J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is as classic a novel as it is controversial. Catcher’s literary value is almost totally invested in the symbology that is Holden Caulfield. Holden’s seemingly misguided adventures and expressed apathy with unavoidable phonies points towards a much larger human condition that all readers can appreciate in varying degrees. The character is a familiar one, especially to young adults who are only just beginning to experience a so-called real world and the difficult quest for authentic individuality. This sort of appreciation practically guarantees future relevancy to a novel that has already been deemed a treasure in an original context that can best be described as bland industrialized-american, prosperity-minded, and heavy on assumed social codes/norms. Catcher in the Rye – and more importantly Holden Caulfield – is a biting indictment of the American social context of the 1940s and 1950s. The counter-cultural revolt of the 1960s was an unavoidable reaction to the context created by previous generations, as was Catcher. This, and other events, led to much controversy. The novel was granted much critical acclaim, but more than a few critics characterized it as less-than-serious literature largely in part to the style/tone in which it was written. The book was of course banned by groups and schools because it contained cuss words and sexual themes and situations that everyone experiences but none talk about openly. Controversy also followed the novel because of the connection between it and John Lennon’s assassin, Mark David Chapman. The attempted assassination President Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley, Jr. also has been connected to Catcher, as was the murder of an actress committed by Robert John Bardo.
Basically, Catcher in the Rye is a story told in 1st person narrative point of view by the main character, Holden Caulfield. Holden is a sixteen-year-old junior in a 1950’s prep school located in Agerstown, Pennsylvania called Pencey Prep. Our protagonist and narrator has just been expelled from Pencey because of his total lack of effort. Holden is failing all but one of his courses – English. More than that, Holden absolutely despises almost everyone around him because of their phoniness. No one is real, in Holden’s mind, especially the adults who are responsible for the shallow and meaningless context in which he lives and struggles to find meaning.
Holden leaves Pencey Prep. before his expulsion date actually arrives after a bloody fight with his jock roommate who Holden calls a “sexy bastard.” The fight broke out after Stradlater (his roommate) hints to a sexcapade with a dear girlfriend of Holden’s. Holden of course loses this fight and is left bruised and bloodied. He decides to leave Pencey immediately. He, however, does not go to his parent’s apartment in Manhattan, for fear of what their reaction to him will be for getting expelled yet again (Pencey is Holden’s fourth school). Instead, Holden catches a train to New York City and checks into a shady hotel called the Edmont. It is from there that Holden begins a personal journey that unveils his insecurities, frustrations, apathy, and desperate search for a vanishing childhood innocence, authenticity and meaning. Throughout it all, it seems that Holden is totally incapable of rising above it all. His flight, at every turn, is obstructed by yet another phony living in a superficial world. It seems quite hopeless, at least until Holden reframes his entire approach to life and living in this world. It seems quite bleak for our anti-hero until he begins to subtly – perhaps cautiously – reframe his narrative. In fact, it is entirely possible that Holden was in fact doomed to disappear into his perceived void of phoniness and superficiality before he suddenly realized that his narrative was his to write. Freedom.
The closing chapters of the novel reveal the one thing that Holden finds important and authentic in his life – his little sister, Phoebe Caulfield. It is to her that he ultimately flees. It is in her and because of her that he finally realizes that he must grow up. She is the reason why he chooses to stop fleeing. He decides against leaving New York because of how it would affect her. This was not the first time Holden displayed concern for a child. Earlier in his tale, he commented on how a small child was left dangerously close to a very busy curb. The child was singing a song that contained the line “if a body catch a body coming through the rye,” while his phony parents were carrying on elsewhere completely oblivious to the fact that he was in such a dangerous position on the busy street curb. This event, and more importantly his authentic relationship with Phoebe, exposes the existential issue tormenting Holden, as he himself confesses to Phoebe what he would like to be in life. Holden says in response to that big question, “You know that song ‘If a body catch a body coming’ through the rye’ … 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 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’d really like to be. I know it’s crazy.”
Holden wants to “catch” all of the children who run through the field of rye oblivious to their own positions to prevent them from falling off the cliff they don’t realize is there. Holden realizes it’s there, unlike all the other phonies. He can help.
The field of rye seems to be childhood and all the innocence that accompanies it. So, of course, the children would be oblivious to the cliff and in Holden’s mind they should remain oblivious to it. A realization of the existence of the cliff would mean that innocence was already gone. Holden’s innocence was gone and his sad tale is built upon his mad and vain search for it. One can never find that innocence once one realizes it is gone. Holden would be the catcher for the children. Of course, not even he can guard the cliff forever.
The cliff itself is adulthood. The field of rye is not accessible once one takes an ignorant plunge off the cliff and into adulthood. Therefore, children need a catcher to save them from something they don’t even realize threatens. Somehow, in Holden’s mind, the children need to be able to perpetually run through the field of rye with innocent abandon while being protected from all that threatens their fun. They need a catcher to save them from becoming phonies.
In the end, Holden in fact acts as a “catcher” for Phoebe, but perhaps not in the exact manner he excepted or envisioned. Yes, he finally realizes that he is in control of his own narrative, regardless of what the phonies all around him say or do, but in the end he makes a very difficult decision to protect his little sister. Holden grows up, but only as much as he has to grow.
Holden Caulfield stands for young people everywhere who are leaving the field of rye and struggling with the people and world that exists at the foot of the cliff. The world is a place full of personal restrictions, alienating cultural norms and oppressed individuality. A relentless conformity calls children from the edges of the field of rye and towards the cliff that threatens their innocence. Catcher in the Rye undoubtedly resonates with everyone who has taken a dive off that cliff. That pretty much means that all of us can find ourselves in Holden’s tale, somewhere.
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Stories have a wonderful full way of expressing things of life and drawing beautiful analogizes. I know this book would resonate w/ my journey especially right now….I would love to read it some time.
It’s a great read, Dean. Make some time for it! I think you’d really like it.
That was a lovely piece. You expressed so much of what I have always felt about Holden and The Catcher in the Rye. What I find especially noteworthy in the novel is the important role played by the narrative point of view. Point of view is HUGE in The Catcher in the Rye. Holden’s perspective on matters is the substance of the novel; more than the events themselves, we’re interested in what Holden thinks of everything and what he tells us about it. Even though at the end of it we don’t ever know how much to trust him. Therein lies the genius of The Catcher in the Rye.