The Rye Catcher: Analysis. The first lines of the novel see Holden Caulfield, and Salinger through him, signaling a departure and rejection of the genre, ~ A literary precedent stands out strikingly: The Catcher in the Rye is a kind of updating of The Adventures of Mark Twain. Huckleberry Finn 1884. Both stories are told by their teenage son. He burst onto the literary scene with the publication of his famous short story, A Perfect Day for Bananafish. Just three years later, he published The Catcher in the Rye and cemented his reputation as one of the greatest authors of the 18th century. The celebrity disagreed with Salinger, and he became a recluse, publishing,