The Catcher in the Rye

J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye(1951)) is recognized by critics and readers as one of the most popular and influential pieces of American fiction during the second half of the twentieth century. The Catcher in the Rye is on Time magazine’s list of the All-Time 100 Novels. Modern Library considers it one of the top one hundred novels of the 20th century. It spent 30 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list. The novel was included on Time Magazine’s 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923, and it was named by Modern Library and its readers as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. In 2003, it was listed at number 15 on the BBC’s survey The Big Read.

A 1979 study of censorship noted that The Catcher in the Rye “had the dubious distinction of being at once the most frequently censored book across the nation and the second-most frequently taught novel in public high schools” (after John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men) Between 1961 and 1982, The Catcher in the Rye was the most censored book in high schools and libraries in the United States. The challenges generally begin with Holden’s frequent use of vulgar language; other reasons include sexual references, blasphemy, undermining of family values and moral codes, encouragement of rebellion, and promotion of drinking, smoking, lying, promiscuity, and sexual abuse. According to one angry parent’s tabulation, 237 instances of “goddamn,” 58 uses of “bastard,” 31 “Chrissakes,” and one incident of flatulence constituted what was wrong with Salinger’s book.

The Catcher in the Rye follows three days in the life of seventeen-year-old Holden Caulfield after he has been expelled from prep school. Not only was he expelled from his current school, he had also been expelled from three previous schools. Holden Caulfield is the sort of smart-alicky adolescent whose views have the universal perspective of youth observing mores and personalities with disdain. He can’t go home for a few more days (until Christmas break starts), because he doesn’t want his parents to know that he’s been expelled again. So, instead, he decides to spend the next several days roaming around Manhattan. Confused and disillusioned, he wanders New York City searching for truth and rails against the phoniness of the adult world.

The Catcher in the Rye is the story of Holden attempting to connect with other people and failing to do so, which causes him to dread maturity and cling to his idealized view of childhood. Most of the book recounts Holden’s quest for connection, following him through dozens of encounters large and small, with cab drivers, nuns, tourists, pimps, former classmates, and many others. Because he has little sense of his effect on others and refuses to conform to societal norms, he fails in every attempt, and adopts a self-protective veneer of disgust with the world. He is quick to dismiss both individuals and the adult world in general as “phony.” But his encounters with others don’t generally fall apart because he rejects or pushes away the other person. Instead, they fall apart because he behaves immaturely, indulging in outlandish or obnoxious behavior or making inappropriate choices, until other people become bemused or angry with him. Alienation is both the source of Holden’s strength and the source of his problems. For example, his loneliness propels him into his date with Sally Hayes, but his need for isolation causes him to insult her and drive her away. Similarly, he longs for the meaningful connection he once had with Jane Gallagher, but he is too frightened to make any real effort to contact her. He depends upon his alienation, but it destroys him. Ultimately, his refusal to grow up and enter the adult world is doomed to failure.

The only good relation in his life rests on the affection he feels for his younger sister Phoebe. She is the one light in a wilderness of adult hypocrisy, lust, and perversion. Phoebe criticizes Holden’s aimless ways and asks if he cares about anything; Holden tells her that he thinks about a job saving children who are running through a field of rye before they fall off a cliff. He explains to Phoebe his fantasy of being “the catcher in the rye,” a figure who catches children who are about to plunge off an imaginary cliff to their deaths—or to adulthood. Phoebe informs him that the “song” he heard about the catcher in the rye is actually a poem by Robert Burns, and it’s about bodies meeting bodies, not catching bodies. The next morning wandering Fifth Avenue; feeling alone and alienated Holden decides to go out west where he can escape society and live alone in the wilderness; he goes to Phoebe to tell her the plan and say goodbye.

Phoebe meets Holden at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Phoebe has brought her suitcase because she wants to go with Holden; Holden says she can’t go with him, but allows her to skip school. When, they get to Central Park and ride the carousel, Holden gets joy watching his sister. At the end of the story, Holden calmly watches Phoebe riding a carousel, secure for the moment in her childhood innocence and not menaced by adulthood or the future. The novel ends in the present tense, with Holden offering the hope that his experience was actually transformational and he may apply himself at his next school. However, his voice is so similar to the rest of the novel, we may question whether he has actually matured and gained insight into himself and others.

“Who Wrote Holden Caulfield?,” Green Day, (1991) They describe him as the “boy who fogs his mind” and drives himself “mad.” https://youtu.be/R90ouXVTWHM

A thought burst in my head and I need to tell you
It’s news that I for thought
Was it just a dream that happened long ago?
I think I just forgot, let’s go

Well it hasn’t been the first time
And it sure does drive me mad
I just wanna say,

There’s a boy who fogs his world and now he’s getting lazy
There’s no motivation and frustration makes him crazy
He makes a plan to take a stand but always ends up sitting
Someone help him up or he’s gonna end up quitting

I shuffle through my mind
To see if I can find
The words I left behind
Was it just a dream that happened long ago?
Oh well, never mind

Well it hasn’t been the first time
And it sure does drive me mad
I just wanna say,

There’s a boy who fogs his world and now he’s getting lazy
There’s no motivation and frustration makes him crazy
He makes a plan to take a stand but always ends up sitting
Someone help him up or he is gonna, yo, yo, yo

There’s a boy who fogs his world and now he’s getting lazy
There’s no motivation and frustration makes him crazy
He makes a plan to take a stand but always ends up sitting
Someone help him up or he is gonna end up quitting

There’s a boy who fogs his world and now he’s getting lazy
There’s no motivation and frustration makes him crazy
He makes a plan to take a stand but always ends up sitting
Someone help him up or he is gonna end up quitting

“The Catcher in the Rye,” Guns N’ Roses, (2008), this song appears to be questioning why angst-ridden youths, such as Mark Chapman, the murderer of John Lennon, appear to be motivated by the book’s anti-hero Holden Caulfield. Chapman had a copy of the book with him when he killed Lennon. The book was also connected to other young male murderers. For example, John Hinkley, Jr., who tried to kill President Ronald Reagan in 1981, referred to Catcher in the Rye as an inspiration for his act, https://youtu.be/4PNNzSNtihI

When all is said and done
We’re not the only ones
Who look at life this wayOther
That’s what the old folks say
But every time I’d see them
Makes me wish I had a gun

If I thought that I was crazy
Well I guess I’d have more fun
Guess I’d have more fun

Oh no, no, no, no, no

The Catcher in the Rye again ooh
Won’t let ya get away from him
It’s just another day like today

You decide
‘Cause I don’t have to
Then they’ll find
And I won’t ask you
At anytime
Or long hereafter
If the cold’s outside
As I’m imagining
It to be
Oh no

The Catcher in the Rye again ooh
Won’t let ya get away from him
It’s just another day like today

When all is said and done
We’re not the only ones
Who look at life this way
That’s what the young folks say
But every time I’d see them
Makes me wish I had a gun
If I thought that I was crazy
Well I guess I’d have more fun
It’s what used to be’s not there for me
And ought to find someone that belongs insane like I do

Oh no
Not at all [Repeat]

On an ordinary day
Not in an ordinary way
All at once the song I heard
No longer wouldn’t play for anybody
Or anyone
That needed comfort from somebody
Needed comfort from someone who cared
To be
Not like you
And unlike me
And then then voices ran away
From me
So now you set the wheels in motion
It haunts our memories
You were the instrument
You were the one
How a body took a body
And Gave that boy a gun
You took our innocence
Beyond our stares
Sometimes the only thing
You got at all
When no one else is there