American classics are not my strong suit. For one, I spent a lot of my time in college reading British literature, and when you settle into a certain region, it is difficult to breach new horizons. A second reason is that I tend to find the themes of American literature, on the whole, generally narrow and somewhat depressing.
There is a saying that Americans believe a hundred years to be a long time, and Europeans view a hundred miles as a long distance. In literature, I think that this maxim also applies. European literature tends to span the length of time, both literally and metaphorically. There is a sense of the self within a tapestry of ancestry and a multi-national awareness.
The characters seem to ask, "How do I find my way as a part of the broader world, both within and above my need to find a personal identity?" Les Mis, 1984, Rebecca, The Time of the Doves, Anna Karenina...all stories from different countries and about people as individuals, but ultimately embracing one or more themes of ancient tradition, national or international awareness, and a cyclical timeline of interconnected events.
American literature, on the other hand, has largely been a pursuit of both national and personal identification. "Who are we as a nation, and how can we each establish a distinct voice?" The Scarlet Letter, Huck Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, Death of a Salesman...yes, there are universal themes, but they center around the individual rather than the other way around. America's relative youthfulness, isolation, size, and individualistic spirit certainly all play a role in this phenomenon that I am not prepared to fully analyze in a simple blog post.
While there is nothing wrong with these themes, I tend to find them (as young Holden might say) rather boorish in literature. The Catcher in the Rye is, unfortunately, representative of everything that I dislike about American literature. Here is why.
1. "Guys that are boring--But I have to be careful about that. I mean about calling certain guys bores. I don't understand boring guys" (160).
An unflinching look at the mentality of a teenager. As an author, JD Salinger is giving "rats in a trenchcoat," except that his version of this phenomenon is best described as the mind of a teenager disguised within the body of an adult. He portrays the selfish, simultaneously insecurity and over-confident, lacking in self-awareness, judgmental, anti-authoritarian short-sightedness of the middle-class American teenager suspiciously well.
I know that this is the case because I was incredibly annoyed throughout my reading of The Catcher, and consistently felt the need to call Holden's mother and send him to his room. Or a work camp. Whichever was closer.
In all seriousness, there is something very important about preserving our remembrance of what it was like to be a young person with an under-developed brain and over-developed sense of our own importance. Some of us never grow out of this stage. It is incredibly difficult to organize a measured response to life when everything is completely out of proportion--small occurrences feel so traumatic, and big ones seem to have little to no effect.
Would any of us go back in time and re-live the years between 13 and 19? I, for one, absolutely would not. It renews my empathy for those coming into their adulthood, because I can recall being desperate to find my place, but also feeling as though the world couldn't care less about my efforts. For realism, Salinger receives full points.
2. "Besides, he was such a touchy guy, it wasn't any pleasure discussing anything with him" (108).
Completely unlikeable characters. My first criticism is that Holden, as a narrator, is mostly an absolute terror. Every once in a while, there will be a moment wherein he shows empathy for another human being or speaks with candor about his grief surrounding the loss of his brother. Those moments, however poignant, are few and far between.
Holden is unreliable. But not in a fun way. We see all of the other characters through his lens, and in true teenage fashion, he doesn't like most of them. Adults are annoying and out of touch, other boys are boring, and the girls are essentially objects for him to consume for his own pleasure. The result of this portrayal is that none of the people who populate this book (other than perhaps 1 or 2 exceptions) would I want to spend more than 5 minutes around.
I understand the concept of creating realistic and morally gray characters, but there must be some creation of empathy towards them, or else the reader does not and cannot care about what happens to them. I think Holden needs to go to military school and have some sense knocked into him, because he acts like a spoiled brat for about 200 pages. I was frankly sickened by most of his choices and his internal commentary, and the attempts to build empathy for him fell flat because of these aspects that could not be overlooked.
3. "I was only thirteen, and they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all, because I broke all the windows in the garage" (50).
Little to no plot. The book takes place over the course of a few days, as Holden escapes from his school dorm after being expelled from yet another high school, and goes to New York to fritter away his time before his parents will be expecting him home. All he does is drink, attempt to hire a prostitute, walk around in the dark, call friends and try to hook up with them, and essentially kidnap his little sister from her room.
I was continually waiting for something to happen--for him to face the consequences of his actions or encounter a problem that would force him to realize the ridiculousness of his actions. Maybe for his parents to make an appearance. But no, he spends all of the money in his wallet and runs amok with essentially no accountability, and then he has some sort of revelation at a merry-go-round that life is worth living. Or something like that.
It is hard to believe in a positive character arc when every time Holden shows some glimmer of maturity, he immediately descends back into his philosophy that fate owes him the desires of his heart and that he is the main character of everyone's story.
4. "I was crazy about The Great Gatsby. Old Gatsby. Old sport. that killed me...If there's ever another war, I'm going to sit right the hell on top of it. I'll volunteer for it, I swear to God I will" (183).
No real consequences. Finally, as previously mentioned, he does not face any repercussions for the choices that he makes. Underage drinking and hiring of prostitutes aside, Holden is a pretty dumb smart kid. He is clearly the embodiment of "intelligent but doesn't apply himself," given every resource to succeed but choosing instead to metaphorically show the middle finger to anyone who tries to help him.
I don't like the precedent that this storyline sets, making it seem as though teenagers are just rebels at heart and need to be given room to grow at their own pace, even if that includes breaking the law and generally treating every other person with disdain. Grief can chart a course in our lives that is completely unexpected and impossible to define, but I didn't feel that the loss of his brother was enough to give Holden a reason for going off the rails the way that he does.
Overall, this novel is definitely a pass for me. I wouldn't recommend it, I would never assign it, and it can be tossed on the pile of, "I don't understand how this became a classic."
