it was one of his favorite books, though this is disputed.
The strange cluster of individuals in possession of the book at the time they assassinated a famous person have led some to speculate that the book is somehow a trigger for ‘mind controlled’ subjects, as was the case for the assassin who was depicted in the book and film ‘The Manchurian Candidate’.
In this article I will decode the symbolic framework of the Catcher in the Rye and this will explain why the assassins possessed it. The book was not a trigger for the murders, rather it was a warning to those who understood the book’s occulted meaning. The warning was that they maintain silence about the doings of what Salinger described as a “secret fraternity” upon threat of death.
To start with the first thing, the title of the book has not been understood. The ‘Catcher in the Rye’ has a dual symbolic meaning. It links to a Robert Burns’ poem that for some reason Holden Caulfield misquotes, as is well known. But what has been overlooked is that a ‘catcher in the rye’ is the scythe that the grim reaper holds and the phrase therefore can be seen as a representation of the Apocalypse.
On its surface, Catcher in the Rye appears to center on the internal life of Holden Caulfield, a neurotic seventeen year old who is expelled from his prep school. However, its symbolic meaning reveals a process whereby Caulfield, having failed to progress through Freemasonry’s ‘levels’ in his first attempt, nevertheless perseveres and obtains the knowledge needed to rise up through the levels and learn the deepest secret of the “secret fraternity”. Is is useful to recognize that Salinger appears to be following the levels of Freemasonry – to the extent that they are known – in the order a Mason would follow.
The kind of Freemasonry Salinger symbolically described was not the beneficial stereotype, but rather an organization with a sinister and secret agenda. At the book’s conclusion, Holden Caulfield has become a ‘Master Mason’ and is permitted to enter the ‘Holy of Holies’ to learn the ultimate secret of the Freemasons which, apparently, is that the “Sons of Light” as Robert Burns describes Freemasons, have sworn to implement an Apocalypse on all non-Masons and to kill anyone who exposes the organization’s plan.
The Catcher in the Rye describes many ‘secrets’ that cannot be discussed. For example, the book begins with the central character, Holden Caulfield, noting “my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them. They’re quite touchy about anything like that, especially my father.”
Given the analysis below. the personal details the father does not wished disclosed is his membership in a secret society – Freemasonry.
The central puzzle of The Catcher in the Rye is the identity of the “secret fraternity“ that existed in Holden Caulfield’s school and he had joined:
“And they had this goddam secret fraternity that I was too yellow not to join.”
To digress, it is noteworthy that Salinger attended high school at Valley Forge Military Academy, which has as its motto “Tria Juncta In Uno”, a pledge used in Masonic rites to symbolize unity. This suggests the school is where Salinger was introduced to Freemasonry and went through its basic levels and that The Catcher in the Rye was likely based upon Salinger’s high school experience.
To learn the identity of the “secret fraternity”, a reader must decode the book’s symbolic level. In other words, the experiences of Holden Caulfield represent something other than that of the book’s surface narration. Often Salinger is symbolically describing Freemason initiation rites with his descriptions of the travails of the neurotic teenager. This understanding enables Salinger’s hidden, murderous message to become comprehensible.
Catcher in the Rye’s symbolism is difficult to detect and has remained hidden from the public because the framework that much of it is based upon – the initiation rites of the Freemasons – are often secret and may not be uniform from one lodge to another. Fortunately, descriptions of many the rites have been published, and it is obvious when comparing the ‘type scenes’ in Catcher in the Rye to these descriptions that Salinger is connecting his story directly to them.
Studying ‘the Egyptians’ for 28 days
The first clue Salinger provides to the identity of the ‘secret society’ is given in a scene at the beginning of the book where Caulfield is discussing his grade with his history teacher, Mr. Spencer, who states that Caulfield “studied the Egyptians” for twenty-eight days and then failed a test about the subject.
“We studied the Egyptians from November 4th to December 2nd,” he said. “You chose to write about them for the optional essay question. Would you care to hear what you had to say?”
“No, sir, not very much,” I said.”
While the symbolism is oblique, once a reader adopts the correct interpretive framework, the meaning is transparent. The “secret fraternity” referred to above is the Freemasons, and the twenty-eight days spent studying the Egyptians refers to the period of studying a candidate must spend between the time of his initiation as an “Entered Apprentice”, to the time he takes the exam to become a second degree Mason.
One lodges’ handbook describes this as follows: “ Once the coach is confident the new brother has memorized the material and can proficiently recite it by memory, the meeting to “pass” the Entered Apprentice to the degree of Fellow Craft is scheduled. An Entered Apprentice cannot pass sooner than 28 days from his initiation.”
Salinger is using the concept of the ‘Egyptians’ to represent the Freemasons because the organization claims lineage from the ancient Egyptians and uses their symbols in its rites. Understanding that Salinger is using “Egyptians’ to represent Freemasonry is key to decoding the passage wherein Holden Caulfield is given the organization’s deepest secret.
