The Catcher in the Rye

The Catcher in the Rye-J.D. Salinger

How I found this book: Every wangsty, malcontented teenager, and rebel without a cause decided to read this book, and I felt I’d be left out if I didn’t!

Setting: Late 1940’s, in New York.

Main Characters:

Holden Caulfield: An angry, bored, disgruntled 16-year-old, who has frank ideas about life, adults, others his age, and the world in general.

Phoebe Caulfield: Holden’s 10-year-old sister, he seems to like her a great deal and sees in her a lot of the good he doesn’t see in himself.

Mr. Spencer: Holden’s history teacher, Holden goes to see him before he leaves his school, Pencey Prep. Mr. Spencer lectures Holden on his test answers, as Holden seems only mildly interested.

Mr. Antolini: Another past teacher of Holden’s from another school, he gives Holden advice that he may or may not accept.

Jane Gallagher: A girl whom Holden was attracted to once, she goes out on a date with his roommate at Pencey Prep. He focuses on her a great deal during the story, thinking of her as a sensitive girl with a troubled life who turned to him over their summer together.

Ward Stradlater: Holden’s roommate, he is handsome and seems to be better with women than Holden. He also seems to be a bit of a jock, and turns to Holden, (who is flunking school), to help him out on a paper.

Robert Ackley: Holden’s dorm neighbor, he seems to both irritate Holden and to engender sympathy from him for being so hopelessly socially inept. When not even Ackley can stand Holden anymore, Holden decides to run away from school.


Plot: Holden Caulfied is a directionless, angry, and intelligent 16-year-old, who eyes the world through a cynical, angsty teenage lens. He is flunking out of upper-class Pensey Prep, doesn’t care about school or much else, and feels disconnected both from his peers and the rest of the world. Knowing he’s not coming back after Christmas, Holden runs away from school and back home to New York, where he wanders the city, trying to find something that will make him feel connected to something. Frustrated, he plans to run out west to his brother in California, but visits his sister before he goes. It is his kid sister Phoebe who finally connects to the angsty Holden, and gives him something to hold on to.

Themes:

Alienation: Every teenager goes through it, even the well-adjusted ones, which I wouldn’t say would describe Holden. Teenagers are always looking to fit in somewhere, to find a role that fits them, and for some, such as Holden, that phase can last longer than for others, such as some of his peers at school. Holden struggles to connect with people, and have them understand him and how he sees things, but he finds the task often difficult. However, by the end of the novel, he begins to think that this is just a phase he’s going through, and eventually he will grow out of it and find what he’s supposed to be.

The angst of being a teenager: Teenagers have always been an angsty lot it seems, you don’t know if you are coming or going, and everything and everyone sucks. Holden seems to see through the phony barriers adults put up, and makes observations on people that seem wise beyond his years. While some might say that it is Holden being unnaturally wise for a teenager, having know many, been related to many, and been one myself, I personally think this is about standard for a teenager. Teenagers are adults, perhaps without the wisdom of age, but with an insight all their own. They really aren’t stupid.

The portrayal of kids just how they are: Shocker of shockers, teenagers swear like fiends, are obsessed with sex, often do delinquent things for little or no reason, and disrespect their elders. No offense, but I think the 60’s pretty much enlightened everyone on just how teenagers act. As this book came out a decade before, in the height of the post-War delusion of the nuclear family, I can see where the controversy lay in it. The idea of a 16-year-old being as delusional and confused as Holden was must have seemed somehow abnormal to the adults of the 1940’s and 1950's. In 2008, people make television shows out of the stuff.

Every book sucks somewhere: While I think that the idea of Holden Caulfield is brilliant, and nothing against J.D. Salinger on it, I discovered in listening to the book, (on audiobook), was that really…you have to be a teenager or a disgruntled young adult to really get this book. There were parts where I just had to chuckle, because I remember clearly being a Holden Caulfield myself at one point in my life, and thinking, “Gee, Holden, you grow out of it, things change, and you realize that the world isn’t what you think it is now.” And then I realized that I am too old for this book. I should have read it at 16. After a while I got fed up with the angst and the observations, and wanted to tell him to grow up, get over himself. I was just too old now to read this book. I felt a bit like Wendy being told she was too old now to go to Never-neverland.

What did I like: I think Holden is a brilliant observation of the modern-American teenager. I don’t think much has changed for them since 1948, not really in terms of their disconnect, their disgruntlement, and their desire to find their place in the world, and Holden I think perfectly captures what it means to be a teenager with all their worries, their hurts, their confusion, and their healthy disrespect for everything their parents have done and are.

How would I rate this wormy book: I would rate it a FAT BOOK, with the caution though that if you are really older than 25, you might not get into it as much as you would have then. Maybe you might, I don’t know, but while I appreciated the book, I felt that age and experience kept nagging me whenever Holden would speak, and part of me would shake my head and whisper, “Someday, Holden, you will get it.”