The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
When I first read The Catcher in the Rye
in my senior year of high school, I regretted not having read it in early adolescence. I thought about all those out-of-sorts, conflicting, intense thoughts and feeling I'd experienced. Holden Caulfield gives a voice to those mixed up years when nobody feels understood. Most of the ideas I wrote poems about in middle school are better expressed by Salinger. Loneliness, disappointment, disillusionment. Every one goes through the same growing up process, to some degree, and everyone feels alone in their suffering. I honestly think a shiny new copy of The Catcher in the Rye should be issued to each child as they hit puberty to be read periodically over those troubled years. I have personally read it every couple years since the first time.
The edition I currently have is a little mass market paperback copy. It is obvious it was intended for high school students. It contains no blurb about the book or the author anywhere on the front or back cover. I am intrigued by this. I have owned copies of both Romeo & Juliet and Great Expectations with information about the story and author on the covers. The Catcher in the Rye is so universal that it needs no introduction.
Without going into book-report detail, allow me to explain the story in a few sentences. I did think everyone had read it. Around the time I reread the book, I found both my husband and my friend Kate's mom haven't ever read it. Go figure.
Sixteen year old Holden tells the reader his story in first person. The genius of the writing is such that it reads just like the moody teen is sitting across the table from you, telling you the tale of leaving his prep school early for Christmas break. In fact, I imagine him alternately sitting and pacing the room as the narrative unravels. He takes the train home to New York, then kills a few days bumming around the city waiting until his parents receive the letter explaining his expulsion from yet another school.
Holden is more messed up and mixed up then the average teenager. He is self-destructive, paranoid, and extremely hostile. He is obsessed with bitterness towards "phony" people and liars. But like any teenage hypocrite, he displays those qualities he rails against. He holds others to moral standards he cannot keep. He wants perfection. He wants some miss guided, impossible correctness in the world.
The extreme nature of Holden teen angst makes him a hard character to like, but an easy one to relate to for many readers. It is an easy to read book of just over two hundred pages, but some of the events are not easy to digest. It is a gritty story. No pretty bows at the end.
I know was many people who dislike the book as like the book. I can understand not liking it. My friend Kate, for example, didn't like it. I can also understand those who list it as the most important book in their lives. When it comes to an understanding of modern classics, what is most important is reading it.
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9/29/2008 10:39 PM
The Creative Nerd wrote:
“If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.” - Noam ChomskyNo right is more fundamental to American culture than freedom of speech and freedom of belief. We believe our journalists should be free to print the news. We believe our neighbors have a right to practice the faith of their choosing. One place we sometimes forget about freedom of expression is in our books. In the name of decency or protecting children, it is still a common practice to for groups or individuals to challenge the inclusion of ... -
9/29/2008 10:33 PM
The Creative Nerd wrote:
“If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.” - Noam ChomskyNo right is more fundamental to American culture than freedom of speech and freedom of belief. We believe our journalists should be free to print the news. We believe our neighbors have a right to practice the faith of their choosing. One place we sometimes forget about freedom of expression is in our books. In the name of decency or protecting children, it is still a common practice to for groups or individuals to challenge the inclusion of ...
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