The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger – A Book Review

It’s a novel that has as many critics as plaudits, with a history of suggested inspiration and influence as murky and ostensibly questionable as the book itself. For some it is an exploration of teenage angst, others see it as a study of an outsider in the form of self-reflection. However, to others still it is a banal narcissistic interpretation of teen rebellion and pseudointellectual expression.

The story follows Holden Caulfield’s recount of the previous year and experience of being expelled from a prep school. Throughout the story we discover different aspects to the personality of this cynical teenager. He seems unable to settle into the constructs of social groups: rebelling against the conventions for little to no reason, with this being one of the main driving forces of the reader’s interests. We question his views and how he came to see the world in this way: as the protagonist does too at times throughout the novel.

It is easy to write off this story as a negative and un-relatable account of a privileged child rebelling against his position. But to say as much is to do the novel an injustice and an ignorance to the delicately laid information on the development of his behavior and the unconscious relation it has to events in his past. In the novel, Holden often discusses how he feels distance to his environment and in particular his teachers and peers. This distrust comes from what he describes as people acting or speaking of a subject in a “phony” way. It is however, not so much the people he comes into contact with that annoy him, it is furthermore the fact that he feels an obligation to mirror this behavior in order to maintain a regular exterior composure. In fact it is this psychological conflict, which often causes the problems for Holden. This can be seen in the novel when he states, “I am always saying "Glad to have met you" to somebody I'm not at all glad I met.”

Although this shows his rebellious attitude towards others it doesn’t necessarily explain where this reason of thinking comes from. It is at this point a lot of critics have inserted that the novel is aggressive against the banal. A false display of rebellion for the sake of it, because - why not? This unfortunately comes from a misreading of the book as the novel does, throughout, subtly hint at reasons for his abrasive behavior.

At points we are given small pieces of information on Holden’s past. We discover in this time that a few years ago his younger brother Allie died under unknown circumstances. When discovering this he smashed up his parent’s garage and is in the hospital during the funeral. There are certain hints that he has never been able to accept his brother’s death. An underlying anger seems to stem in his subconscious, laid out like a raw nerve. When talking to his younger sister Phoebe he lashes out when his brother is brought up, “I know he's dead! Don't you think I know that? I can still like him, though, can't I? Just because somebody's dead, you don't just stop liking them, for God's sake--especially if they were about a thousand times nicer than the people you know that're alive and all.”

There is a raw bitterness that he allows to slip here. A definite connection is hereby revealed that the death of his brother has a direct correlation to his opinions and cynicism towards others.

Other events have also affected his distrust of private schools and other institutions. There is a mention of a child at one point who was beaten to death by a group of other students in retaliation to an insult. The significance of this event sticks into the mind of Holden, as it was not only him that found the boy but also the fact that he was wearing a jumper of Holden’s. Not only does Holden not understand the brutality of this event, he is unable to justify the punishment of the school, which, rather than allowing their name to be mentioned in relation to such an incident in the press, chooses instead to simply expel those responsible.

Holden it seems is cut off from all those he loves. His family is all to some extent distanced from one another. His older brother D.B is a writer in Hollywood and his parents have sent him to numerous boarding schools. It appears that his main problems in life come from his suppression of emotional issues from his past. This built up anger seems then to stem from his lack of confrontation with these problems.

Towards the end of the novel at least he appears to recognize this. During a conversation with a former teacher of his Mr Antolini, he suggests to Holden that, “Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You'll learn from them—if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you.”

Overall I think this quote sums up the novel as a whole. This isn’t the story of a fantastical character, in fact at times he’s damn near unlikable. But the truth is the character himself recognizes this. Here we are faced with the story of a psychologically troubled teenager. Holden is in a state of transition and has reached a crossroads in his life. Yet, even towards the end of the story the way his life is going to turn out is kind of left vague. And to a degree, I believe it would be right to say that some people really don’t like this. The openness of the ending to some feels really off putting after reading through the novel. They can expect some kind of transition on a real visceral level however such an encompassing conclusion never comes. Instead what we are left with is more complex than that. To truly find the answer to what may happen to Holden you have to really look deeper at the text. In this you will see that Holden is in a state of transition. Within the context of this stories metanarrative, Holden may in fact be trying to throughout the writing and examination of his past be as Mr Antolini put it, keeping a record of his troubles in an attempt to learn from them.

All things considered, The Catcher in the Rye isn’t a novel about teen angst. Nor is it a sermon of the unmotivated. It is in fact a simple story, the story of a young man who causes his own problems and is in a not so direct manner, slowly attempting to correct his behavior. Whether the protagonist himself is likable or not is debatable, what isn’t nonetheless is the fact that the true connection to the novel comes from his attempts to deal with these issues - or as others may feel, a lack of such.