Gosh, what a book. So,wow, how in the world do I start. Okay, well, we always have somewhere to start, right? Summary,then characters, then writing styles and then branching out into big stuff. Great great great, let's start.
K, so The Catcher in the Rye was first published in 1945, written by J.D. Salinger. So I'd like to say it's an attack on cynicism, but actually it's a whole bunch of things. So, main character is Holdne Caulfield, a 16 year old guy who's rebel to the extreme, real rebel, inward rebel. See he's very critical of everything and absolutely trashed because of it. The book starts with him getting expelled from Pencey high, a high-class prestigious stiff-collared boarding school for boys near New York; or so it would seem based on narration (first person past tense by the way) since Holden, of course, hates the place for being filled with phonies and all.Course Pencey must not be as bad as Holden lets on that it is. That's how this book works. You start with a bit of present tense, saying he's gonna tell you some stuff but nothing too personal. Fat liar he is. Actually he's skinnier than his own skeleton, but he's still a liar. He lies like a madman too. He's really good at it too. Well, see how I'm getting all unorganized and random? That's the effect of the book. It's insane guys. So yeah, the book goes on for three days, I think. It's actually pretty hard to tell. Anyways, he leaves the school yelling and has to hang around anywhere but home until Wednesday because that's when school gets off and his parents would let him back into the house without them figuring out he's expelled. He'd already been expelled before, by the way. It sucks for him.
So he got expelled because he failed all his classes, except English of course, since he's killer at English and commentaries and all. Well he's a pretty smart guy actually, but it's just that he just can't put in the effort because he doesn't believe in it. Yeah, yeah, great excuse right? Well actually, it's legitimate. Stuff like he failed the oral commentaries in English because if anyone started digressing while they were talking,the phonies in the class could all just start yelling at him and then he, the guy presenting, would never get better. But see Holden'd never call it better, because he's see nothing wrong in digressing anyways, because according to him, we digress because we're figuring out what is actually interesting to us, and thus for people to hear, and nobody actually knows what they're interested in until they'd been jabbering for a while. Stuff like that, and a million other reasons, mostly related to phonies and those rich jerks that pretend they're concerned and all.
This is Holden. Holden and his many thoughts. His thoughts are on anything but what's serious though. See there are a lot of awful things that happened to Holden, but he actually rarely talks about this stuff, only about practically anything else. I think my favorite's that part when he goes on about how Jesus is an alright guy and all, to tell you the truth, the Disciples are a total let-down. They kept screwing him over, like when they tried to send all those people away at the dinner for 5000, or like when Thomas denied that Jesus could have come back to life and stuff like that. And then that Christian guy'd say you're supposed to like the disciples and all since Jesus picked them, but the thing is, according to Holden, Jesus picked them at random, which makes all the difference. Then concerning Judas, according to the Christian, he'd go straight to hell since he committed suicide, but see Holden doesn't think he'd g to hell. He doesn't think Jesus'd do that. I don't think so either. These kinda thoughts. It goes on and on, not stopping. Great stuff.
When it comes to the real stuff, it's very depressing, like with Allie. Allie's his brother, little brother, who died. Holden broke his hand punching out all the windows in the garage after he died, so he couldn't go to the funeral since he was stuck in the hospital. That's all you ever find out bout his death really. See what I mean? That's awful stuff, you know, you're brother dying. But he rants about practically everything but it. There's this baseball glove that belonged to Allie. Allie wrote a bunch of poems on it so he'd have something to read in the outfield. Holden writes about it once. Then there's other stuff, like this kid James Castle that you only find out way later in the book that he jumped out of this window in this old school Holden went to, Whooton. Holden barely knew him, just lent him this sweater this one time, which he died in, by the way, and still, it's got Holden all tied up years later. Holden liked James because James died standing up to some bullies. He's one of the few people Holden likes, along with Allie. They're both dead. Very sad, you know. Still you get more of his opinion on lesbians and on sex freaks than on either of them. His writing style and action screams of them though. You gotta love it.
So I'm guessing you've noticed that there is to be no structure to this writing. Gotta keep going though. So Holden is pretty messed up and shows it. In the few days that we see of him, he spends most his time moving from bar to bar, hotel to hotel, taxi to taxi, randomly and wanderingly. It's painful really. He drinks a lot but he could hold it. He got a prostitute at one point but chickened out. He has to be in the mood for everything. He tries to buzz a bunch of people up, but he chickens out of that too. Not in the mood, that is. He tries to get taxi drivers to drink with him, cause he's so depressed and lonesome. He spends money like crazy, no control. He meets these nuns and donates at one point. He likes these nuns too.They're alright.He keeps asking where the ducks go in the winter, the ones from the lake at Central Park. No one tells him, but the fish apparently just stay there in the lake when it's all freezed up, their bodies always sucking in all that nutrition from the seaweed. Not sure there is seaweed in lakes anyways. Holden doesn't like it when people do things too well,like Ernie on the piano. He meets people once in a while but they're phonies so he hates them. Sally's pretty but she's an idiot. So's everyone else. Actually, people like Ackley and Stradlater, when Holden's not around them, he thinks their alright. He even misses them. Gosh, you know, it's so tragic. We all say we hate people when we rarely do, but well, holden's a madman, around this Christmas time. He really believes it, it's insane. He really hates people sometimes, and really loves them too. It's strange and it's saddening, but we love Holden always.
