Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger

The Catcher in the Rye is a very interesting book. It is not like a typical book where the events leading up to the climax are exciting and all, its very mellow and humble the whole way though with no real climax. It makes it hard to write about, but makes me think about it more so I guess its better. The Catcher in the Rye is about Holden Calfield’s struggle with life and all its bumpy crazy roads. The book starts off with Holden explaining how he got expelled (for doing horrible) from the university he was attending. After this he constantly gets into bouts of depression and anxiety. After being kicked out, Holden still has a few days to wait before his parents (who don’t know he’s expelled yet) are expecting him home. Holden is not one to jump the gun and surrender to his parent’s wrath early, no no, he waits till the very end.

Holden’s character is a very interesting one. Holden is very critical of everything. If he doesn’t agree with a person, or thinks they’re just fake, he calls them phonies. He labels a LOT of people phonies, which should give you an idea of his personality, and establish how critical he is. When Holden labels people a phony, it is true in a way, and and how a lot of people aren’t authentic a majority of the time but he does label people too quickly. Holden is ALWAYS lashing out at people, which makes sense because of his own immense insecurity. He is to quick to judge, but at least he is truthful and doesn’t hold his anger in like all the “phonies”. Holden has a dangerously low ego, which lead to the depression bouts and fits of random fury (which we all have no doubt). Another side of Holden, is when he is content he’s a very good friend. He won’t hide stuff from you but won’t go over the top by insulting you.

I can’t help but think that JD Salinger was expressing himself as Holden. After he wrote the book, he ran away to a small town to escape all of his popularity which scares him and now no one hears from him. This knee-jerk reaction would be something I wouldn’t be surprised seeing Holden doing.

I see myself in Holden’s character especially in the way he judges people so quickly. I fall victim to that sometimes, seeing someone in public and judging them by the way they dress or express themselves and label them as superficial. I’m working on seeing more broadly because when you do this and tell people they get after you and start criticizing you. Holden is very impulsive, and falls victim to a lot of physical comforts like smoking, drinking and even a prostitute at one time. I don’t fall victim to that stuff, but thats also because smoking and drinking was a lot more popular back then, and plus they had much less awareness of the negative effects of substances.

I’m amazed of how much controversy this book has created. First it was the excessive use of swearing like goddamn (Holden says that a crazy lot!). Next it was that Mark Chapman (John Lennon’s assassin) who was found reading that book the day he killed Lennon. The amount of controversy it created is also a sign of the times. Swearing and all the topics discussed in the book weren’t really talked about back then.