I first read the J.D. Salinger novel in my sophomore year of high school with uncertainty- the overbearing book review I received from those who have already read it was that it was depressing, pointless, and that Holden was the most annoying character I'd ever read about. But, as soon as I began reading it, I assumed they were referring to an entirely different book. From the first sentence, it became more and more evident that Holden was just a fictional, slightly more bitter, male version of me. His sarcasm had me laughing out loud. I related to his hatred, and it made me feel relatively more normal. Still, though, I couldn't find a single other person who shared my opinion. They still found Catcher in the Rye to be the biggest waste of time in the history of every book they ever read.
Was there something wrong with me? Was I a psychopath for taking pleasure in a lazy, sardonic British boy's grim antics? Of course, in reading this book, we were told about the influence the book had on Mark David Chapman to kill John Lennon, which rightly caused most teenagers to take a step back from this book and read it with more caution. Still, though, I couldn't find anything in the book that had any direct messages to go out and kill someone. Therefore, I chose to interpret it my own way, and my love for the book grew even richer than before.
What began driving me crazy, though, was that I couldn't find the reason behind the title. What is a 'catcher in the rye' anyway? And then I stumbled upon this paragraph:
“Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in
this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's
around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge
of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if
they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they
don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and
catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the
rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really
like to be.”
― J.D. Salinger
― J.D. Salinger
As a class, we began discussing the overall meaning of this passage, and what we came up with was that the edge of the cliff represented adulthood, and how sudden it feels to first fall off. Holden was angry at the concept of adulthood and how fake everybody becomes in an instant because they feel they have to. The only job he would ever want to have is to be the one that saves children from having to grow up. And that was the most beautiful concept I had ever read.
Of course, I had my fair share of things in common with Holden. For one thing, I have a distinct dislike for anything artificial in people. Holden's signature pet peeve is a "phony". I'm one of the laziest girls I know, and my goals in life are anything but written in stone. But the thing that really hit home was his deep desire to return to his childhood. There is nothing more distressing in my life than the grueling process of growing up. The fact that I'm forced to move on from all the things that made me happy in my childhood like daydreaming, playing with dolls, and not having to participate in social gatherings, is a constant slap in the face. I've always envied kids. I'll watch toddlers play with their friends in the park without fear of being judged, without any responsibilities, without awareness of the terrible things in this world. I'd do anything to be in that state again. To just run around completely free. To run around in the rye.
The fact that I found this in writing from a source outside of my own diaries enthralled me to the point of putting it in my top 5 favorite books. The rest of my friends, however, wouldn't touch the book again with a ten foot pole. This tends to make for some pretty interesting conversations.
I'll get from some people that they don't like Holden because he's so unreliable. He says in the second chapter what a great liar he was, and at the end, *spoiler* he ends up at a mental hospital, so it's hard to know really how much truth he's telling. They also feel that the plot is kind of like watching a train-wreck. When you really think about it, it's more a tragedy, and admittedly, even I tend to find tragedies incredibly pointless (Can someone please tell me why I had to read Macbeth?). So, yes- those are all valid complaints towards Catcher in the Rye, and everyone's entitled to their own opinion. Mine just so happens to be that the book blew my teenage mind.
It's become popular to compare Catcher in the Rye with The Bell Jar, and I can see why. The last few months of my senior year, a group of friends attempted to start a book club (inevitably, that failed miserably) starting with Sylvia Plath's most famous novel. I was always drawn to her work- I picked up her journals at the library and I found that I related to practically everything she had to say, and my very well-read grandpa recommended The Bell Jar to me several times. The two plots had very similar themes, most notably a cynical main character who can't relate to society to the point of having some sort of mental illness. The Bell Jar was much darker than Catcher in the Rye, in that the protagonist, Esther, has a strong desire to commit suicide, but the writing was still very honest and very raw, which I loved. And as one who never gets around to reading at my own leisure, I actually sat around my room getting through chapters at a time, and I was utterly fascinated.
Again, my friends thought it was depressing and pointless.
It began to dawn on my that my taste in books, movies, and music has always centered around extreme outcasts, introversion, post-apocalyptic situations, and depression, which for the general public are huge turn-offs. I began to question my own sanity- why was I the only one enjoying these books? But then I realized that these were all classics. They didn't become classics by accident; since even before the 50's, people craved these dark perspectives from different authors. It assured them that they weren't alone, and that it could be much worse. And whatever your thoughts are on Catcher in the Rye, these are the driving reasons I look to literature for comfort.