There's Phoebe, who's his sister. He loves her. It's rare that he loves someone, but he does love Phoebe. She's a littlun, but she's exceptional. She's smart, she almost always gets what you're going on about, more than anyone else has a chance at, at least. Phoebe's great, really. She kills Holden. She says the lines of movies before th actors do, and she points her own finger before the actor. She sits in the middle of a bed with her legs crossed like Buddha. She kills him. Well, see Phoebe knows though. It's tough. She asks the hard questions. Tells him who he is. That he hates everyone and that it sucks. Holden is a better person for Phoebe, in my opinion. Without who he would probably be floating in a ditch somewhere.
There's this one scene when he's walkin' around and every curb he passes he gets this huge suicidal urge, well, not suicidal but paranoid, scared. He then starts talking to Allie, dead Allie. Gosh it's sad man. Don't let me disappear, he says. Holden wants to disappear though. Well, see Holden has this idea stuck in his head: escape. He wants to live in the woods at one point, just with his wife and kids, in a house he'll build himself. He wants to and almost does run off and away to Colorado or wherever to work on some ranch. It doesn't happen. He backs out.He backs out of everything. He's a modern hamlet, really. That's who he is: Hamlet. There's this teacher, and old English teacher, Mr. Antolini, who's nice and puts up with Holden. He actually enjoys Holden and his thoughts and very much his writing. Mr. Antolini tries to help him, telling him about the importance of school and measuring the size of your mind and all. It's perfectly reasonable and wise too. It's just Holden's wasted and wrecked and all, so it just doesn't register, what could have saved his life. Course it's not like his life is lost. It's still there, but see he's heading for a fall though. Mr. Antolini said that, Holden listened, but it doesn't work. Holden claims he's a pervert and runs put. Very tragic happenings. But he'll survive. He always does.
See now it seems that this book would be the most depressing story ever, doesn't it. Well, thank goodness for Holden being the narrator because he's really the only thing that keeps this book fun and light. The book is super fun, really, and it's all because of the writing style. See he says certain things that are repetitive and awesome. Stuff like 'and all', 'if you wanna know the truth', 'That kills me' and all. Also, he adds 'hell' and 'goddam' all over the place. Great stuff. I'll put in some excerpts. That'll get you into it. See it's not some juvenile junk that is just used to be enjoyed and laughed about cause it's 'so cool that it's fun an cool and respected at the same time. This guy gets us; look at the words he uses.' Gosh, that's just annoying. You could call a book cool, but you can't just say that and nothing else. This book has this voice and style because it is fitting. See you need the lightness because it keeps the book from being annoying. Nobody wants to hear a guy whine for 200 odd pages. He has great use of italics too. On specific words and syllables. It gets real voice in. There's a whole lot of description in the book and not all that much that's significant happens. There's no massive plot nor twist nor climax, just time and Holden. Holden, you have to love him, and more than anything, you have to love his words. If you love the two, it's great. The characters are mostly all to be loved though.
There's one last thing. It kinda gets creepy, the cabin idea, because that's how Salinger ended up. Could this be autobiographical? If it is, that's very saddening, really.Most everyone can relate to this book. I certainly do a lot. It's not a moral-pounding book. It's not patronizing, it's self-absorbed. It's a story about Holden only, no one else. While you're watching you become forced to sympathize and relate and then once you love, well, it makes a difference, really.
The Catcher in the Rye scene is wonderful. It's subtle. You have to wish to understand and you have to know Holden. It really just shows how wonderful a person he is. He's lovely, and he's tragic, and he's a martyr and a hero. It's golden and the cliff has a vertigo and Holden on top with the kids. He's a father. He loves English. Read Shakespeare, Maugham, Hardy and such. He wants to phone the authors. I love that. He loves Jane. It's all very good.
"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two haemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them. They're quite touchy about anything like that, especially my father. They're nice and all-I'm not saying that-but they're also touchy as hell. Besides, I'm not going to tell you my whole goddam autobiography or anything. I'll just tell you about this madman stuff that happened to me around last Christmas just before I got pretty run-down and had to come out here and take it easy. I mean that's all I told D.B. about, and he's my brother and all. He's in Hollywood. That isn't too far from this crumby place, and he comes over and visits me practically every weekend. He's going to drive me home when I go home next month maybe. he just got a Jaguar. One of those little English jobs that can do around two hundred miles an hour. It cost him damn near four thousand bucks. He's got a lot of dough, now. He didn't use to. He used to be just a regular writer, when he was home. he wrote this terrific book of short stories, The Secret Goldfish, in case you never heard of him. The best one in it was 'The Secret Goldfish.' It was about this little kid that wouldn't let anybody look at his goldfish because he'd got it with his own money. It killed me. Now he's out in Hollywood, D.B., being a prostitute. If there's one thing I hate, it's the movies. Don't even mention them to me."
Read folks, Read.
