The Catcher in the Rye

by Jerome David Salinger

(Book Review)

The Catcher in the Rye, published in 1951, is the best-selling book never adapted to be a

film. “If there’s one thing I hate, it’s the movies,” said Holden Caulfield. How this text survived

in this image-saturated world enthralled my book-thirst self. It is a book that demands to be re-

read again and remember all the misplaced angst in the world that kids have to deal with. So

many grown-ups were good at being a child, but are terrible at whatever they are right now.

As disliked most by teens, I guarantee that many can relate with Holden Caulfield. At

first read, I don’t really see why it was a classic when there is literally nothing going on with the

style, theme, characterization, and Holden is this annoying kid that does nothing but condemns

and rebels out of nothing. He perfectly is a naive boy, and a very bad case of emotional self-

absorption of youth. Until then when I realized that this novel requires its readers to read

between the lines. For instance, Salinger’s use of colors as symbols might come very subtle in

the story, and had to be given the adequate depth of understanding.

The novel was written as a flashback of this “madman stuff” that had happened to him

three days before Christmas. He tells the story while in a tuberculosis rest home. Many readers

mistake him to be a kid ending up in a psychiatric facility, but actually he’s got TB and just

regularly talks to a psychoanalyst. Salinger had written the novel from Holden’s point of view

which made it really interesting as it lets me see the thoughts of a deeply flawed and an

immensely unsympathetic 17 year-old kid. I am just so amazed of how a book written decades

ago can be a tangible form of my thoughts. Holden had grown six inches for the past year and

had gray hairs at one side of his head which is a symbolism of the impending adulthood. It’s like
he’s at the peak of a mountain where each side of steep slopes is either adulthood or innocence.

The thing is he fears adulthood. He is like when a car passes by in front of him, he won’t throw

snowballs at it because it’s just white and clean.

It begins with Holden addressing the reader of how lousy of a childhood he had and how

talking about it bores him. He then began his story the day he left Pencey Prep—a phony school

full of phony boys as described by him. What made this novel different from others with the

same theme is that there is a frequent use of profanity in its language. There’s like cursing in

every two sentences, but unlike others who found this style inappropriate, I find the novel’s

colloquialism as its strength. Holden’s vulgarism made it more realistic and relatable.

Notwithstanding, it revolves around morality.

Holden is this typical lazy kid who flunked four of his subjects and got kicked out by his

fourth school. It is the day of the football game with Saxon Hall which is a big deal with Pencey.

Holden is standing in a hill wherein he can see the field and the two teams bashing each other all

over the place to distant himself from the humiliation of being in the first team losing a fencing

match without even getting to play. He was ostracized by the whole team for unintentionally

leaving the team’s fencing equipment including their foils in the subway for which he find

slightly humorous, and believes to be not entirely his fault.

Before leaving, he thinks of stopping by to his History teacher, Mr. Spencer, to say

goodbye. In contradiction of what he expects to acquire, Holden receives lecturing of how just it

was for Mr. Spencer to give him an ax in his subject. He musters to give approval of the

reprimanding when all he has in his mind is where the ducks go when the lagoon in his

hometown goes all the way frozen.

Ackley, roomed next to him, comes in. Holden describes Ackley as “sort of a nasty guy” who

irritates Holden because of his mannerisms and insecurity. All through the novel, Salinger used

the phrase “sort of” more than 170 times. He puts on his red hunting cap he bought from a shop

in New York and horses around. He likes to horse around a lot, and he gets told to mature up,

too…a lot. Stradlater, Holden’s roommate, comes in and asks if he could write him an essay

because he’s going out for a date with Jane Gallagher, Holden’s childhood friend. Holden likes

her and tries to tell Stradlater how special she is, but Stradlater could only care less.

He writes about this baseball mitt his deceased younger brother Allie had had which he

used to write poems in green ink on while he waits for his playmates. Allie had very red hair, but

he never gets angry, unlike people with red hair who are supposed to get mad very easily. Red

represents purity and kindness. He wears a red hunting cap because he wants to protect himself

from all things scary about adulthood or more of like he wants to protect himself from adulthood

itself. As mentioned, Allie had very red hair. In the story, only his brother Allie is the person that

he has no criticisms he can throw upon.

Holden is agitated about Stradlater going out with Jane. He knows Stradlater too much,

and he cares for Jane too much. When Stradlater comes back, with Holden and his frantic

questions about how he and Jane did, and his essay about the baseball mitt which Stradlater is

not so happy about, they get into a fight which forces Holden to go even when it’s not the time

the ideal time yet as he’s not supposed to go home for several more days.

On a train ride, he bumps with the mother of one of the boys from Pencey. He tries to flirt

with the woman and fakes his identity and tells her of how great her son was doing when the
truth is it’s the other way around. See, in there, he did not even recognize that he acts like a

phony. He always points that out to people, and they always make him want to puke. Boy! Was

he a hypocrite.

He thinks of calling someone to have someone to talk to. In his mind are his sister

Phoebe, Jane Gallagher, a girl he used to go out with named Sally Hayes, and an old friend

named Carl Luce, but then decides not to.

