My aim in this thesis is to investigate various versions of escapism in a well known novel of American literature. For this reason, the basis of the analysis is Jerome David Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye (1951). In order to understand the “message” of the novel, we need to examine the historical circumstances in which the novel was written. Therefore, I will use autobiographical data of the author and I will review the general characteristics of different stages of American literature starting from the 1940s to 1950s. These will serve as a starting point for understanding the novel.