Christina Tyler 12-15-09 20th Century Humanities TR 2:30-3:45 The Catcher in the Rye

J.D. Salingers novel, The Catcher in the Rye, is a foray into a bit Holden Caulfields life. Its a story about a guy, a confused, misguided adolescent, who spends more of his time expelled from school than in it and when he is there he fails everything for lack of trying. Holden is the ultimate imperfect protagonist; the anti-hero. The story is told entirely from his perspective, and what a skewed perspective it is. Holden spends all of his time, drinking, smoking, making excuses, fighting, lying and chasing tail. Im pretty sure the only people he even respects are his sister Phoebe and his history teacher Spencer, but not even they can help him. The most important thing to realize about Holden is about the personal conflict he feels throughout the story and how it can relate to the reader. Holden is sixteen and caught up between wanting to be an adult and experience life the way an adult would, like finally having a sexual encounter, and desperately wanting to escape adulthood and revert instead to childhood. His constant personality and opinion shifts are a bit extreme but what the reader can identify with is what its like to be caught in-between wanting to grown up and never wanting to. Whether the reader is that age and going

through that or is older and remembering what it was like to be stuck, anyone can identify with where Holden is coming from. That being said, The Catcher in the Rye was published in 1951 and people were not ready for Holden Caulfields point of view or how he turned a phrase. Salingers novel began on the best-sellers list but then took a fall from grace. In 1960, school administrators at a high school in Tulsa, Okla., fired an English teacher for assigning the book to an 11th grade class (Time.com.Sept.29th,2008). The book started being banned in several schools and libraries. The same article says that it was banned because of what the library called "excess vulgar language, sexual scenes, things concerning moral issues, excessive violence, and anything dealing with the occult." I feel thats a bit excessive but no one was ready for this novel at the time, but even up until 1994 parents were still trying to ban this novel through Resolving Educational Adversity Diplomatically (READ). They based their arguments on their Christian faith in an attempt to appeal to the school board; they didnt end up banning the book but it did cause them to look closer at others. Holdens story isnt your typical coming-of-age novel. He tells his story in past tense, from a mental institution. As you read he becomes more and more unraveled, setting the stage for his future nervous breakdown. Holden is often depressed, erratic and strange. The Catcher in the Rye produces mixed feelings for its readers. Jonathan Yardley of the Washington Post first read the novel in 1951; he originally loved

the book and felt that Holden Caulfield was a kindred spirit but upon reading it later he says, Rereading "The Catcher in the Rye" after all those years was almost literally a painful experience: The combination of Salinger's execrable prose and Caulfield's jejune narcissism produced effects comparable to mainlining castor oil. He also calls Holden an unregenerate whiner and egotist
(washingtonpost.com.oct.19th,2004). While Salinger depicts Holden as this jaded and angry guy, he also adds in bits of heart to Holden so there are times when you can see him as a nice guy. For instance, when he breaks the record he buys for Phoebe and almost wants to cry, or when he is talking about his younger, lovable, brother who died of leukemia. But him having a cute little sister, dead younger brother and revered older brother is just a bit clich, it seems like too much and Yardley says, That's just easy exploitation of the reader's emotion (washingtonpost.com.Oct.19th,2004). I consider that to be a little bit of overkill; most adolescence reading this novel may have one or two siblings that they can relate to Phoebe, D.B or Allie, but all three? Thats just trying to cover bases. No wonder Holden is lost and jaded, he has a lot to compete for in is family. Whatever its shortcomings, "The Catcher in the Rye" is from the heart -- not Holden Caulfield's heart, but Jerome David Salinger's. He said everything he had to say in it, which may well be why he has said nothing else (washingtonpost.com.Oct.19th,2004). This novel is practically the definition of adolescence, much like Rebel without a Cause, both of these setting the stage for what being an adolescent is today. Salinger and James Dean created adolescence and gave it a voice.

J.D Salinger wrote short stories like Nine Stories, Franny and Zooey, Raise High the Roofbeam and Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction; just to name a few, but The Catcher in the Rye is his only novel. Salinger began writing at the age of 15 when he was sent to military school. He then went on to several colleges, a lot like Holden, in order to make his way as a writer. While in college he was sent, by his father, to Europe. Salinger lived in Vienna and then Poland, where he worked selling and buying pigs for a local man. This gave him more inspiration and he mailed his stories to American magazines. That gave him the tough skin to not be so down when his stories were rejected. While in the military he graded Cadets papers until D-Day, where he landed in France and spent five campaigns. Originally The Catcher in the Rye was a novella of only 90 pages, This

version was finished in 1946, and a publisher was willing to publish it, but the author, dissatisfied, decided to do it over again. The result is a full-length book, much richer, deeper, more subjective and more searching (DeadCaulfields.com.Maxwell). Maxwell also compares Salinger to Flaubert, author of Madame Bovary, not that his work is necessarily similar to Flauberts but that he works like him, with infinite labor, infinite patience and infinite thought for the technical aspects of what he is writing, none of which must show in the final draft (DeadCaulfields.com.Maxwell). He says this because Salinger may have put a great deal of work behind this novel but the end result is from Holdens unpolished point of view, making the sentences choppy and is filled with bad grammar and slang.

Whether you like the book or not The Catcher in the Rye should still be recognized as a classic because it was ahead of its time, original, controversial, and gave a voice to the angst that is adolescence. Holden may have ended up in a mental institution but his character is an expression of the thoughts and feelings of a generation. Besides, in that time between childhood and adulthood, who isnt going just a bit mad?

Works Citied "Banned Books (sidebar)." Issues & Controversies On File: n. pag. Issues & Controversies. Facts On File News Services, 8 Mar. 1996. Web. 15 Dec. 2009. <http://www.2facts.com/article/ib101740>. Banned Books Time Magazine. www.time.com. September 29th, 2008. Web.15 Dec. 2009 <http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1842832_1842838_18 45068,00.html> Yardley, Jonathan. J.D. Salingers Holden Caulfield, Aging Gracelessly. Washingtonpost.com. October 19th, 2004. Web.17 Dec. 2009

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43680-2004Oct18.html> Dead Caulfields. Dead Caulfields. DeadCaulfields.com. date published-unknown. Web 17 Dec. 2009 <http://www.deadcaulfields.com/Stories.html> Maxwell, William. DeadCaulfields.com. date published-unknown. Web 17 Dec. 2009 <http://www.deadcaulfields.com/Bio01.html>