Sleeping in Eli’s Bed
The next example of how Salinger weaves aspects of a Freemason’s going through the initiations of the different levels is his passage depicting ‘Ely’s bed’ — a concept he repeats three times. The passage is such an obvious depiction of the Freemason ritual it is surprising it has never been decoded before.
“ That got him excited. “He did? No kidding? He did?”
I told him I was only kidding, and then I went over and laid down on Ely’s bed. Boy, did I feel rotten. I felt so damn lonesome.
“This room stinks,” I said. “I can smell your socks from way over here. Don’tcha ever send them to the laundry?”
“If you don’t like it, you know what you can do,” Ackley said. What a witty guy.
“How ’bout turning off the goddam light?”
I didn’t turn it off right away, though. I just kept laying there on Ely’s bed, thinking about Jane and all. It just drove me stark staring mad when I thought about her and Stradlater parked somewhere in that fat-assed Ed Banky’s car. Every time I thought about it, I felt like jumping out the window. The thing is, you didn’t know Stradlater. I knew him. Most guys at Pencey just talked about having sexual intercourse with girls all the time–like Ackley, for instance–but old Stradlater really did it. I was personally acquainted with at least two girls he gave the time to. That’s the truth.
“Tell me the story of your fascinating life, Ackley kid,” I said.
“How ’bout turning off the goddam light? I gotta get up for Mass in the morning.” I got up and turned it off, if it made him happy. Then I laid down on Ely’s bed again.
“What’re ya gonna do–sleep in Ely’s bed?” Ackley said. He was the perfect host, boy.”
Salinger is symbolically describing the ‘Introduction to the Prophetical Office’, a rite of Freemasonry in which someone is described lying down in Eli’s bed and the light being turned off. This is part of the ritual of the “Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch”. (The scriptural quote is 1 Samuel 3.)
“ In the introduction to the Prophetical Office the following passage is read: “And the child Samuel administered to the Lord before Eli. And it came to pass at that time when Eli was laid down in his place and his eyes began to wax dim that he could not see because the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord. And Samuel was laid down to sleep and the Lord called Samuel and he answered “Here I am for thou called me” And He said “Lie down again for I called not.” (Freemason Manual, Jeremiah How, Ch. 16, p. 180.)
The ‘people-shooting hat’
Salinger then brings up the most important image in the book, Caulfield’s red ‘people-shooting hat’. As is often the case in cryptic writing, the literal but unexpected meaning is the correct one. In other words, Holden will wear the hat while he is figuratively shooting people at the book’s conclusion.
In Freemasonry, a red hat, often a fez, is associated with the both Shriners, and Scottish Rite Freemasonry, wherein a red cap can denote a Knight Commander of the Court of Honour.
“ He took another look at my hat while he was cleaning them. “Up home we wear a hat like that to shoot deer in, for Chrissake,” he said. “That’s a deer shooting hat.”
“Like hell it is.” I took it off and looked at it. I sort of closed one eye, like I was taking aim at it. “This is a people shooting hat,” I said. “I shoot people in this hat.”
Notice that Salinger invokes the concept “one eye” in the passage. He does so to invoke the ‘one eye’ of Providence, or the ancient Egyptian Eye of Horus; or, if you prefer, the all-seeing ‘eye of God’ floating at the peak of the unfinished pyramid on the US dollar bill. It is, of course, a renowned symbol of Freemasonry. For Salinger, it is an eyeball taking aim down the barrel of a rifle, an evil eye, a harbinger of death and genocide.
Seeking the Hand of the Sighted One
Salinger then goes on to describe a ‘blind person who seeks the hand of a sighted one.” This is another representation of a known lower level Freemason initiation ritual wherein the initiate is blindfolded, holds the hand of his mentors, and then is knocked to the ground in imitation of the death of Hiram Abiff.
“ I slid way the hell down in my chair and watched old Ackley making himself at home. I was feeling sort of tired from the trip to New York and all, and I started yawning. Then I started horsing around a little bit. Sometimes I horse around quite a lot, just to keep from getting bored. What I did was, I pulled the old peak of my hunting hat around to the front, then pulled it way down over my eyes. That way, I couldn’t see a goddam thing. “I think I’m going blind,” I said in this very hoarse voice. “Mother darling, everything’s getting so dark in here.”
“You’re nuts. I swear to God,” Ackley said.
“Mother darling, give me your hand, Why won’t you give me your hand?”
“For Chrissake, grow up.”
I started groping around in front of me, like a blind guy, but without getting up or anything. I kept saying, “Mother darling, why won’t you give me your hand?” I was only horsing around, naturally. That stuff gives me a bang sometimes. Besides, I know it annoyed hell out of old Ackley. He always brought out the old sadist in me. I was pretty sadistic with him quite often. Finally, I quit, though. I pulled the peak around to the back again, and relaxed.”
Then he really let one go at me, and the next thing I knew I was on the goddam floor again. I don’t remember if he knocked me out or not, but I don’t think so. It’s pretty hard to knock a guy out, except in the goddam movies. But my nose was bleeding all over the place. When I looked up old Stradlater was standing practically right on top of me. He had his goddam toilet kit under his arm. “Why the hell don’tcha shut up when I tellya to?”
