I was anxious to read the Catcher in the Rye before I opened the front cover or knew a single thing about it because it was recommended to me by a friend whom I admire & respect. 99% of the books I read are by recommendation, It means more to me knowing that it has meant so much to someone else.
However, I also love it because as I picture what the main character is like I can see my brother Robby, just like the main character, Holden Caulfield. To help you understand the book you have to know Holden. He is roughly 16 with a chip on his shoulder; he is harsh, brazen and rebellious. The author, J.D. Salinger does a fantastic job of presenting Holden’s personality by his terrible grammar, blunt opinions and negative perspectives of the world. I’ve heard from several people that they didn’t like Holden; they thought he was a spoiled brat who took the world for granted. This may seem true but if you look closer at Holden you can see his desire for a happier more innocent life.
Holden talks about some astonishingly harsh truths & down right tasteless comments; he doesn’t have respect for social standards, expectations or formalities. Just like my brother did at that age, and most of us have stages or moments where we want to tell societies standards to shove it!
But you see the magic of Holden’s personality isn’t in what the author makes obvious, they are simple truths innate to who he is. He uses terrible language throughout the entire book but while visiting his little sisters school gets upset that someone wrote the F-word on the walls for little children to see.
He finds himself in a hotel room with a prostitute but can’t go through with it. “The thing is, most of the time when you're coming pretty close to doing it with a girl, she keeps telling you to stop. The trouble with me is, I stop. Most guys don't. I can't help it. You never really know whether they want you to stop or whether they're just scared as hell, or whether they're just telling you to stop so that if you do go through with it, the blame'll be on you, not them. Anyway, I keep stopping. The trouble is, I get to feeling sorry for them." – Chapter 13
Where Holden’s true saving grace comes from is also where the book gets its name. It’s based of a poem by Robert Burns titled Comin Thro’ The Rye from the research I’ve done about the book & this poem Holden misinterpreted it, but his intention is all the same. “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, The Catcher in the Rye, Chapter 22
If Holden could do anything all day, he would be the catcher in the rye, what does that mean though? Most believe what this means is that he would stop children from running off a cliff into the realities of the world and adulthood. Holden also learns that it isn’t good to prevent children from growing up.
This isn't a read for all, but to anyone who will give it a shot, I highly recommend giving it a read.
An interesting post on why JD Salinger wouldn't release movie rights for the novel.
Have you read The Catcher in the Rye? What did you think of it?
