My New Outlook on Holden
I first read The Catcher in the Rye in 8th grade for my Banned Book Project, and wasn’t the biggest fan. I felt the book was a bit overrated considering the reputation it had gotten as one of the quintessential American novels. But more importantly, I found Holden Caulfield to be obnoxious, bratty, and a bit “fake deep”: some of his criticisms and comments felt like they were trying too hard to be profound when they were surface level.
I, of course, reread the book for English this semester. Having read The Catcher in the Rye at these two times felt perfect for judging how my own opinions have changed, since I first read the book right before the beginning of high school and the second time I read it was right at the end .To my utmost dismay, when I reread the novel this year for class, I found myself sympathizing and even identifying with Holden. Thinking about my perception now vs. my perception of Holden when I first read the book has created a sort of cognitive dissonance in me.
However, I gladly realized that relating to Holden simply shows how I’ve aged, since Holden is one of the most relatable characters to teenagers that I’ve ever encountered. I feel as if this class’s readthrough showed to me just why Holden Caulfield has gone down as one of the most important characters ever. Every situation he found himself in resonated with me as someone at nearly the exact same age. Though I found the book overrated in the past, I think its value lies not in its spectacular plot or prose, but its timelessness. Holden’s outlooks, descriptions, and troubles are so key to being a teenager that readers over 70 years later can relate to them. Every (most? some? maybe just me?) can relate to Holden’s desire to run away and live in seclusion for the rest of his life, his intense love of childhood, or his disgust at “phony” behavior surrounding him. The reason that The Catcher in the Rye has held up is because it is not a period piece: the novel barely even talks about World War II, a life-changing event that many novels published during the same time may have chosen to focus on. Holden’s simple grievances are ones which can be translated forever into new contexts: what would he think of social media, the modern pressures placed on teenagers, and the increasing stress of the college application process?
Whether or not I trust my original analysis of Holden as a brat, or my more recent reading of him as a relatable personality, I’m still not sure. To be certain, I plan to read The Catcher in the Rye one more time in the future for a best of three series to settle once and for all what I think of Holden.
I completely agree that what makes Catcher in the Rye such an admirable story isn't some crazy plot, creative outlooks, immersive worldbuilding or anything that I would typically associate with a good read. Rather, it's the timelessness of Holden's adventures that made the book engaging for me. It didn't matter how much I agreed or disagreed with Holden while he walked me through his crisis, all that mattered was I could understand where he was coming from. I can't think of any novel released half a century before I was born whose narrator's thinking process I was able to follow so closely throughout the entirety of the book even if I didn't always agree with it. Great post.
ReplyDeleteI didn't really think about it while reading the book, but this post makes so much sense. The book is meant to target aspects of teenage life, ones that don't change even after 70 years. Even as our technology and history changes, the essential pressures of teenage life remain the same. I thought it was strange how I was able to relate to someone that lived decades ago, but now it makes a lot of sense. Nowadays, we seem to see more depression, anxiety, and mental health problems associated with the younger generation. Will these modern pressures keep increasing as time goes on? Can we ever rid teenage life of the demand associated with the transition from adolescence to adulthood? This post really got me thinking. Nice job.
ReplyDeleteIt's great to hear that _Catcher_ holds up as a relatable depiction of a teenaged narrator so many years after its publication. You're right that the novel doesn't get TOO specific about its historical context (other than the war looming in the recent past, with Holden's older brother a veteran who took part in D-Day, just like Salinger). But it is still rooted in a world that in many ways is foreign to all of us, where hip young people go out to see bands with clarinet players playing swing music, which couples dance to on the dance floor; everyone smokes cigarettes constantly; Holden uses a bunch of long-outdated slang like "strictly for the birds" and "crumby"; he refers to a Jaguar as costing "damn near four thousand bucks." Holden occupies a world that would have been much more familiar to my grandparents than to me. But the core elements of the human condition that he grapples with--the transience and impermanence of all things; death and loss--haven't changed at all. In these key respects, it's good to hear that something "universal" comes through.
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