The Catcher in the Rye is a book about a cynical, confused, depressed teenager, Holden Caulfied, by J. D. Salinger, an American author, published in 1951. This book has sold more than 65 million copies, and continues to hold great appeal and cultural importance due to how it approaches the topic of adolescence, as well as the loss of innocence.
The book begins with Holden talking about Pencey, the school he is in, which he loathes. Recently, he and his fencing team went to compete in New York, but didn't compete because Holden “left all the foils and equipment and stuff on the goddam subway” (5). Holden excuses himself by stating that he had to navigate by using the map, so he shouldn’t be blamed. And when it comes to school, Holden is scheduled to be expelled, since he was failing four subjects and giving minimal effort. Holden’s language makes it clear he couldn’t care less that he is in serious academic trouble, as he maintains that Pencey will be better off without him, seeing his poor performance, and its reputation for supposedly being an elite institution. He then goes to visit his history teacher, Mr. Spencer. Mr. Spencer tells Holden that he’s failing due to a lack of effort, not intelligence, and to support his claim, he recites an exam which Holden has failed. The exam was open-ended, asking Holden about the Egyptians, and Holden responded with only a few sentences before telling Mr. Spencer that he can fail him. Holden is mad after Mr. Spencer recited his response, as he feels humiliated. It is also revealed that Holden flunked out of multiple schools before Pencey due to a lack of effort and discipline, such as Whooton School and Elkton Hills. Mr. Spencer then asks Holden about his future, and tells him that when it comes to caring about it, “You will. You will, boy. You will when it’s too late” (18). Holden then excused himself, shook hands with Mr. Spencer, and left.
When Holden got back to his dorm, he ran into Ackley, his roommate, who was very unpopular due to his lack of hygiene and manners - “I never even once saw him brush his teeth. They always looked mossy and awful, and he damn near made you sick if you saw him in the dining room with his mouth full of potatoes and peas or something … he had a lot of pimples … all over his face … he had a terrible personality” (23). After horsing off with Ackley, he talks to Stradlater, an attractive, athletic student at Pencey, who asks Holden to write an essay for him, as he is going on a date. Holden, having nothing better to do, writes the essay for Stradlater, and Stradlater later tells him that he went out with Jane Gallagher, a friend of Holden. Holden, hearing this, is amazed, as Jane had a very terrible childhood, as her father was an alcoholic who ran around the house naked. The essay Holden was supposed to write for Stradlater involved something symbolic, so he wrote an essay on a baseball glove. Stradlater, seeing the answer, is enraged, considering that “‘I told ya it had to be about a goddam room or a house or something’” (46). Holden, frustrated, rips up the essay. Holden eventually becomes angry at Stradlater concerning his arrogance, and becomes even angrier after thinking that Stradlater might have copulated with Jane in his coach’s car. He attempted to attack Stradlater with a toothbrush, but was easily defeated, and was beaten badly by Stradlater, so badly that he worried about a potential skull fracture. After going to the bathroom and cleaning himself up, he decides to leave Pencey before his parents find out he got expelled, stating that everything and everyone at Pencey was a “phonie,” and screams at a corridor full of sleeping people on page 59: “‘Sleep tight, ya morons!’”
Holden, seeing that it was very late, walked to the train station. After getting on the train, he met the mother of one of his classmates, whose name is Ernest Morrow. Holden states that her son “was doubtless the biggest bastard that ever went to Pencey, in the whole crumby history of the school. He was always going down the corridor … snapping his soggy old wet towel at people’s asses” (61). However, Holden was not without his sense of fun, and being a terrific liar, told his mother that his name was Rudolf Schmidt (the name belonging to his dorm’s janitor), and that Morrow was extremely popular, and that he has “‘this very original personality that takes you a little while to get to know him’” (63). He even told her that Morrow would be a very good candidate for the class presidency, and that “‘he’s really shy. You oughta make him try to get over that’” (64). Finally, for his last jest, he quips that he is going to get an operation to have a tumor on the outside of his brain removed, and she actually believed it. She eventually leaves the train, and so does Holden, though at a later time at Penn Station.
The first thing he does once he gets to Penn Station is to call Sally, a previous girlfriend. He then calls a cab and was so dead-minded that he gave the driver his actual address, but soon rectifies the mistake and goes to a hotel instead. The first thing he does at the hotel is to go to the nightclub in the building, but leaves soon, seeing the absence of good company and the fact that “The band was putrid … Very brassy, but not good brassy - corny brassy … nobody was around my age” (77). When he got onto the elevator to go back to his room, he was offered the services of a prostitute by the “elevator guy,” Maurice, who told him that it was “Five bucks a throw, fifteen bucks till noon” (101-102). Holden consents, as “It was against my principles and all, but I was feeling so depressed I didn't even think … When you’re feeling very depressed, you can’t even think” (102). Holden specifies that he only wants a throw, and that he is in room 1222. The elevator guy tells him that he will send someone up in fifteen minutes, and Holden instructs him that he “‘don’t want any old bag’” (102). Upon going back to his room, Holden starts to regret his decision, as he is still a virgin. When the prostitute shows up, Holden finds he can’t go through with it, and pays the prostitute the promised 5 bucks. However, the prostitute said that it cost 10 for a throw, and when Holden forces her to leave, Maurice eventually comes back with her for the 10 bucks. Holden resists, and Maurice “snapped his finger very hard on my pajamas,” and Holden begins to cry. Maurice makes fun of his crying, and Holden, angry, states that “‘You’re a stupid chiseling moron, and in about two years you’ll be one of those scraggy guys that come up to you on the street and ask for a dime for coffee” (115). Maurice then proceeds to hit Holden, and Holden states that he felt like he was dying, as he couldn’t breathe very well. He pretended to have been shot by Maurice, and imagines shooting him with a gun in revenge - “Six shots right through his fat hairy belly” (116). After getting up, Holden took a bath before going to sleep, but not before thinking about jumping out the window to his death.
