The Catcher in the Rye
This book was written by J.D.Salinger, a famous writer in America. The title of this book came from the poem "Coming through the rye", by Robert Burns.
The story was told in first person as Holden Caulfield, a teenage boy expelled from school due to his flunking in too many exams, decided to leave school a few days earlier before the vacation actually started, and to hang around in New York city instead of returning home directly. He took a train late in the night and stayed in the hotel; but ended up paying the due money with out doing anything.
It's mostly written in very simple and plain words, just like a heart-to-heart talk between Holden and readers. He is telling us that he had a lousy childhood, the school didn't work out well for him, how he hated tho phonies, how he loved his Phoebe and Allie, and that he had always dreamt of being a catcher in the rye.
To him almost all the people around were phonies: the school headmaster, his roommate
s, guys in the lousy bars and hotels. He looked down upon all of them. He even wanted to walk away, down and down the road of the city blocks to the west. He misd his dead elder brother Allie very much-- Allie was like his bosom friend and brother; and his affections for his little sister Phoebe was so touching and natural.
Holden is just a typical teenager of his age. Sometimes he is timid, or yellow, as the author suggested .He is timid for love. He had been reminding himlf to give Jane a buzz through the whole book but never did, by the excu "he is not in the right mood". he was also a yellow guy before tho bastards who asked him for more money when Holden did nothing to that whore .he was speaking of heading west for his little dream but again compromid in the end.
But he is also brave. He is brave to express his own ideas instead of being a phony. He is brave to live by himlf away from parents' care. He is brave to dream of being a catcher in the rye to rescue careless children. He is so brave to the extent of, maybe, being lovely.
He is also a guy with deep emotion. He lived his sisters and brothers so much that he said "i know he's dead! Don't you think i know that? I can still like him, though, can't I? Just becau somebody's dead you don't just stop liking them……", which touched me so much. And in the last but one chapter, he was watching Phoebe playing on the carroul in the rain, being so damn happy.
The style of this novel is simple. The description of the boy's inner thoughts and activities gets rather depressing. Sometimes make me quite uncomfortable and depresd. Although lacking similar personal experience, I could still imagine the mirable boy's situation.
Actually, I was deeply impresd by Holden’s dream. "Anyway, I keep picturing all the 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 s
omewhere 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."
When I read the lines as Holden Caulfield replied to his younger sister, Phoebe, who questioned what he would like to do when he gets older, my emotional buttons were deathly touched. It’s crazy indeed considering the background of that time. As the “lost generation”, he just simply wanted to stay with innocent kids and bring out the child in himlf. Each time I read the book, my heart ached. It is a world where “people never notice anything”, “they are more interested in playing a part or looking good than in doing or saying anything honest”, and “everyone wants a Cadillac and to make a lot of dough”.
Reading the book was such a lonely and depressing journey with Holden. he is soft and nsitive at heart. He is always pitying people, and trying to help. He is not willing to accept the rules t before him by phony adults. I can e mylf once a while in him, who is always missing the sweet and witty childhood, not willing for a change and longing for someone who can empathize with his confusion about the world.
In this novel, we can find the similarity of ourlves. When we at the same age, we also had more or less experience like that, or the same thought of the world. However, there is nothing wrong with growing up, and inevitable, everybody will grow up. We all will experience the growing pains. One day, we’ll lost that kind of dream, not becau we all grew up, but the real world destroyed our dream.
This novel ud to be rather controversial, even banned in America after its initial publication. However, just as someone quoted in his article that someone said that one writer said,"the best novels are tho that wound us deeply, which cau us to think afresh about ourlves and the lives we lead. "
As the story came to its end when Holden watched Phoebe on the caroul, I was so impresd with his affection with his younger sister as well as positiveness toward himlf. He is both afraid that she's going to fall off reaching for the brass ring and happy to watch his sister's happiness. It occurs to him that we have to let kids reach for the gold ring and you can't always worry about protecting them, since they have to grow up in their own way. “The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let
them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it's bad if you say anything to them,” he said.
