The Catcher in the Rye

I have now finished reading J.D. Salinger’s novel “The Catcher in the Rye”. I have written something about the book in a previous post on the blog, but my impression of the book has changed a bit since then. I still think that the language is very interesting and that his way of writing makes the novel easy to read. He uses a lot of funny words like “sonuvabitch” and ”hellja”, and the main character Holden’s thoughts are detailed described. The whole novel happens over a very short period of time, and most of the action is Holden's thoughts.

Holden seems to me like a very negative person; although I think that he have a lot of good values in life and some empathy for other people. In New York while having breakfast at a café he start talking with the two nuns sitting on the table next to him and he ends up giving them some money even though they weren’t asking for any. He also seems to love his family, and especially his little sister Phoebe who he is really protective of.

Holden is eighteen years old, and ha has no idée what he wants to do in his life. He has no ambitions, and he is sick and tired of everything that has to do with school. I often felt depressed while reading the book, because Holden complains a lot, and he often seems very negative.

“They were these very inexpensive-looking suitcases – the ones that aren’t genuine leather or anything. It isn’t important, I know, but I hate it when somebody has cheap suitcases. It sounds terrible to say it, but I can event get to hate somebody, just looking at them, if they have cheap suitcases with them” (page108 ). This is one of many situations where I feel that Holden have too many negative feelings and thoughts. I think that there might be something else he is mad or sad about, and that he express his negativity and what I understand as sadness in situations where it’s kind of unnatural to have these feelings.

There is also another example from the book where I find Holden to be very rude and negative. He’s thinking back at a Veteran’s Day at the school he just got kicked out from, and he describes this one old man who had graduated from Pencey in 1776. The man wanted to take a look at the door in the bathroom to se if his initials from when he was a student were still there, and Holden and another student was asked to guide him to the bathroom.

“He kept talking to us the whole time, telling us how when he was at Pencey they were the happiest days of his life, and giving us a lot of advice for the future and all. Boy, did he depress me! I don’t mean he was a bad guy – he wasn’t. But you don’t have to be a bad guy to depress somebody – you can be a good guy and do it. All you have to do to depress somebody is give them a lot of phony advice while you’re looking for your initials in some can door – that’s all you have to do. I don’t know. Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad if he hadn’t been all out of breath from just climbing up the stairs, and the whole time he was looking for his initials he kept breathing hard, with his nostrils all funny and sad, while he kept telling Standlater and I to get all we could out of Pencey. “ (page 168-169)

In the book we learn that Holden lost his brother Allie a couple of years ago, and he mentions his brother several times. Another name that pop up often in the book is June, Holden’s childhood friend, who I suspect him for having feelings for. I think that Holden have had a lot of struggles in his life, like loosing his brother, and that this might be a reason why he’s not doing very well at school. He seems a bit unsecure about himself when it comes to women, and I think that his though language when he curses and uses bad words might be a way to compensate for this.

The scene I remember best from the book is a conversation between Holden and his sister Phoebe. She’s making him say one thing he like. She’s sick and tired of listening to everything he hate, and I rally agree with her. Holden have to think for a moment before he says “Allie, and sitting here talking to you”. Phoebe is not satisfied with his answer, she want him to say something else he likes. Something he wants to bee for example.

(…) ” Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around – nobody big, I mean – except me. And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over to the cliff –I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it’s crazy but that’s the only thing I really like to be. I know it’s crazy.” (page 173)

I think this outtake strengthen my thoughts about Holden being a good person at hearth. I interpret this like Holden really want to do something valuable and good for other people in his life. In the outtake over he say that he is standing on a cliff, and that he will stop all the children from falling down the same cliff. I think that this mean that he doesn’t want other children to be like him, and that he want his little sister and other children to do well in school and do something about their lives. I think of this as a turning point for Holden, and I think he realizes that it’s time for him to make a change in his life because he is the only one who can make that change.

I’m not quite sure what to think of the book. In one way I think it was a bit boring and slow because all Holden’s thoughts were so detailed described and it’s not always that entertaining to read about a suitcase for two whole pages. On the other hand, I think that the author did a great job writing the many different and often disturbing thoughts of a teenage boy who’s not sure what to do next in his life. I understand why this book has been popular for so many years, and why people of my age seem to like. Holden’s in the same stage in life that I am now, and I can connect too many of his thoughts and uncertainty about the future.

Even though I thought the book was a bit boring at times, I’m really glad I read it.