Influences on "The Catcher in the Rye"

J.D. Salinger could have been influenced by a great number of things for his writing of The Catcher in the Rye. He could have gone to a boarding school when he was a young boy. While he was at that boarding school, he may have seen a boy escape. That boy may have lived in the same dorm as Salinger did. He may have even been Salinger's roommate. Salinger could have tracked down that boy later and found out what had happened to him. He also could have just seen the boy leave and them made up the rest. Maybe Salinger was the boy that had made the daring escape. He could have wanted to write down his adventures so he could tell his children and grandchildren the story without forgetting a thing. He could have left his boarding school, but wanted to embellish his story a little. He may have wanted to add some details to his story so he seems more adventurous. He could have been writing about himself to a girl, so he wanted to appear better or more dangerous than he really was. Salinger may have even been an adult and drawn on none of his experiences from his childhood in the process of writing The Catcher in the Rye. He may have found a teenage boy on the streets and asked him about his story. The boy may have explained everything in the book. He may have only told portions, leaving Salinger to fill in the holes, or he may have just told of his escape from his boarding school, letting Salinger's imagination do the rest of the work. Salinger could have been inspired by his personal childhood experiences, a boy that he knew from school, a boy that he met later in life, or he may have just made everything up. What influenced J.D. Salinger to write The Catcher in the Rye, the world may never know. All we know is that his book has been read by generations of people.