He walks through the streets of New York “traveling incognito” and sought for listening

ears from a cab driver, a prostitute, nuns. He wants to get listened to very much, but he became

as distant as how frequent as he says, “Hey, listen.”

Holden tries to bond with the cab driver inviting him for a cocktail and asks about where

the ducks go when the South Central Park goes frozen. Like the others whom he tried to strike a

conversation with, the driver was not as interested. He checks in at a hotel where from his

window, he could see a man who was cross-dressing, and a couple spitting waters at each other’s

face. He sort of likes to watch what the couple was doing, but then for him, if you respect her,

you must not do such lascivious thing to exploit her beauty. Later that night, he phones a stripper

whom he got the number from an old friend for a cocktail but was rejected. He enters the bar

located below the hotel where he checks in and meets three ladies whom he danced with one

after another, but he got even more depressed because he can’t put any of them to a decent

conversation.

Holden’s alienation to adulthood was not helped out by grown-ups pretending that it’s

okay and normal. I know how frustrating it is to not be given enough attention when here I am

trying to run away from something I can’t even get away from. How could they dance along
when they don’t even know if the ducks get picked up by a truck during winter? How could they

be okay when only a movie actor’s name can get their attention? Boy! Only them phonies don’t

get it.

He goes to a bar to see a jazz pianist named Ernie. Ernie plays too well and he knows it

with himself, but he pretends to be humble so he’s phony. As Holden is having his drink he’s

also judging the couples that surround him. Holden sees a woman who used to date his brother

D.B. with another guy and was invited for a drink, but he declines because he thinks they’re

phonies. The elevator operator in the hotel named Maurice offers to send a prostitute and Holden

accepts without hesitation. Sunny, the prostitute comes to his room wearing a green dress.

Holden wonders about how innocent this girl was when she bought her green dress. And

perhaps, Holden Caulfield was the first guy ever to have paid a prostitute without having sex

with her. He just wants to talk, and Sunny, sort of pissed off, asks for ten dollars. Holden only

gives her five. Sunny together with Maurice come to his room to get the other five. Maurice

punches him in the stomach, and Holden literally gets into a breakdown because of Maurice

lying with the cost.

After a few hours of sleep, he calls Sally Hayes to have a date. She’s beautiful and rich,

but he doesn’t like her as much as Jane. On their date, he opens up his plan to Sally of running

away together, and live with their children in an isolated place. Sally thinks his idea was good

but she can’t leave her life for Holden, then he says something which made her cry.

Holden goes to the Central Park hoping he could see his younger sister Phoebe. He meets

a girl from Phoebe’s class and she suggests that she might be in the museum. Holden’s fear of

change shows when how glad he is walking around the museum with nothing being changed.
 Holden sneaks inside his parents’ house to see Phoebe, and she is happy to see him.

Phoebe’s upset of Holden being kicked out of Pencey and worries about their dad beating him.

She tells Holden that he doesn’t like anything in the world, and he tells her about his fantasy of

thousands of kids playing in the rye and would rescue any kids that will run-off the cliff. He will

be the catcher in the rye.

His conversation with Phoebe completely got me depressed. I don’t think if worrying

about the fact your younger sister or the four-year old son of your neighbor will one day

encounter obscene drawings at the back of a dusty van is a legitimate reason to feel really bad,

because I feel bad anyway and I was nearly bawling with the realization.

He can’t show up at home until a few more days, so he calls his former English teacher

Mr. Antolini. Holden remembers one of these boys from school who jumped and killed himself,

and no one but Mr. Antolini picked him up. He earned a huge respect from Holden with that. Mr.

Antolini keeps on talking about Holden needing to apply himself to school to have a life and all

valuable trend of thought, but Holden isn’t actually paying attention because of exhaustion. He

sleeps in the couch, but wakes up because of Mr. Antolini stroking his hair. Holden freaks out

thinking Mr. Antolini is a pervert, and runs off and sleeps at a park for few hours.

The next day, he goes to Phoebe’s school to get to her his message of planning to

hitchhike going West. Phoebe meets her at the museum and carries her bag full of clothes

because she wants to go with him, but she gets furious when he won’t let her. “Listen, did you

want to go for a walk?” And for the first time, he gets listened to. They may walk towards the

opposite sides, but they did take a walk.

And he’s finally happy. The Catcher in the Rye was said to not belong in the young-adult genre

as Holden Caulfield remained who he was until the very end of the novel. In contrary to this, on

that dramatic carousel ride, “I felt so damn happy, if you want to know the truth. I don't know

why. It was just that she looked so damn nice, the way she kept going around and around, in her

blue coat and all. God, I wish you could've been there,” Holden had changed. It is raining and

he’s wearing his red hunting cap, but he doesn’t bother to go under the roof of the carousel. He

just let the rain soak him. It means that it had dawned to him that adulthood is inevitable. It is full

of all things scary: greed, sex, pretending. Nevertheless, we will all go through the impending

stage of adulthood.

As I grow older, it became difficult to access that expansive imaginary space that made

my toys fun. I try to play out all the same story lines that had been fun before, but I could no

longer connect to my toys in a way that allowed me to participate in the experience. I’m still

hoping that perhaps someday I’ll learn how to accept change as a real person, like Holden

Caulfield.