The Catcher in the Rye by J.D.Salinger
Most books that one comes across have two very common features –
1. There is a short opening summary of the novel at the back cover of the book.
2. Certain views expressed by critics are listed in the opening pages of the book.
But in the case of CITR, both these things were absent which made me wonder what I am about to read. I did know that CITR is about the life of a young guy following his expulsion from his school and I presumed it to be a drag rather than interesting.
I must say that I was terribly deceived. Never had I read something so beautifully yet simply expressed. The story is inspiring in its own way and no wonder, a murderer (Mark David Chapman) found it so inspiring that he went on to kill John Lenon (Beatles) because this book inspired him to do so. It is partly due to this fact that this book is banned. I dont know why but this makes me like the book even more.
The book starts with the protagonist/narrator, Holden Caulfield, expelled from his school, Pencey Prep, just before his Christmas vacation, due to his poor showing in his examinations. Holden seems extremely frustrated and calls everybody around him as ‘phony’. When Stradlater, his roommate, returns home from a date with Jane Gallagher, one of Holden's childhood friends, and implies that he has had sex with her, Holden snaps and tries to hit him. Holden seems to like Jane and thinks of calling her up on a lot of occasions in the course of the novel but is never able to muster enough courage to do so.
After the scuffle with Stradlater, Holden decides to finally leave Pencey’s hostel. But he decides not to go back home because he doesn’t want to break the news of his expulsion to his parents. He decides to wait until they get the letter from the school. Instead, he wanders in the New York, spending lavishly of drinks and women. He is not allowed to drink in most places as he is a minor.
The next day, he has a date with his former girlfriend, Sally Hayes, but the experience leaves him further more depressed as he realizes that they don’t have much in common. Holden finally decides to go home and sneak into his house to see his kid sister Phoebe. He has a short conversation with her, during which Holden reveals the meaning of the novel's title: he has a fantasy (based on a misunderstanding of the song “Comin’ Thro’ the Rye”, by Robert Burns) in which children play a game in a field of rye near a cliff and it is his role to catch anyone who goes too near the edge (which marks the border between childhood and adulthood), a role he says would make him truly happy. He is forced to flee when his parents arrive.
Next morning, he decides to hitchhike to the woods and build a cabin there and live alone for the rest of his life but Phoebe influences his decision and makes him stay. Further talks with Phoebe lifts his mood and he finally decides to reapply for school.
The facts that are most touching about Holden Caulfield are how he refers to everyone around him as phony whereas he is the biggest phony of them all. He even accepts the fact somewhere in the book but forgets it very quickly. He wants to be the Catcher in the Rye for the children, which is symbolic of the fact that he wishes to save them from the evils of the society. This fact is also depicted when he wishes to remove all the “Fuck You!!” signs in the world so that young children, like his sister Phoebe, can stay away from things like sex and violence. He is a total outcast in the society and aims to clean up the society which he understands is clearly impossible. In the end, I would just like to quote one of the lines of the book which gives an idea of the level of frustration Holden was in (it is one of my favourites) -
1. There is a short opening summary of the novel at the back cover of the book.
2. Certain views expressed by critics are listed in the opening pages of the book.
But in the case of CITR, both these things were absent which made me wonder what I am about to read. I did know that CITR is about the life of a young guy following his expulsion from his school and I presumed it to be a drag rather than interesting.
I must say that I was terribly deceived. Never had I read something so beautifully yet simply expressed. The story is inspiring in its own way and no wonder, a murderer (Mark David Chapman) found it so inspiring that he went on to kill John Lenon (Beatles) because this book inspired him to do so. It is partly due to this fact that this book is banned. I dont know why but this makes me like the book even more.
The book starts with the protagonist/narrator, Holden Caulfield, expelled from his school, Pencey Prep, just before his Christmas vacation, due to his poor showing in his examinations. Holden seems extremely frustrated and calls everybody around him as ‘phony’. When Stradlater, his roommate, returns home from a date with Jane Gallagher, one of Holden's childhood friends, and implies that he has had sex with her, Holden snaps and tries to hit him. Holden seems to like Jane and thinks of calling her up on a lot of occasions in the course of the novel but is never able to muster enough courage to do so.
After the scuffle with Stradlater, Holden decides to finally leave Pencey’s hostel. But he decides not to go back home because he doesn’t want to break the news of his expulsion to his parents. He decides to wait until they get the letter from the school. Instead, he wanders in the New York, spending lavishly of drinks and women. He is not allowed to drink in most places as he is a minor.
The next day, he has a date with his former girlfriend, Sally Hayes, but the experience leaves him further more depressed as he realizes that they don’t have much in common. Holden finally decides to go home and sneak into his house to see his kid sister Phoebe. He has a short conversation with her, during which Holden reveals the meaning of the novel's title: he has a fantasy (based on a misunderstanding of the song “Comin’ Thro’ the Rye”, by Robert Burns) in which children play a game in a field of rye near a cliff and it is his role to catch anyone who goes too near the edge (which marks the border between childhood and adulthood), a role he says would make him truly happy. He is forced to flee when his parents arrive.
Next morning, he decides to hitchhike to the woods and build a cabin there and live alone for the rest of his life but Phoebe influences his decision and makes him stay. Further talks with Phoebe lifts his mood and he finally decides to reapply for school.
The facts that are most touching about Holden Caulfield are how he refers to everyone around him as phony whereas he is the biggest phony of them all. He even accepts the fact somewhere in the book but forgets it very quickly. He wants to be the Catcher in the Rye for the children, which is symbolic of the fact that he wishes to save them from the evils of the society. This fact is also depicted when he wishes to remove all the “Fuck You!!” signs in the world so that young children, like his sister Phoebe, can stay away from things like sex and violence. He is a total outcast in the society and aims to clean up the society which he understands is clearly impossible. In the end, I would just like to quote one of the lines of the book which gives an idea of the level of frustration Holden was in (it is one of my favourites) -
"Anyway, I'm sort of glad they've got the atomic bomb invented. If there's ever another war I'm going to sit right the hell on top of it. I'll volunteer for it, I swear to God I will."
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