The lunatic that cut himself with stones
Later that night, as he is trying to go to sleep, Salinger shows his awareness of the typology in the Gospels with his reference to the story of the Demon of Gadara, from Mark 5:1-20 (also found in Luke 8:26-39). He understands that the Gospels’ description of the ‘lunatic’ who “cut himself with stones” is deliberate wordplay. This is because a ‘stone-cutter’ is a ‘Tekton’, the Greek word for a stonemason, architect or Freemason.
“ I’m sort of an atheist. I like Jesus and all, but I don’t care too much for most of the other stuff in the Bible. Take the Disciples, for instance. They annoy the hell out of me, if you want to know the truth. They were all right after Jesus was dead and all, but while He was alive, they were about as much use to Him as a hole in the head. All they did was keep letting Him down. I like almost anybody in the Bible better than the Disciples. If you want to know the truth, the guy I like best in the Bible, next to Jesus, was that lunatic and all, that lived in the tombs and kept cutting himself with stones. I like him ten times as much as the Disciples, that poor bastard.”
In Caesar’s Messiah the typology concerning the “lunatic” who ‘cut himself with stones’ is explained as follows:
“ I noticed that at the conclusion of the siege of Jerusalem in Wars of the Jews, Simon and John both take refuge in subterranean caverns beneath Jerusalem. Eventually they are forced by starvation to come out of these “tombs” and surrender to the Romans. This event struck me as a parallel to the description of the demon-possessed men “coming out of the tombs” in the New Testament.
The passage in Wars of the Jews that describes these caverns confirms that they are indeed “tombs.”
“. . . the Romans slew some of them, some they carried captives, and others they made a search for underground, and when they found where they were, they broke up the ground and slew all they met with.
There were also found slain there above two thousand persons, partly by their own hands, and partly by one another, but chiefly destroyed by the famine;
but then the ill savor of the dead bodies was most offensive to those that lighted upon them, insomuch that some were obliged to get away immediately . . .”
As I have mentioned, the demon-possessed man at Gadara is described as “cutting himself with stones.” Cutting oneself with “stones” is, of course, unusual—a stone is not a tool someone would normally use to cut with. What is the author of this passage actually referring to? I realized that if the demoniacs of Gadara are intended to satirize the rebel leaders, then there was a satiric answer to this question.
The phrase in the New Testament where the demoniac is “in the tombs . . . cutting himself with stones” shares a darkly humorous relationship with the passage in Wars of the Jews that describes the “tombs” that John and Simon take refuge in. The scornful joke comes from the unanswered question in Mark 5:5 – this question being, what does one call someone who cuts himself with stones? In a passage in Wars of the Jews relating to the rebel leader’s hiding in the “tombs,” one can see an ironic answer. Someone who cuts himself with stones is “stone-cut,” and can therefore mockingly be called a “stone-cutter.”
“This Simon, during the siege of Jerusalem, was in the upper city; but when the Roman army was gotten within the walls, and were laying the city waste, he then took the most faithful of his friends with him, and among them some that were stonecutters, with those iron tools which belonged to their occupation.”The War of the Jews 7:2:1
If, indeed, Salinger was aware of this entire typological scenario, then Caulfield was expressing that he felt the sympathy and identification with Simon and John, the actual heroes of the Jewish rebel movement.
The Freemason in the Rye
The most important puzzle to solve to understand the real meaning of Catcher in the Rye is Caulfield’s ‘misunderstanding’ of the freemason Robert Burns’ poem: ‘Coming through the Rye’. Caulfield overhears a child singing the song.
Here is one version of Burns poem:
“Coming thro’ the Rye” (1796)
Coming thro’ the rye, poor body,
Coming thro’ the rye,
She draiglet a’ her petticoatie
Coming thro’ the rye.
O, Jenny’s a’ wat, poor body;
Jenny’s seldom dry;
She draiglet a’ her petticoatie
Coming thro’ the rye.
Gin a body meet a body
Coming thro’ the rye,
Gin a body kiss a body—
Need a body cry?
Gin a body meet a body
Coming thro’ the glen,
Gin a body kiss a body—
Need the warld ken?
Even in the above G-rated version, the poem is clearly discussing a sexual encounter in the tall grass. Another, less well-known version spells it out.
Here is the ‘whorehouse’ version of the song that was sung in the Scottish pubs Robert Burns visited.
O gin a body meet a body,
Comin’ throu the rye:
Gin a body fuck a body,
Need a body cry.
Comin’ thro’ the rye, my jo,
An’ coming’ thro’ the rye;
She fand a staun o’ staunin’ graith,
Comin’ thro’ the rye.
Gin a body meet a body,
Comin’ thro’ the glen;
Gin a body fuck a body,
Need the warld ken.
Gin a body meet a body,
Comin’ thro the grain;
Gin a body fuck a body,
Cunt’s a body’s ain.
Gin a body meet a body,
By a body’s sel,
What na body fucks a body,
Wad a body tell.
Mony a body meets a body,
They dare na weel avow;
Mony a body fucks a body,
Ye wadna think its true.
