The Catcher in the Rye -- One Perspective

Salinger, J.D.   The Catcher in the Rye.  New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1951. 

Audience:  High School, 14+

Genre:  Young Adult, Young Adult Coming of Age

Topics of Focus:  Growing up, relationships, the phoniness of the world, alienation, the future.

Red Flags:  Alcohol, profanity, sexual thoughts, stripper.

Hearing great things about this novel by teachers and friends made me think that this novel would be fantastic. It wasn’t.

Though one of the first novels of its kind,  The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is not all it’s cracked up to be. The narrator, Holden Caulfield, of this novel is an annoying and compulsive liar that has been kicked out of many schools and shows affection only to his little sister, Phoebe, and his deceased little brother, Allie. Recently being expelled out of his current school but required to stay until winter break and after a brief fight with his “secret slob” roommate Stradlater, Holden skips the rest of school and travels to New York City. He goes to several nightclubs but leaves all of them for various reasons. Eventually, Holden goes to his apartment and sees Phoebe, who is excited to see him, but results in him hiding from his own parents (who don’t yet know he is expelled) and leaves. The ending of the novel is somewhat open ended, leaving room for the reader to imagine where Holden might be in the future.

The most often reason I hear for a person who loves The Catcher in the Rye is that they can relate to the characters, and though I could relate to Holden feelings of alienation, I could not relate to his annoying narration or to any of the other characters. It felt very dated to me in the figures of speech that the author used, and he used many of the same phrases over again, which is a personal pet peeve of mine. I was excited to read this classic – many people whose reading interests crossover with mine have recommended it to me – however it let me down greatly. I was disappointed by the characters actions and thoughts, not to mention that half of the novel I was bored while reading it. It truly is a classic that many people read, and for that only I think it is worth reading for. Then, at least, you can form your own opinion on whether The Catcher in the Rye is a fantastic piece of literature, or a huge letdown. 

Annotation by Julia Edmonds