J.D. Salinger in his timeless novel “The Catcher In The Rye” weaved a tale of a sixteen year old school dropout Holden Caulfield. Although he belonged to 1950s yet his crisis, emotional struggle of growing up is very real to the youth of present times. When Holden was expelled from his Prep School in Pennsylvania, he went to underground in New York City for three days and came in close quarters with some people who revealed to him the superficiality of the adult world. But while he alleged all adults of being self-important phonies, ironically Holden Caulfield struggled to connect with anyone his own age. Hence, Salinger’s protagonist was anything but a typical. His adolescent life was riddled with many contradictions. He was torn between the innocence of youth and reality of adulthood. But he was tired of sitting on the fence. And when he failed to relate to the people of his own age and felt isolated and lonely. He decided to seek the company among adult people. But soon he realized that this process seeking adult company entails the loss of innocence, and innocence once lost, was gone forever. This very realization made this troubled teenager boy’s mind more deeply conflicted. He prayed to his dead brother, Allie. He was unable to relate to anybody and felt as though he might vanish, disappear, the way Allie did. Holden made up his mind to run away and told his 10 year-old sister Phoebe about his plans. Phoebe wanted to accompany him but Holden disagreed to it. Pheobe was angry and disheartened when he says she can’t come along. Seeing how he had upset her, Holden decided not to leave and instead took Phoebe to ride the Central Park carousel. As his sister enjoyed herself Holden finally happiness and strange feeling of peace at heart. Through the complex character of Holden Caulfield, J.D. Salinger provided the young generation with an insight into the life transition that lie ahead of them. The novel raised all those questions that even a present day young boy can relate to or he might have asked at some point of time to understand the world around him and most importantly to understand himself. So whether we love or hate Holden Caulfield but we cannot ignore the fact that his story is timeless. To find this evergreen American classic all you need to do is click on www.rightbooks.in/product_details.asp?pid=9780241950425&The Catcher In The Rye
1 comment:
t is difficult to remember what it was like to read this book for the first time. It is also difficult to imagine a book where each new reading provides so much more illumination into the main character and his personality. I can remember finding Catcher to be funny the first time I read it. I now alternately find Holden to be walking a fine line between witty sarcasm and dangerous cynicism. He is funny, there is no way around that, but his belittling nature also causes him to dismiss much from his life that may not be perfect, but should be included.
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