In order to understand which version the child was singing requires recognizing the image given in the passage directly preceding the one in which the child is singing Burn’s song.
“ There was this record I wanted to get for Phoebe, called “Little Shirley Beans.” It was a very hard record to get. It was about a little kid that wouldn’t go out of the house because two of her front teeth were out and she was ashamed to. I heard it at Pencey. A boy that lived on the next floor had it, and I tried to buy it off him because I knew it would knock old Phoebe out, but he wouldn’t sell it. It was a very old, terrific record that this colored girl singer, Estelle Fletcher, made about twenty years ago. She sings it very Dixieland and whorehouse, and it doesn’t sound at all mushy.”
Notice that the song ‘Little Shirley Beans’ is for children, but for some reason the singer gives a “whorehouse” version of the song. This is the framework the author wishes a reader to use in the next paragraph; where we encounter the description of the mysterious ‘catcher’ in the rye.
Holden believes he overhears a child singing, “If a body catch a body coming through the rye.” This lyric does not occur in either version of the Burns song; the phrase is either “when a body meet a body” or “when a body fuck a body”. Holden understands the words of the song in a way they were never written. The alert reader will recognize that the child is singing – as in the paragraph above – the “whorehouse” version of the song, which Caulfield will understand at the book’s end.
Where Caulfield mistakenly heard ‘catch’, the child must have been singing ‘fuck’. Salinger’s ‘real’ title is therefore ‘Fucker in the Rye’ and this describes Caulfield’s ‘revelation’ in the Freemason’s holy of holies given below. In other words, the deepest secret of Freemasonry is “fuck you”, which appears to be an Apocalypse to non-Freemasons and death to members that are traitors to the organization. Understanding that Salinger is relating to the ‘fuck you’ version of the song to allows the story’s cryptic ending to be understood as shown below.
Walking the straight line
Notice that the child who is singing the song is walking is straight line. This is something that children seldom do, but is a requirement within Freemason lodges; which reveals the identity of the ‘church’ the family has just left.
“ It wasn’t as cold as it was the day before, but the sun still wasn’t out, and it wasn’t too nice for walking. But there was one nice thing. This family that you could tell just came out of some church were walking right in front of me–a father, a mother, and a little kid about six years old. They looked sort of poor. The father had on one of those pearl-gray hats that poor guys wear a lot when they want to look sharp. He and his wife were just walking along, talking, not paying any attention to their kid. The kid was swell. He was walking in the street, instead of on the sidewalk, but right next to the curb. He was making out like he was walking a very straight line, the way kids do, and the whole time he kept singing and humming. I got up closer so I could hear what he was singing. He was singing that song, “If a body catch a body coming through the rye.” He had a pretty little voice, too. He was just singing for the hell of it, you could tell. The cars zoomed by, brakes screeched all over the place, his parents paid no attention to him, and he kept on walking next to the curb and singing “If a body catch a body coming through the rye.” It made me feel better. It made me feel not so depressed any more.”
Following his encounter with the singing child, Caulfield comes to a museum which he cannot enter. This is because the museum contains the ‘ancient Egyptians’ and represents a Freemason Temple with its holy of holies. Caulfield cannot go in because he does not yet have the knowledge that he needs to be permitted to be given the organization’s deepest secret. This information will come from his encounter with Antolini.
“Then a funny thing happened. When I got to the museum, all of a sudden I wouldn’t have gone inside for a million bucks. It just didn’t appeal to me–and here I’d walked through the whole goddam park and looked forward to it and all. If Phoebe’d been there, I probably would have, but she wasn’t. So all I did, in front of the museum, was get a cab and go down to the Biltmore.”
Albert Pike thinks he’s hot stuff
Salinger makes another cryptic homage to a famous freemason, this time to Albert Pike, the best known American freemason. “Al Pike” is described as someone who was “conceited”. This is depicting Albert Pike’s delineation between the vast intellect of high level Freemasons and those who are not permitted to enter the inner circle. I suspect that the cryptic story about ‘Al Pike’ is to suggest the level of Freemasonry Holden Caulfield will be initiated into below, which only allows those who are no longer in the ‘Egyptian darkness’.
Notice that by Pike refers to low level Freemasons as being in an “Egyptian darkness”, which supports our understanding that Salinger is using ‘Egyptian’ as a synonym for Freemasonry.
“ It should be noted, that the great majority of Masons are far from being “initiated” and “are grovelling in Egyptian darkness” (Chr., 1878, II, 28). “The Masonry of the higher degrees,” says Pike[4], I, 311), “teaches the great truths of intellectual science;
Thus, Salinger’s satirical depiction of Pike rings true:
“ She was dating this terrible guy, Al Pike, that went to Choate. I didn’t know him too well, but he was always hanging around the swimming pool. He wore those white Lastex kind of swimming trunks, and he was always going off the high dive. He did the same lousy old half gainer all day long. It was the only dive he could do, but he thought he was very hot stuff.”
