The Mount Holyoke News

Issue date: 2/4/10 Section: Books

Courtesy of Associated Press

The Catcher in the Rye. How many high school students complained about it, and how many swore they wouldn’t read it? SparkNotes, PinkMonkey, I’ll ask a friend what it's about. How many students over the half-century since its publication resisted, and tried their damnedest to hold out and not read it? Come to think of it, if Holden Caulfield himself had been given a copy of the novel, he probably wouldn’t have read it either. He wouldn’t have wanted to read it, if you want to know the truth. He might have sneered and chortled, or turned up his nose and then spit. Even so, a half-century of readers and non-readers alike have picked up the book and felt as though they were looking in a mirror.

Acclaimed author J.D. Salinger died last week at the age of 91. Born in New York in 1919, his most famous work tells the story of rebel teenager Holden Caulfield. Salinger’s other published works include Franny and Zooey and a collection of short stories, aptly named Nine Stories.

Following the publication of The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger became a recluse of mythic proportions. He famously refused interviews and rarely left his home in New Hampshire.

Over the years there have been some strange rumors surfacing about Salinger—both his ex-mistress Joyce Maynard and his daughter Margaret Salinger penned memoirs detailing their relationships with him. While the rumors of Salinger’s eccentricities are numerous and varied, it is his work as a writer that trumps all.

Holden Caulfield is arguably one of the most memorable characters in American letters, and his character has sparked many spin-offs and reinterpretations. A young Jim Sadwith, now a producer for film and television, penned a stage version of the novel and tracked down Salinger himself for permission to perform it. (The full story can be found at thestory.org). More recently, Salinger won a court case prohibiting the sale of what some call a “parody” and others a “rip-off” of Catcher.

The American culture is one that is fascinated by teen angst. Today there is Gossip Girl. The early 2000s brought us The O.C. In 1951, America's angst du jour was Salinger’s most famous work. Catcher captures over-the-top teen angst in all its glory. Holden Caulfield is a rich, private school boy who is angry with his peers, angry with his parents and angry with the world. He is tired of “phonies,” and he’ll tell you about that “madman stuff” that happened if you really want to hear it, but he doesn't really want to talk about it. How many hundreds of thousands of teenagers have felt just the same way?

Yes, Americans thirst for angst and discord, but Holden Caulfield is different from today’s drama kings and queens. He, like the characters on Gossip Girl, has more privilege than most, but that’s not why we tune in. That's not why we keep turning pages. He is not necessarily a complacent, wealthy kid, happy to live off of what has been handed to him. He is angry independently of his privilege, and that makes him a lot easier to stick with. We can forget about his wealth, and then he is one of us. He rails against plastic souls and Salinger’s readers sit straighter in their chairs thinking, “That’s me. That’s me.”

Innumerable readers have felt that maybe Holden Caulfield was speaking for them, too, when he told his story. Whether reluctantly or with enthusiasm, multitudes of high school classes have picked up Salinger’s work and been won over by his words.

Maybe Caulfield would have picked up the novel, glanced at the cover and wondered about this Salinger guy and what his story was. Maybe, if Holden Caulfield were sitting next to you in a high school lit class, Salinger would have been too much even for him to resist, and there he would sit, reading his story.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools