Catcher in the Rye: How accurate is the reflection of history in the novel (relationships between groups)?

This novel reflects history through the relationship between men and women.  This novel reflects the ninteen-fortys/fifties values of women being objects. In the fifties, women were basically thought of as housewives who cook and clean. At the beginnig of the novel, Stradlater would always go on dates with girls and never wanted to see them after.  He would pressure them to do sexual things with him because he did not thing of them having a choice to make.  Holden thought that this was horrible, so that shows Salinger may not have agreed with this relationship between men and women.  However, he still included the relationship to show that he knew that women were not always treated well.  This is a relationship that has changed since then, but many people still treat women as such.

Another reflection of this time period seen in the novel is the relationship between teacher and student.  When Holden was first kicked out of  Pencey, his teacher old Spencer.  This was his favorite teacher and Holden was quite close with him for being his student.  Old Spencer was very real with Holden and gave him some tough advice.  He knew what Holden was capable of and thought it was a same that Holden was holding back.  This was a good portrayal of the normal student-teacher relationship because Holden respected old Spencer and old Spencer was genuinely worried about Holden's future.  The other teacher in the novel, Mr. Antolini, did not come across very well with Holden.  At first, Holden called him for a place to go after he visited Phoebe.  He could not stay at home because he had not told his parents he was kicked out of Pencey yet.  Holden had been friends with Mr. Antolini and his wife for many years, so he was not uncomfertable staying with them for the night. They had a long conversation with Mr. Antolini getting many drinks while talking.  Once Holden went to bed, Mr. Antolini said "Goodnight, handsome" which was slightly strange.  Then, when Holden was sleeping Mr. Antolini put his hand on his head and to Holden it came across perverted, even though it might have been a simple caring gesture.  However this relationship with Mr. Antolini and Holden shows that teacher student relationships should not be too personal, or else it turns into something weird or it comes across weird with one of the parties.  Salinger must have wrote about this because it might have been heard of with students and teachers in that time period.  It is really quite creepy in my opinion.

One last relationship effected by the time period is the relationship between social classes.  Holden is middle-upper class I would say, and he is friends with people who might be lower-class or upper-class.  He mainly sees upper-class people as superficial and phony.  He makes that clear when judging the piano player and judging some of his peers.  Also, he judges Sunny and Maurice who are more than likely lower class.  Even though Sunny did not seem ashamed of what she was, Holden felt very bad for her and she made him rather sad.  He also called Maurice "a dirty moron" which signifies in a way that he is lesser than Holden.  This leads him into trouble and shows relations between social classes. Salinger must have thought that upper-class was snooty and that lower-class was cheating and stealing. That is not always true in our society, so that shows that this time period was different.

Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown, 2001. Print.