Caulfield then describes his misunderstanding of Burns’ song to his sister. His confusion causes him to envision a future where he attempts to help children who are, for some reason, jumping off a cliff. Phoebe repeats the warning that “Daddy’s going to kill you.” We have already been told that Caulfield’s Daddy has secrets; in other words, that Daddy is a Freemason and will not approve of his helping the children of non’Masons. Notice that Phoebe’s warning is incoherent until the correct framework is applied.
“ I wasn’t listening, though. I was thinking about something else–something crazy. “You know what I’d like to be?” I said. “You know what I’d like to be? I mean if I had my goddam choice?”
“What? Stop swearing.”
“You know that song ‘If a body catch a body comin’ through the rye’? I’d like–” “It’s ‘If a body meet a body coming through the rye’!” old Phoebe said. “It’s a poem. By Robert Burns.”
“I know it’s a poem by Robert Burns.”
She was right, though. It is “If a body meet a body coming through the rye.” I didn’t know it then, though.
“I thought it was ‘If a body catch a body,’” I said. “Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around–nobody big, I mean–except me. And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff – I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing I’d really like to be. I know it’s crazy.”
Old Phoebe didn’t say anything for a long time. Then, when she said something, all she said was, “Daddy’s going to kill you.”
Master Mason and Gaining Entry to the Inner Sanctum
Caulfield decides to go take a final lesson in the Craft, which will allow him to enter the holy of holies and learn the ultimate secret of Freemasonry. The lesson is to be given to him by Mr. Antolini. ‘Anto’ ‘lini’ means ‘different line’ and I suggest indicates a different messianic lineage than that of Christianity, the destruction of which appears to be a goal of Freemasonry.
“Mr. Antolini didn’t say anything for a while. He got up and got another hunk of ice and put it in his drink, then he sat down again. You could tell he was thinking. I kept wishing, though, that he’d continue the conversation in the morning, instead of now, but he was hot. People are mostly hot to have a discussion when you’re not.
“All right. Listen to me a minute now . . . I may not word this as memorably as I’d like to, but I’ll write you a letter about it in a day or two. Then you can get it all straight. But listen now, anyway.” He started concentrating again. Then he said, “This fall I think you’re riding for–it’s a special kind of fall, a horrible kind. The man falling isn’t permitted to feel or hear himself hit bottom. He just keeps falling and falling. The whole arrangement’s designed for men who, at some time or other in their lives, were looking for something their own environment couldn’t supply them with. Or they thought their own environment couldn’t supply them with. So they gave up looking. They gave it up before they ever really even got started. You follow me?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Sure?”
“Yes.”
He got up and poured some more booze in his glass. Then he sat down again. He didn’t say anything for a long time.
“I don’t want to scare you,” he said, “but I can very clearly see you dying nobly, one way or another, for some highly unworthy cause.”
Antolini is suggesting that Holden Caulfield can either be in the ‘secret fraternity’ or die for a cause (that is, Christianity) that is worthless. This threat will be repeated at the story’s conclusion and is the reason the book is associated with so assassinations.
“ He gave me a funny look. “If I write something down for you, will you read it carefully? And keep it?”
“Yes. Sure,” I said. I did, too. I still have the paper he gave me.
He went over to this desk on the other side of the room, and without sitting down wrote something on a piece of paper. Then he came back and sat down with the paper in his hand. “Oddly enough, this wasn’t written by a practicing poet. It was written by a psychoanalyst named Wilhelm Stekel. Here’s what he–Are you still with me?”
Wilhelm Stekel, a colleague of Freud, like ‘Al Pike’ is another famous Mason. Stekel wrote “The Symbolism of Freemasonry”, thus Salinger is providing a clue to understanding his book.
“Yes, sure I am.”
The ‘advice’ Antolini writes down for Caulfield describes the fact that from now on he must live ‘humbly’ for a cause, that is, as a high level Mason he must live with a secret and without revealing its real purpose.
“Here’s what he said: ‘The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.’”
“ He leaned over and handed it to me. I read it right when he gave it to me, and then I thanked him and all and put it in my pocket. It was nice of him to go to all that trouble. It really was. The thing was, though, I didn’t feel much like concentrating. Boy, I felt so damn tired all of a sudden.
You could tell he wasn’t tired at all, though. He was pretty oiled up, for one thing. “I think that one of these days,” he said, “you’re going to have to find out where you want to go. And then you’ve got to start going there. But immediately. You can’t afford to lose a minute. Not you.”
I nodded, because he was looking right at me and all, but I wasn’t too sure what he was talking about. I was pretty sure I knew, but I wasn’t too positive at the time. I was too damn tired.
Finally, Caulfield has the necessary knowledge – the understanding that he must live ‘humbly’ or without public flamboyance or disclosure of the cause he lives for. Antolini then administers the ceremony of the Master Mason which incorporates darkness and blows to the head in a symbolic and dramatic way, particularly in the reenactment of the Hiram Abiff legend:
Descriptions of the ceremony indicate that the candidate plays the role of Hiram Abiff, the mythical architect of Solomon’s Temple, who is allegorically killed by three ruffians. During this ritual, the candidate may be placed in a position symbolizing death, often lying down in a darkened or symbolically “dark” state to represent mortality. While the lodge itself is not necessarily darkened, the candidate’s experience of being “slain” and later “raised” (revived) by the Worshipful Master mirrors the darkness-to-light theme. The ritual includes symbolic blows, sometimes described as targeting the head, to represent Hiram’s death. These are ceremonial and not physically harmful, often mimed or performed with minimal contact.
