Country: USA
Genres: Literary/Drama
Pages: 214
I am happy to announce you that I am not a Salinger virgin anymore. Over the course of three days last week, I have read Catcher In The Rye, one of the most polarizing books among readers. The main reason behind that debate is that it's being taught in many high schools. This is also why I picked it up. It's my high school classic choice in Sarah's Back To The Classics 2011 reading challenge. Since I went to school in French, I figured out that expanding my horizons and reading what the anglophones read back then would work better for this particular challenge. Reading Catcher In The Rye, it's understandable why it's such a wide spread high school read. It's written in an easy language, deals with issues that most youth faces to some extent and it has a certain depth. But don't get me wrong, Holden Caufield is not your typical teenager. He's got some serious issues under the hood.
Growing up sucks. I don't care what you might think, but my teenage years were not the time of my life. Alienation, isolation. fear and anger were my daily breakfast. I was not saved by sports, intellect or any kind of allegoric muse. Holden Caufield is living a similar situation. He cannot make any senses of the future that's planned for him, flunks his classes and gets into trouble with other students (and other human beings in general) because they aren't the people he wishes them to be. So he runs away (sort of) to New York, to put a little distance in between him and the rigorous academic lifestyle while the news of his expulsion is broken to his parents. He's being expelled from the fourth school in a row, for poor academic performances. Holden goes out in the world and experiments for himself what will become once he'll be on his own. He does have a revelation once he's there, but not the one he expected.
What struck me about Holden Caufield is how maladapted to social life he is. His body has grown but his mind has remained childish. He thinks and does incredibly childish things and whenever things start to go wrong or that an effort is required out of him, he will come up for an excuse that a four years old could have come up with. Whenever he has to confront somebody, he deflects the situation and pretends a headache, depression, fatigue, etc. A young child will do that. But since the world J.D Salinger created is so alienating and people are so recluse on themselves, their needs and their hopes, everybody is letting Holden slide with this kind of abnormal behavior. His parents are virtually absent from the novel, except when mentioned by other characters. The only future he talks about is highly metaphorical and once again brings back the childhood issues.
It's pretty clear what Catcher In The Rye is about, but I don't agree with Salinger. Losing your innocence doesn't necessarily means that you acknowledged your place in the world and let go of your childhood. Plenty of adults remain little Holden Caufields to a lesser extents and the example Salinger brings out in Holden might scare and offend a lot of readers, but it's also very actual. I know a lot of people who keep denying adversity and make their window of hope and expectations smaller and smaller every time they get hammered with hardships. But I still disagree. Losing your innocence doesn't mean you have to give up on dreaming. Reality requires real work, selflessness, perseverance and patience. Catcher In The Rye was quite the entertaining read, but it requires some distance and reflection. I am also sure that it's best read if you've already went through it and identified with Holden Caufield back in the past. It's a novel that has the power to trigger a lot of discussions about the meaning of being adult, responsible and how to engage in real life while keeping your inner self alive.
Growing up sucks. I don't care what you might think, but my teenage years were not the time of my life. Alienation, isolation. fear and anger were my daily breakfast. I was not saved by sports, intellect or any kind of allegoric muse. Holden Caufield is living a similar situation. He cannot make any senses of the future that's planned for him, flunks his classes and gets into trouble with other students (and other human beings in general) because they aren't the people he wishes them to be. So he runs away (sort of) to New York, to put a little distance in between him and the rigorous academic lifestyle while the news of his expulsion is broken to his parents. He's being expelled from the fourth school in a row, for poor academic performances. Holden goes out in the world and experiments for himself what will become once he'll be on his own. He does have a revelation once he's there, but not the one he expected.
What struck me about Holden Caufield is how maladapted to social life he is. His body has grown but his mind has remained childish. He thinks and does incredibly childish things and whenever things start to go wrong or that an effort is required out of him, he will come up for an excuse that a four years old could have come up with. Whenever he has to confront somebody, he deflects the situation and pretends a headache, depression, fatigue, etc. A young child will do that. But since the world J.D Salinger created is so alienating and people are so recluse on themselves, their needs and their hopes, everybody is letting Holden slide with this kind of abnormal behavior. His parents are virtually absent from the novel, except when mentioned by other characters. The only future he talks about is highly metaphorical and once again brings back the childhood issues.
It's pretty clear what Catcher In The Rye is about, but I don't agree with Salinger. Losing your innocence doesn't necessarily means that you acknowledged your place in the world and let go of your childhood. Plenty of adults remain little Holden Caufields to a lesser extents and the example Salinger brings out in Holden might scare and offend a lot of readers, but it's also very actual. I know a lot of people who keep denying adversity and make their window of hope and expectations smaller and smaller every time they get hammered with hardships. But I still disagree. Losing your innocence doesn't mean you have to give up on dreaming. Reality requires real work, selflessness, perseverance and patience. Catcher In The Rye was quite the entertaining read, but it requires some distance and reflection. I am also sure that it's best read if you've already went through it and identified with Holden Caufield back in the past. It's a novel that has the power to trigger a lot of discussions about the meaning of being adult, responsible and how to engage in real life while keeping your inner self alive.
High School Classic