When he awakes, he goes on a walk outside and bumps into 2 nuns, who are relatively entertaining and talkative - one of the nuns loves Romeo and Juliet - and gives them a 10 dollar contribution to show his gratitude. Holden then calls Sally, and they decide to meet at 2:00, which leaves Holden some time to do what he wants. Holden then talks to a random kid his sister’s age (Holden’s sister is very young) and asks her about Phoebe (the name of his sister). He tells her that he is her brother and the kid tells him that Phoebe probably is visiting a museum, “the one where the Indians are,” and Holden believes that the information was useful until he remembered that “it was Sunday” (132). Holden then proceeds to go on his planned date with Sally at the skating rink, and things mostly go fine, until he is seized with enthusiasm for an alternate life away from civilization, chopping wood in the wilderness, and begs her to come with him. She rejects his proposition, telling him that they’re both immature children, and that they are likely to starve if they attempt his plan. Holden, irritated, tells her that “‘You give me a royal pain in the ass, if you want to know the truth’” (148). Unexpectedly, Sally begins to cry, and Holden feels sorry and offers to see her home, but is told off by Sally. Holden, looking back at what happened, remarks: “I don’t even know why I started all that stuff with her. I mean about going away somewhere, to Massachusetts and Vermont and all. I probably wouldn’t’ve taken her even if she’d wanted to go with me … I swear to God I’m a madman” (149).
Holden, after his failure with Sally, calls Carl Luce, a classmate and friend, to meet in the bar with him. Holden then pesters Luce by asking him questions about his sex life, such as the following questions on pages 162-163: “Well, around how old?”, “No kidding, they better for sex and all?”, and “What’s so good about you two?” Luce finally loses it and tells Holden to drop the topic, and he does. Holden then reveals his thoughts on Luce - he is an intellectual who likes being in charge, and he only talks about what he wants to talk about. Luce then gives Holden some genuinely good advice, like calling a psychiatrist to psychoanalyze him. After his discussion with Luce, he is heartbroken after he breaks the record he was planning to give to Phoebe by dropping it on the ground. Deciding to salvage what he can, he collects the shattered remnants. He then goes to see Phoebe, who, being a young child, is still living with her parents in their apartment. At the time he visited Phoebe, it was night, and his entire family were sleeping. But because he didn't want his parents to catch him in their apartment (again, they didn't know he was expelled from Pencey), he had to sneak past their door, especially considering that his mother is a very light sleeper. When he sees Phoebe, she is very affectionate and glad to see him, and explains her role in a class play, “A Christmas Pageant for Americans” - she is Benedict Arnold, which gives her the biggest part. She then discusses a play that she watched, “The Doctor,” which involves a doctor killing a disabled, crippled child out of mercy and is sentenced to life imprisonment. However, while he is in jail, the spirit of the crippled child visits him and thanks him for ending his suffering. Phoebe then asks to keep the broken record, which kills Holden on the inside, for children are innocent and attach value to things adults don’t. Phoebe, being very intelligent, then deduces that Holden was kicked out of Pencey, and becomes angry, says “Daddy’ll kill you” repeatedly, and holds a pillow over her head and refuses to talk. Holden accepts her behavior and leaves the house, but not before taking some cigarettes from the living room table, seeing that he has used up all of his own.