Of course, the initiated Mason is not supposed “to talk about it”.
“ Then something happened. I don’t even like to talk about it.
I woke up all of a sudden. I don’t know what time it was or anything, but I woke up. I felt something on my head, some guy’s hand. Boy, it really scared hell out of me. What it was, it was Mr. Antolini’s hand. What he was doing was, he was sitting on the floor right next to the couch, in the dark and all, and he was sort of petting me or patting me on the goddam head. Boy, I’ll bet I jumped about a thousand feet.
“What the hellya doing?” I said.
“Nothing! I’m simply sitting here, admiring–“
“What’re ya doing, anyway?” I said over again. I didn’t know what the hell to say-
-I mean I was embarrassed as hell.
“How ’bout keeping your voice down? I’m simply sitting here–“
“I have to go, anyway,” I said–boy, was I nervous! I started putting on my damn pants in the dark. I could hardly get them on I was so damn nervous. I know more damn perverts, at schools and all, than anybody you ever met, and they’re always being perverty when I’m around.”
Now that he has been initiated as a Master Mason Caulfield is ready to learn the deepest secret of the Freemasons, which is found within the Holy of Holies, a room inside the Freemason Temple.
The following is a description of the Holy of Holies that is inside every Freemason Temple:
“Every student of Jewish antiquities knows and every Freemason who has taken the Third Degree ought to knows, what was the peculiar construction, character, and uses of the Sanctum Sanctorum or Holly [sic] of Holies in King Solomon’s Temple. Situated in the western end of the Temple, separated from the rest of the building by a heavy curtain, and enclosed on three sides by dead walls without any aperture or window, it contained the sacred Ark of the Covenant, and was secluded and set apart from all intrusion save of the High Priest, who only entered it on certain solemn occasions. As it was the most sacred of the three parts of the Temple, so has it been made symbolic of a Master’s Lodge, in which are performed the most sacred rites of initiation in Ancient Craft Freemasonry.
As he leaves Antolini’s home, Caulfield is shaken by a seeing a curse of ‘Fuck you’. The message is ominous, particularly as it is was given with indelible handwriting on the wall.
“ While I was walking up the stairs, though, all of a sudden I thought I was going to puke again. Only, I didn’t. I sat down for a second, and then I felt better. But while I was sitting down, I saw something that drove me crazy. Somebody’d written “Fuck you” on the wall. It drove me damn near crazy. I thought how Phoebe and all the other little kids would see it, and how they’d wonder what the hell it meant, and then finally some dirty kid would tell them–all cockeyed, naturally–what it meant, and how they’d all think about it and maybe even worry about it for a couple of days. I kept wanting to kill whoever’d written it. I figured it was some perverty bum that’d sneaked in the school late at night to take a leak or something and then wrote it on the wall. I kept picturing myself catching him at it, and how I’d smash his head on the stone steps till he was good and goddam dead and bloody. But I knew, too, I wouldn’t have the guts to do it. I knew that. That made me even more depressed. I hardly even had the guts to rub it off the wall with my hand, if you want to know the truth. I was afraid some teacher would catch me rubbing it off and would think I’d written it. But I rubbed it out anyway, finally.
I went down by a different staircase, and I saw another “Fuck you” on the wall. I tried to rub it off with my hand again, but this one was scratched on, with a knife or something. It wouldn’t come off. It’s hopeless, anyway. If you had a million years to do it in, you couldn’t rub out even half the “Fuck you” signs in the world. It’s impossible.
I looked at the clock in the recess yard, and it was only twenty to twelve, so I had quite a lot of time to kill before I met old Phoebe. But I just walked over to the museum anyway. There wasn’t anyplace else to go. I thought maybe I might stop in a phone booth and give old Jane Gallagher a buzz before I started bumming my way west, but I wasn’t in the mood. For one thing, I wasn’t even sure she was home for vacation yet. So I just went over to the museum, and hung around.
While I was waiting around for Phoebe in the museum, right inside the doors and all, these two little kids came up to me and asked me if I knew where the mummies were. The one little kid, the one that asked me, had his pants open. I told him about it. So he buttoned them up right where he was standing talking to me–he didn’t even bother to go behind a post or anything. He killed me. I would’ve laughed, but I was afraid I’d feel like vomiting again, so I didn’t. “Where’re the mummies, fella?” the kid said again. “Ya know?”
I horsed around with the two of them a little bit. “The mummies? What’re they?” I asked the one kid.
“You know. The mummies–them dead guys. That get buried in them toons and all.”
Toons. That killed me. He meant tombs.
“How come you two guys aren’t in school?” I said.
