 The same year , Salinger began submitting short stories to The New Yorker . Seven of Salinger 's stories were rejected by the magazine that year , including " Lunch for Three " , " Monologue for a Watery Highball " , and " I Went to School with Adolf Hitler " . In December 1941 , however , the publication accepted " Slight Rebellion off Madison " , a Manhattan @-@ set story about a disaffected teenager named Holden Caulfield with " pre @-@ war jitters " . When Japan carried out the attack on Pearl Harbor that month , the story was rendered " unpublishable " ; it did not appear in the magazine until 1946 . In the spring of 1942 , several months after the United States entered World War II , Salinger was drafted into the army , wherein he saw combat with the 12th Infantry Regiment , 4th Infantry Division . He was present at Utah Beach on D @-@ Day , in the Battle of the Bulge , and the Battle of Hürtgen Forest . 