Holden eventually returns to the apartment, and Phoebe agrees to talk to him. When she asked him if he failed all his subjects again, he said that he failed all of them except English. She then becomes sad and asks him why he didn't try, and Holden responds by stating that Pencey is full of phonies who are arrogant, uncaring, and disgusting, and that he can’t stand their presence. He also praises Mr. Spencer, for “‘His wife was always giving you hot chocolate and all that stuff, and they were really pretty nice’” (185). However, after his complement, he goes back to complaining, as he describes the headmaster, “old Thurmer,” and how Mr. Spencer would laugh whenever he was in the room, “as if Thurmer was a goddam prince or something” (185-186). He then talks about how on Veterans’ Day, “‘all the jerks that graduated from Pencey around 1776 come back and walk all over the place, with their wives and children and everybody’” (186). There was one person who went to the bathrooms to see whether the initials he carved into it decades ago were still there, and he wouldn’t stop talking about how great his days at Pencey were, which severely depressed Holden, as even though he wasn’t a bad person, “All you have to do to depress somebody is give them a lot of phony advice while you’re looking for your initials in some can door” (186). Phoebe then accurately assesses Holden, telling him plainly that nothing makes him happy, and that he has no meaning in his life, which is why everything depresses him in one way or the other, which mirrors Nietzsche’s quote that “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” Phoebe then challenges Holden, asking him to tell her one thing he likes. Holden, after an enormous amount of speculation, which includes his possible future career, tells Phoebe that he wants to be “The Catcher in the Rye.” In his own words, he puts it: “‘Anyway, 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’” (191). Holden’s mother comes in and talks to Phoebe, asking her if she had been smoking, and Phoebe lies, saying that she only smoked a puff because of insomnia. Holden utilizes the opportunity to escape.
Holden then visits Mr. Antolini, who has this “very swanky apartment over on Sutton Place” which includes a living room, steps, and a bar (199). Mr. Antolini knew Holden because he was his English teacher. Mr. Antolini also lives with his wife, Mrs. Antolini, who is much older than him, though they get along well. The Antolini's welcome Holden into their home, with Mrs. Antolini making them coffee and cakes. Holden has a moment of catharsis in which he tells Mr. Antolini all his frustrations and problems, and Mr. Antolini is exceptionally sympathetic and analytic, seeing that both he and his wife are intellectual, though he is wittier than her, seeing that she has severe asthma. Mr. Antolini accurately tells Holden that he lacks a goal, a purpose, a major reason for his mental state. He then tells Holden that he should find a passion, and use his energy for that passion into getting educated. He tells Holden that even though there are some who weren’t educated who had a large mark on the world, those who are brilliant and educated tend to do much better than those who are merely brilliant, considering that education, with all its faults and problems, does give people the instruments to express themselves more accurately and efficiently. After the conversation, Holden lay on the couch of the Antolinis to sleep in his regular clothes, considering that he has no pajamas. He wakes up to find Mr. Antolini patting his head with his hand, which disturbs him so much that he doesn’t even want to talk about it afterwards. Making an excuse that he left his bags, he leaves the Antolinis, remarking that when something perverted like Mr. Antolini’s petting happens, he is disturbed to an uncommonly large degree. He still concedes that Mr. Antolini’s action might have been innocent, as he was very nice to him. He also feels a lot of shame and guilt, as he promised Mr. Antolini he would go back once he got his bags, but didn't.
Holden finally decides to take decisive action, as he feels it would be best if he left New York and never came back. He wrote Phoebe a letter and told her to meet him at the Museum of Art at 12:15 PM, and she does. When he tells her of his plan to leave and never return, she breaks down crying, stating that if he is leaving, she is too. When she refuses to listen to him, Holden gets mad, even hating her for a second, as she is playing Benedict Arnold in the school play - he doesn’t want her life, one with a meaning, to lose its purpose because of a life as cluttered and disorganized as his. Eventually, Phoebe is calmed down and Holden walks her back to school, but not before stopping at a carousel. He tells Phoebe to ride it, and she initially refuses, saying that she wasn’t a child anymore, but Holden insists. When she rode it, it began raining heavily, and while the other parents went under the carousel for shelter, Holden continued to sat on the bench, observing Phoebe. He describes that he “felt so damn happy all of a sudden, the way old Phoebe kept going around and around. I was damn near bawling, I felt so damn happy, if you want to know the truth. I don’t know” (233). Once that was done and over with, Holden went home, got sick, and was scheduled to attend another school next fall. Holden remarks in the end that he misses everyone, even those which he considers disgusting, arrogant, and violent (Ackley, Stradlater, Maurice), and he instructs the reader to “Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody” (234).
Personal thoughts:
Like many who have read it, I read The Catcher in the Rye for school, and I enjoyed it more than I expected. I find many of the books about teenagers to be full of unnecessary drama and histrionics, so Holden’s narrative, though fictional, was a pleasant surprise. Holden demonstrates many characteristics which are associated with adolescence, such as a loss of meaning, potential nihilism and existential despair, depression, bad decision making, and above all, a burning passion to defend and recollect innocence. Holden, though the protagonist, isn’t a hero at all, for he has all the traits mentioned above, though he is understandable in his struggles, and he is extremely realistic as a character, for humans are irrational and emotional to a very large degree. When it comes to the prospect of Holden actually being “The Catcher in the Rye,” I appreciate a possible symbolic meaning of J. D. Salinger here, as even though Holden would be happy doing the job, the chance of such a job existing is close to nil. The job of the “Catcher in the Rye” is closely attached to defending the innocence of children, which is shown to be quite literally impossible - the adult world and the world as it is exists all around them, which leaves them no choice but to “grow up,” no matter how hard people like Holden may try and wish for the contrary. The Catcher in the Rye is a great read, and shouldn’t be read only for school - I highly recommend it for people interested in psychology, adolescents, and the world in general.
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