“No school t’day,” the kid that did all the talking said. He was lying, sure as I’m alive, the little bastard. I didn’t have anything to do, though, till old Phoebe showed up, so I helped them find the place where the mummies were. Boy, I used to know exactly where they were, but I hadn’t been in that museum in years.”
In the next passage the two ‘brothers’ – experienced Freemasons – accompany Caulfield to the Holy of Holies. He is now ready to learn the truth.
“You two guys so interested in mummies?” I said. “Yeah.”
“Can’t your friend talk?” I said.
“He ain’t my friend. He’s my brudda.”
“Can’t he talk?” I looked at the one that wasn’t doing any talking. “Can’t you talk at all?” I asked him.
“Yeah,” he said. “I don’t feel like it.”
Finally we found the place where the mummies were, and we went in.
“You know how the Egyptians buried their dead?” I asked the one kid. “Naa.”
“Well, you should. It’s very interesting. They wrapped their faces up in these cloths that were treated with some secret chemical. That way they could be buried in their tombs for thousands of years and their faces wouldn’t rot or anything. Nobody knows how to do it except the Egyptians. Even modern science.”
To get to where the mummies were, you had to go down this very narrow sort of hall with stones on the side that they’d taken right out of this Pharaoh’s tomb and all. It was pretty spooky, and you could tell the two hot-shots I was with weren’t enjoying it too much. They stuck close as hell to me, and the one that didn’t talk at all practically was holding onto my sleeve. “Let’s go,” he said to his brother. “I seen ’em awreddy. C’mon, hey.” He turned around and beat it.
“He’s got a yella streak a mile wide,” the other one said. “So long!” He beat it too.
Caulfield enters the inner sanctum and learns that Masonry’s deepest secret is “Fuck You”.
I was the only one left in the tomb then. I sort of liked it, in a way. It was so nice and peaceful. Then, all of a sudden, you’d never guess what I saw on the wall. Another “Fuck you.” It was written with a red crayon or something, right under the glass part of the wall, under the stones.”
As I interpret the passage, “Fuck You” is an oath taken to the death by all Masons in the high levels– it will be on their gravestones. Notice that there is no place on earth that one can escape this curse, indicating that the goal of the organization to have the planet to itself.
“ That’s the whole trouble. You can’t ever find a place that’s nice and peaceful, because there isn’t any. You may think there is, but once you get there, when you’re not looking, somebody’ll sneak up and write “Fuck you” right under your nose. Try it sometime. I think, even, if I ever die, and they stick me in a cemetery, and I have a tombstone and all, it’ll say “Holden Caulfield” on it, and then what year I was born and what year I died, and then right under that it’ll say “Fuck you.” I’m positive, in fact.”
Acceptance and commitment
At the story’s end Caulfield now has the ultimate knowledge, and understands his role as a Freemason. He no longer wishes to “catch” the children; rather he is a ‘fucker in the rye’ who lets them fall. He is wearing his shooting hat and is deliriously happy as he is soaked by falling rain. The horses on the merry go round symbolize the ‘four horsemen’ who ride at the Apocalypse where the ‘catcher in the rye’ gathers in the dead.
The “smoke in your eyes” and the ‘people shooting hat’ Caulfield is wearing both suggest he is firing a rifle. I believe Salinger is indicating that Caulfield is “so damn happy” because he is fantasying about murdering the children in his new role as Master Mason, though he could also be describing an actual mass murder.
“Maybe I will the next time. I’ll watch ya,” I said. “Got your ticket?”
“Yes.”
“Go ahead, then–I’ll be on this bench right over here. I’ll watch ya.” I went over and sat down on this bench, and she went and got on the carrousel. She walked all around it. I mean she walked once all the way around it. Then she sat down on this big, brown, beat-up-looking old horse. Then the carrousel started, and I watched her go around and around. There were only about five or six other kids on the ride, and the song the carrousel was playing was “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.” It was playing it very jazzy and funny. All the kids kept trying to grab for the gold ring, and so was old Phoebe, and I was sort of afraid she’d fall off the goddam horse, but I didn’t say anything or do anything. The thing with kids is, if they want to grab the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off they fall off, but it’s bad if you say anything to them.
When the ride was over she got off her horse and came over to me. “You ride once, too, this time,” she said.
“No, I’ll just watch ya. I think I’ll just watch,” I said. I gave her some more of her dough. “Here. Get some more tickets.”
She took the dough off me. “I’m not mad at you any more,” she said.
“I know. Hurry up–the thing’s gonna start again.”
Then all of a sudden she gave me a kiss. Then she held her hand out, and said,
“It’s raining. It’s starting to rain.” “I know.”
Then what she did–it damn near killed me–she reached in my coat pocket and took out my red hunting hat and put it on my head.
“Don’t you want it?” I said.
“You can wear it a while.”
“Okay. Hurry up, though, now. You’re gonna miss your ride. You won’t get your own horse or anything.”
She kept hanging around, though.
“Did you mean it what you said? You really aren’t going away anywhere? Are you really going home afterwards?” she asked me.
