“I like it when somebody gets excited about something. It’s nice.”
- J.D Salinger, "The Catcher In The Rye"
So I’d been talking to some friends recently, and I found out something that I never knew, that I never thought was possible. Some people don’t like "The Catcher in the Rye", the classic book by J.D. Salinger. I know! I’m as surprised as you.
It’s known far and wide as, “That one book I had to read for high school English.” Call me teacher’s pet, but I have a passionate love for this book. That might be an explanation why, when I heard that some people really hate it, I got a little… ehhh excited. But main character Holden Caulfield gave me a pass in the quote at the beginning of the article, so let’s discuss. And it is a book discussion more than a suggestion thing, so it helps if you’ve read it which I demand you do.
Quick summary of the story. Holden Caulfield, a young teenage boy in the 1950’s, is in the process of being kicked out of yet another boarding school. He’s not too fond of school himself, so when he’s finally done with the place, he explores the city of New York for a few days while waiting for his parents to cool down about him getting expelled again.
To kick it off, the first thing I always say about this book is that "The Catcher in the Rye" is the best example of casual writing style in history. It’s a first person narrative from the perspective of a teenager, but unlike other books with young protagonists (think "Tom Sawyer", "Little Women", and even "To Kill a Mockingbird"), it genuinely seems like the thoughts of a teenager penned straight to paper. You know that feeling you get when you’re out with a friend, not to some fancy restaurant or anything, but just at your house? And you surprise them by taking a picture of them. It’s not like they’re dressed fancy, they’re just wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt, but it’s the prettiest picture you’ve ever seen. That’s this book. Whether you like the voice of the protagonist or not, the feel is undeniably spectacular.
Speaking of, complaints about Holden as a character were the next thing to come up during this literature brawl, and (big shocker) I disagree with them. I heard that he’s whiny, he’s arrogant, he’s a hypocrite, he causes all of his own problems, and he really doesn’t have that many to begin with. Sure. But is that a problem?
Holden is a character in the book, right? A really real character has flaws, and has flaws and strengths that come through effectively in the story. He comes off as a pompous, sort of know-it-all teenager. I wonder why? Like I said, this book is intensely real, and as far as capturing that feel of teenage rebellion and inner conflict, no other book did it better. As an angsty teen, I can verify that it definitely resonates.
And it’s more than just the negative stuff that feel real. Salinger does this really interesting thing throughout the book where most of it ends up being Holden’s inner monologue. The end of every ramble is often stamped with little self-affirmations and self-justifications for whatever he’d said. I can say personally that reading him constantly try to explain himself to himself and overthink things is incredibly relatable.
Really, like anyone else at this age, Holden’s faking it as much as everyone around him who he derides for being disingenuous. He’s looking for his place in the world. His piece doesn’t seem like it’s fitting anywhere, so he has those same self-confidence problems we all feel. He is a hypocrite, but the whole point of the book is that we all are.
The other criticism I’ve heard about this book is that it’s too short and nothing really happens, that there’s not enough backstory and not enough after-story. As much as I’d love for it to last forever, I’ve got to defend this too. In my opinion, character is always more important than plot. An engaging and complex character doesn't need 60 years of backstory, and like I’d said, Holden’s one of the most compelling and well-constructed characters I’ve read.
Yes, it’s short. It's a first person perspective so of course he'll only talk about things that he feels are important. A lot of people seem to see fleshed-out characters as characters that we know the history of, and I'd disagree with that. It's a story told by a character rather than a third person omniscient author; it's going to have a different kind of perspective. It may have less detail, but it has a better feel for this kind of story. Ultimately it’s a character piece, a snippet of a real person’s life who you can spend your time imagining his life and adventures. In that sense, it works perfectly.
My least favorite one is that he’s too privileged to be complaining this much. He’s got a good life, so he should just get over his dead brother and his hatred of schooling. Part of it’s because I hate when people say privileged out of pure habit, but privilege really has nothing to do with personal problems of psyche. Almost everyone I know is privileged including you, and not a single one of them just "gets over" stuff, especially when the impetus for this story (him getting expelled) basically just happened.
I’d go as far as saying that privilege is what allows for explorations of pure emotion. Sure, all of these poor, downtrodden characters have desires in the sense that they want a better life, but the desires at the top of Maslow's hierarchy of needs have to come from a place of relative comfort. Physiological and safety concerns are all basically met, so we really get to delve into his brain and feelings more than we would if we were distracted by the dangers of this year’s Hunger Games. While these ideas aren't as base and easily digestible, they are valuable and interesting.
And I don’t mean that to crap on other YA fiction that uses these tropes. Trust me, I love ‘em. Sci-fi and dystopian future things have their own interesting set of ideas and exciting stories to tell. But this is a realistic coming of age fiction. As much as we empathize with characters like Harry Potter, we can’t really relate to the problems he faces. Unless you’re magic and the only hope to save your world, in which case, I take it all back.
Ultimately, not only am I glad for reading this book in high school, you all should be too. It teaches you so much both content-wise, and as an example of characterization for any writer. This arrogant, angsty teen is saying that this book is objectively great. Is that a critique of my own self-confidence problems and fear of isolation? Who cares? Love this book for all it has to offer, just like I do.
