Why Holden Caulfield Still Matters.
“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn’t happen much, though.”
When World War II veteran J.D. Salinger expressed interest to publishing companies that he would like to pitch a book to them, you can imagine what they might have expected. A personal memoir of valor, maybe detailing heroic exploits. Or perhaps a novel about a Jew, who against all odds makes it through the Nazi concentration camps. He probably could have written some inspiring material that would last for many many years based on those stories. Instead, he took a different approach. He wrote a brief novel about a 16-year-old boy’s experience of leaving boarding school and wandering aimlessly around New York City. Mostly just looking for someone to listen to him talk about his problems. The final product was an endearing novel that spoke directly to adolescents about loneliness, misunderstanding, and finding your voice.
Oddly enough this book that was written and set in the late 1940s is still resonating with teenagers who read it now. Why? It’s 2016; this is the age of Vine Stars, BuzzFeed lists, and using smartphones while simultaneously using toilets. In fact, there is a pretty good statistical chance that people who read this will read it on their phones while on the toilet. Seriously it’s something like 23.4%. Ok, I didn’t calculate that, it’s just a ballpark figure. But I say all that to say Salinger based this novel in a vastly different time.
I can remember being a whiny insufferable teenager when I was in high school, as so many of us were. I didn’t know exactly how to express what was bugging me. Then I read a book called The Catcher In The Rye. Holden spends the bulk of the book complaining and at times it’s weirdly endearing, but depressing at others. His first impression on me made him somewhat of an irritating character. Nonetheless his frustrations with the disingenuous and his grievances about dating and lost love helped me understand that I wasn’t the only one out there coping with problems, big or petty. The book’s effect lingered not just throughout my high school experience but resonates with me today.
Holden’s voice is a literary casserole of so many different things. Cynicism, self-awareness, disinterest, and most importantly: Distinctness. He answers the faceless authority figures bark of “One day you are going to wake up and realize you’ve wasted your life being lazy!” With a sharp “You’re too late that already happened.” The main antagonist in the novel is not authority figures or bullies, but time. I’d be hard-pressed to think of another character that is more wounded by nostalgia than Holden is. I can even say this book is more nostalgic than that “You were a cool 90’s kid if you had these 19 items” Facebook link that I read earlier, man I hate click bait. Like many of us who are fond of things that once were, Holden desperately wants everything just to stay put, adulthood is frightening. To him, it’s the great unknown that is ever encroaching. There is a scene in the book where he goes back to a museum that he used to visit when he was a kid and is overwhelmed with the passage of time.
“The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody’d move. You could go there a hundred thousand times, and that Eskimo would still be just finished catching those two fish, the birds would still be on their way south, the deer’s would still be drinking out of that water hole, with their pretty antlers and they’re pretty, skinny legs, and that squaw with the naked bosom would still be weaving that same blanket. Nobody’d be different. The only thing that would be different would be you.”
Since its release, This book has not just been a compelling coming of age story for young readers. It’s been revolutionary. Today you can see the evidence of Holden’s voice and influence in the work of modern day young adult authors such as Jesse Andrews, and John Green. Both of their debut novels feature a protagonist that is reminiscent of The Catcher in the Ryes. Miles Halter from Green’s “Looking for Alaska” is a sensitive, lonely, and intelligent young man. Despite not having much of a plan he ventures to a boarding school in Alabama in search of identity. Greg Gaines from Andrew’s “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” is a jaded, self-loathing, deeply empathetic high school kid looking for purpose by helping his terminally ill friend Rachel. (Highly recommend both of those books.)
The Catcher in The Rye is the best-selling book never to be made into a movie. It’s crazy that in this immense visually saturated world this book has managed to stay relevant in spite of that. The text is pure and unadulterated, people love it because it provides beautifully authentic imagery somehow without too much detail. Salinger leaves just enough to the imagination. The voice of Holden Caulfield isn’t necessarily just some petty 16-year-old complaining about things, it’s a kid reminding children and adults alike that no matter what it is you are struggling with you aren’t alone, and that’s why he still matters after all these years.