“Yeah,” I said. I meant it, too. I wasn’t lying to her. I really did go home afterwards. “Hurry up, now,” I said. “The thing’s starting.”
She ran and bought her ticket and got back on the goddam carrousel just in time.
Then she walked all the way around it till she got her own horse back. Then she got on it. She waved to me and I waved back.
Boy, it began to rain like a bastard. In buckets, I swear to God. All the parents and mothers and everybody went over and stood right under the roof of the carrousel, so they wouldn’t get soaked to the skin or anything, but I stuck around on the bench for quite a while. I got pretty soaking wet, especially my neck and my pants. My hunting hat really gave me quite a lot of protection, in a way; but I got soaked anyway. I didn’t care, though. I felt so damn happy all of sudden, the way old Phoebe kept going around and around. I was damn near bawling, I felt so damn happy, if you want to know the truth. I don’t know why. It was just that she looked so damn nice, the way she kept going around and around, in her blue coat and all. God, I wish you could’ve been there.”
In the book’s end Caulfield been sent off to some sort of rehabilitation camp on the West Coast, where he is being subjected to psychoanalysis, no doubt because of his experience at the merry go round.
“ That’s all I’m going to tell about. I could probably tell you what I did after I went home, and how I got sick and all, and what school I’m supposed to go to next fall, after I get out of here, but I don’t feel like it. I really don’t. That stuff doesn’t interest me too much right now.
A lot of people, especially this one psychoanalyst guy they have here, keeps asking me if I’m going apply myself when I go back to school next September. It’s such a stupid question, in my opinion. I mean how do you know what you’re going to do till you do it? The answer is, you don’t. I think I am, but how do I know? I swear it’s a stupid question.
D.B. asked me what I thought about all this stuff I just finished telling you about. I didn’t know what the hell to say. If you want to know the truth, I don’t know what I think about it. I’m sorry I told so many people about it. About all I know is, I sort of miss everybody I told about. Even old Stradlater and Ackley, for instance. I think I even miss that goddam Maurice. It’s funny. Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.”
Salinger already indicated the fate that will be coming to Stradlater, Ackley, and Maurice. In a previous passage he used prefiguration typology to subtly indicate Caulfield’s hostility towards them and the entire world. The passage shows Caulfield’s anger towards non-Mason; at the end he expresses a genocidal desire to ride an atomic bomb – likely the inspiration for the similar scene in the masonic Apocalyptic film Dr. Strangelove.
“ He once told Allie and I that if he’d had to shoot anybody, he wouldn’t’ve known which direction to shoot in. He said the Army was practically as full of bastards as the Nazis were. I remember Allie once asked him wasn’t it sort of good that he was in the war because he was a writer and it gave him a lot to write about and all. He made Allie go get his baseball mitt and then he asked him who was the best war poet, Rupert Brooke or Emily Dickinson. Allie said Emily Dickinson. I don’t know too much about it myself, because I don’t read much poetry, but I do know it’d drive me crazy if I had to be in the Army and be with a bunch of guys like Ackley and Stradlater and old Maurice all the time, marching with them and all. I was in the Boy Scouts once, for about a week, and I couldn’t even stand looking at the back of the guy’s neck in front of me. They kept telling you to look at the back of the guy’s neck in front of you. I swear if there’s ever another war, they better just take me out and stick me in front of a firing squad. I wouldn’t object. …Anyway, I’m sort of glad they’ve got the atomic bomb invented. If there’s ever another war, I’m going to sit right the hell on top of it. I’ll volunteer for it, I swear to God I will.”
The line above: “Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody” records that high-level Freemason must maintain the order’s secrets in strictest confidence or else they will start “missing everybody” – in other words be killed. This line was why the book was present at so many assassinations, to remind those who have sworn the oath to remain silent or be killed.
In an interview in Playboy magazine published just weeks before he was assassinated, John Lennon stated that while he still respected ‘craftsmen’ he didn’t want to be a ‘craftsman’ any longer. However, you cannot discuss any criticism of the ‘craft’ in public and this why his assassin was holding a copy of Catcher in the Rye as he stood over Lennon’s dead body waiting to be arrested.
Salinger’s warning repeated the one given by another Freemason, Mark Twain’s, at the conclusion of Tom Sawyer
“When are you going to start the gang and turn robbers?”
“Oh Right off. We’ll get the boys together and have the initiation tonight.”
“Have the which?”
“Have the initiation.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s to swear to stand by one another and never tell the gang’s secrets, even if you’re chopped all to flinders, and kill anybody and all his family that hurts one of the gang.”
Twain’s warning shows how long and how far-ranging the Freemasons’ control of culture and the political system has been. It exerts its pernicious influence over much of what we call democracy and popular culture, either alone, or as part of a many-tentacled system involving other equally secretive organizations. Hopefully the truth will come to light soon. This needs to happen because as Salinger wrote:
“ That’s the whole trouble. You can’t ever find a place that’s nice and peaceful, because there isn’t any. You may think there is, but once you get there, when you’re not looking, somebody’ll sneak up and write “Fuck you” right under your nose.”