The Catcher in the Rye

Quote:

Originally Posted by bluebicycle Honestly, and this is no joke, we read a book in 7th grade and a different one in 9th grade where there there were huge sex scenes (e.g., The Kite Runner). Prostitutes in Catcher in the Rye were significantly less offensive. lol. Yeah, like I said, my memory is hazy. lol. I guess I'm confusing Holden with another character with a low IQ. Maybe it was the main character in Flowers for Algernon. I read both books at the same time.

Actually, Holden was quite intelligent.

Good to know. Now I'm pretty sure I'm confusing Holden with Charlie (in Flowers for Algernon).

Ah well. I should reread it at some point.

I'm glad to hear that last part! IMHO people like that shouldn't be working as therapists in the first place.

I did! I love how the whole book is full of things like that, remarks that seem incidental but are actually quite important.

Ha, well, to each their own I suppose. But To Kill a Mockingbird is definitely another great classic!

Holden tells his story to his doctor while in a mental hospital (or shortly after being released anyway) -- an easily overlooked aspect of the book because Salinger has Holden just barely allude to that part of his situation a bit at the beginning and a the very end. I almost always have to point that out to students. Very easy to miss. Salinger also has repeated references to mental illness throughout the novel, not only in Holden but also in other characters.

The novel is, however, also a bildungsroman, following Holden's transition from childhood innocence to adult reality, so the "angst" angle is also just as valid as the mental illness take. Salinger's novel is complex and he very much intended it to be read on many different levels, so no one interpretation is necessarily more important than the other. Rather, it is the layering of interpretation that makes the novel the classic that it is.
And no, Holden was not low IQ; he was quite intelligent which is one of the reasons he shows so much "angst" with the adult phonies of the world -- he sees right through them.

While Catcher was often banned for many years, it is actually rather mild in content for the contemporary teenaged reader. I'm sure there will always be misguided bannings of the novel, probably by people who have actually never read or studied it, but most classroom teachers have no problem with teaching it anymore, and students honestly find it rather mild by comparison to the reality of what they see and hear today.

@ArtleyWilkins: "Bildungsroman" takes the cake for the most obscure word i have ever seen on this site. It's correct of course just wondering what your intention was in using it?

@ArtleyWilkins: I fully agree with you on the multiple layers. I guess my frustration is not so much with the teenage angst layer being there, but with the popular interpretation being that that's the only layer, a view that in my opinion really detracts from the book.

I'm an English teacher. That's just my norm.

huh! I guess I missed that too, or I'm just forgetting. The odd part is is that I just read this again a few years back (maybe 2015?)

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I remember loving this book as a teen when most kids thought it was stupid or he was a complainer or something. I could totally relate to most of his thoughts and actions (although I was never one to really pass up food. )

But yeah, then I heard it was a favorite book of one who was to become my favorite artist/musician and I checked it out again. Hell! I actually bought a copy and got that artist/musician to sign it! hehe I can't believe how in just a few short years of obsessing with it that I've already forgotten so much...but I do remember the fight he has in the bathroom with that "good looking" guy (not a quote from the story) and his close relationship with his dear sister Phoebe (that was so precious!)

And back to the quote above, I was recalling about his visit and talks with his teacher. Like I said, I completely forgot about the therapy, but yeah it kinda makes sense now...kinda sad how he didn't get help earlier on in life though (or did I miss/forget that part too?)

I kinda knew it had to be more than just "teen angst" if the majority of my classmates didn't appreciate it and I did. That's when I knew I was weird (er, I mean different). Wish I knew about therapy back then, but I'm not sure I would have been able to explain myself. I still struggle now, even with a better vocabulary and insight into my moods and emotions and differentiating between physical illness and mental anxiety, etc.

Nice topic!

I forgot to say this next part but of course, remembered just as soon as I signed off and shut down last night.

Is anyone here aware of the murders surrounding this book? I think that is a major reason it is banned in schools. Yeah, I found this out from an online friend a few months after I read the book again and so I looked into it myself. It's apparently true! Scary. But it's like how they say some music has been inspiration for madmen. It's just messed up people! But still, this coupled with the fact that Salinger himself clearly suffered from some mental issues, more likely from the writing process itself as well as the pressure of his written works criticisms, led me to fear attempting to become a public writer myself. I mean, I've already seen a taste of this and I'm already an anxious human...but back on topic, Salinger's writing career is rather sad actually. He'd spend countless hours alone in isolation writing, even from his own wife (who I believe left him), and he got to the point where he didn't even come out in public near the end...if I'm remembering correctly. There was some documentary on at the time I was "obsessed" with Salinger and his works and this is what I recall. Point is, he had a sad life, and his books reflect that. I think he even wrote a sequel (or prequel or something) to Catcher, but he couldn't ever let it see the light of day and made it so that no one could ever publish it. (Ok, correct me if I'm wrong here) Point is, while sad, he and this book have an amazing story, not one to be glorified, but to hopefully learn from. I feel tremendous sympathy for him or any artist who risks their mental wellbeing for art...even if it's good art, it's really a shame. And now I'm probably going to regret sharing some of these thoughts but I believe I said it respectfully this time.
I really am a fan of Salinger's works btw, "nine stories" and even "franny and zooey" were great stories too, although Catcher is probably the best!