The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger

The Catcher In The Rye has been steeped in controversy since it was banned in America after it's first publication. John Lennon's assassin, Mark Chapman, asked the former Beatle to sign a copy of the book earlier in the morning of the day that he murdered Lennon. Although this book has been constantly debated because of its undesirable language and sexual content, we cannot deny that writer Jerome David Salinger, whose is considered as one of the most critically reviewed author in modern literature, tells a story in the form of Holden Caulfieldˇ¦s first-person narration very well.

'The Catcher In The Rye', the title of the book, first appears in Chapter 16 when a child Holden admires for walking in the street rather than on the sidewalk is singing Robert Burns song "Comin' Thro' The Rye". In Chapter 22, in addition, when Phoebe asks Holden what he wants to do with his life, he replies with his image from the song. Holden imagines a field of rye perched high on cliff, which is full of children romping and playing. He says he would like to protect the children from falling off the edge of the cliff by 'catching' them if they were on the verge of tumbling over. In fact, Holden wants to catch children before they fall out of innocence into knowledge of the adult world and knowledge of sex.

The novel is a story of an emotionally disturbed upper-middle class young boy named Holden Caulfield. Holden just finds himself getting kicked out of exclusive Pencey Prep, a boys' school in Pennsylvania before Christmas. This happens, however, to be only the latest of a series of schools from which irresponsible and immature Holden has been expelled for poor achievement.

Understandably he is not in hurry to encounter his parents' inevitable worth, he, therefore, takes all money he has and departs for New York, where is the dirt and grind capital of the world, to 'take a vacation'. Holden passes three days and nights on his own in a weird jumble of adventures and experiences, which involve with a variety of different people that has impact on his life, such as taxi drivers, two nuns, an elevator man, three girls from Seattle, a prostitute, a former teacher from whom Holden thinks is best to flee in the middle of the night and most of all from himself.

Told as monologue, Holden discloses to the readers his innermost thoughts and feelings, during which he describes a developing nervous breakdown, symphonized by his bouts of unexplained depression, impulsive spending and generally odd, erratic behaviour, prior to his eventual nervous collapse. He this provides the readers not only with information of what occurred, but also how he felt about what happened.

Holden makes reference to the world 'phony' forty-four separate times (Corbett 68-73). Throughout The Catcher In The Rye, Holden describes and interacts with many people. The way he talks about or to each gives readers some ideas of whether he thinks they are 'phony' or normal. In Chapter 22, Holden explains that adults are inevitably phonies, and what worse is; they cannot see their own phoniness. Phoniness, for Holden, stands as an emblem of everything that is wrong in the world around him and provides an excuse for him to withdraw into his cynical isolation. In other words, his is unimpressed with people who try to look good in others' eyes.

Throughout the novel, Holden seems to be excluded from and victimized by the world around him. He is bewildered, lonely, ludicrous and pitiful. As he says to
Mr. Spencer, he feels trapped on 'the other side' of life. His troubles and failings are not of his own making but of a world that is out of joint. The truth is that interactions with other people usually confuse and overwhelm him, and his cynical sense of superiority serves as a type of self-protection. As readers, we can see that Holden never addresses his own emotions directly, nor does he attempt to discover the source of his troubles. He desperately needs human contact and love but his protective wall of bitterness prevents him from looking for such interaction.

The Catcher In The Rye, moreover, is a novel about a young character's painfulness of growing up. When he talks about sex and admits that 'sex is something I just donˇ¦t understand. I swear to God I don't.' (Chapter 9). Instead of acknowledging that adulthood scares and mystifies him, Holden invents a fantasy that adulthood is a world of phonies, while childhood is a world of innocence, curiosity and honesty. But as the book progresses, Holden's experiences, particularly his encounters with Mr. Antolini and Phoebe, reveal the shallowness of his conceptions. Holden is trying to grow up in an adult world and trying to show that he is an adult. He is being the idealist that he is, searches to find everything that needs to be changed but never gives an alternative to the situation or thing.

Just as Holden wears his red hunting hat to advertise his uniqueness, he uses his isolation as proof that he is better than everyone else around him and therefore above interacting with them. Holden's red hunting hat is one of the most recognizable symbols from twentieth-century American literature. The hat is outlandish, and it shows that Holden desires to be different from everyone around him. At the same time, he is very self-conscious about the hat he always mentions when he is wearing it, and he often doesn't wear it if he is going to be around people he knows. The presence of the hat, therefore, mirrors the central conflict in the book: Holden's need for isolation versus his need for companionship.

Holden's excessive thoughts on death are not typical of most adolescents. His near obsession with death might come from having two deaths in his early life. He constantly dwells on Allie's death. It is obvious that he loves and misses his brother. In order to hold on his brother and to minimize the pain of his loss, Holden brings Allie's baseball mitt along with him wherever he goes. The mitt has additional meaning and significance for Holden because Allie had written poetry on it. Holden's preoccupation with death can also be seen in his contemplation of a dead classmate, James Castle though readers are only told that Holden just lends his turtleneck sweater to this unfamiliar classmate.

Holden, on the other hand, has strong feelings of love towards children as evidenced through his caring for his little sister, Phoebe. By seeing him erasing curse words from the walls in her school and in a museum so that she cannot learn from the graffiti, it shows that he is protective of her. Holden's fondness for children can also be inferred when he tells her he wants to be the only grown-up with 'all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all' at some time in the future.

During Holden Caulfield's psychological battle, nevertheless, life continues on around him as it always had. Through Holden's expressions of his thoughts and feelings, the readers see a sensitive youth who chooses to deal with life in unique ways. Holden is candid, spontaneous, analytical and throughout as evidenced by his narration. Like most adolescents, feelings about people and relationships are often on his mind. In Holden's case, unfortunately, he seems to expect the worst, believing that the result of getting close to people is pain. Painful when others reject you or when a friend walks off or a beloved brother dies. It would not have been possible to feel Holden's feelings or understand his thoughts nearly as well had the book had been written in third person.

Holden takes his journey, which at the end leaves him in a mental instution. He ends his story here. He refuses to tell what happened next, how he got sick and how people are concerned about whether or not he will apply himself next year. Instead of that, he ends the story by telling he misses the boys from his school, Stradlater and Ackley and even Maurice. Holden does leave the readers curious on what was to come of him. Mr. Salinger's rendering of teenage speech is wonderful: the unconscious humour, the repetitions, the slang and profanity, the emphasis and all are just great. I personally enjoy this book.