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The Catcher In The Rye - Thoughts

For some authors, their writing style is molded by the story they are trying to tell. A whimsical style for a kids or comic storyline, a brooding style for a thriller or mystery book, and so on. However, for some, their stories are molded by their writing style. An easy example of this is Ernest Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises". Salinger's masterpiece "The Catcher in the Rye" is also one of those wonderful books.

I received my copy of this book in the summer of 2010 from a relative in the states. I was 14, and it is, after all, a coming of age sorts of book. It took me 8 years and 8 attempts to finally comprehend the book and to empathize with its protagonist Holden Caulfield. A lot of things have changed since then, both in the world, and in my life. However, the wonderful smell that emanates from any book with its origin in the states still lingers with this one. I appreciate this smell because it gives a sense of stability to my life - a reminder that some things do not change. In that, I relate to the protagonist.

Holden is a teenaged middle child from an upper middle class family. His father and elder brother are succesful individuals, and his younger siblings have shown creative talent. While he himself is talented in a way, he is a true slacker. Why? A fear of growing up. Holden sees people around him growing up, getting involved in activities that are not usual for their age, and that scares him. The real world and what comes with it - selecting a career, getting a job, finding a partner - seems alien to him. He doesn't yet feel confident or ready to deal with these yet, but the pressure is on due to his peers taking on the challenge well. Some people handle whatever life throws at them well. Others, like Holden, crack under the pressure of upcoming choices and decisions to be made. Holden can't come to terms with his peers growing up, because he's not ready to grow up himself. He forces himself into grown - up situations and conversations, but immediately withdraws. He's not ready to accept the change all around him. I identify with him on that. Every individual at some point in life must've faced the prospect of an unwanted change(s). It's never easy to accept those.

Another interesting aspect to Holden is his past emotional trauma. There are two specific traumatic incidents he is particularly affected by - the death of his younger brother, and the sexual abuse he's undergone multiple times. What is curious is his emotional stuntedness when dealing with them. He is obviously strongly affected, even traumatized , by both events. However, he mentions them so casually in his narration, that one might miss picking them up at all. The scars of the past still remain; He can not move on from his kid brother Allie's death, bringing up the topic on many occasions, and he's acquired acute homophobia due to the abuse, so much so that he misconstrues affection from an elder mentor for perviness and withdraws physically and emotionally from the mentor. None of us can deny that we too have been or are still emotionally stunted - unsure of what to do and how to react to certain stimuli.

Overall Holden is confused about the world, his place in it, and is scared of the future. But the world isn't ready to let him speak, to hear out his issues. His concerns about himself and his future are best echoed with his mentor Mr. Antolini's words:

“I have a feeling that you’re riding for some kind of a terrible, terrible fall (…) This fall I think you’re riding for - it’s a special kind of fall, a horrible kind. The man falling isn’t permitted to feel or hear himself hit the bottom. He just keeps falling and falling. The whole arrangement’s designed for men who, at some time or the other in their lives, were looking for something they thought their environment couldn’t supply them with. Or they thought, their own environment couldn’t supply them with. So they gave up looking. They gave it up before they ever really even got started.”

The book as a whole not just raises the issues that face ordinary people like Holden who are unsure about their place in the universe, it gives a solution too. Throughout the book, Holden is only told to straighten his act up by adults. He sees adults who are succesful and he doesn't know their failures and faults - only where they are now. He's not taught to accept his failures and work on to succeed, he's only told to succeed and indirectly shown that all adults succeeded while on a straight path. No one showed their vulnerabilities, their flaws, their errors. That is what we need now, to prevent more Holdens from coming up - more adults who don't just prevent young ones from making mistakes, but show them their own path and shortcomings; To show them that you can be an imperfect human being and still succeed. That is what it means to be a "Catcher in the Rye."

Like what you're reading?