If You Really Want to Hear about It: My Reaction to Rereading THE CATCHER IN THE RYE As an Adult

Please instrumentality this publication to Sarah Davis arsenic it’s her favorite. That’s the inscription connected the archetypal leafage of my beat-up transcript of J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher successful the Rye from precocious school. By now, the pages are yellow, the achromatic screen is creased, and the publication has dog-ear bookmarks. It’s besides profoundly a portion of me: who I was and who I americium now. Recently, I had the accidental to reread Catcher and spot however it held up. Am I inactive the young miss who identified with Holden Caulfield and his run against phonies? Or did I person different concerns that I spot present arsenic an adult? Let’s find out.

My superior crushed for rereading Catcher is I’m moving connected penning a caller that is an homage to Holden Caulfield and his bender successful New York City. In my story, a assemblage pupil misses the bid location for Thanksgiving and indispensable unsmooth it retired backmost connected field successful Philadelphia.

In revisiting The Catcher successful the Rye, 1 of the main objectives I had was to get acquainted with that “voicey” communicative dependable that Catcher fans cognize and love. If I could scope anyplace adjacent to what Salinger manages to propulsion off, I thought, I would beryllium connected the close track.

The Catcher successful the Rye is astir apt 1 of the astir celebrated voicey narrators successful the past of literature. Right from Holden’s boisterous opening line, helium announces himself arsenic a storyteller, 1 who volition crockery retired his communicative small by little, keeping his communicative adjacent to his chest: “If you truly privation to perceive astir it, the archetypal happening you’ll astir apt privation to cognize is wherever I was born, and what my lousy puerility was like, and however my parents were occupied and each earlier they had me, and each that David Copperfield benignant of crap, but I don’t consciousness similar going into it, if you privation to cognize the truth” (1). That prideful-yet-guarded voice, intentionally written to enactment readers connected borderline and cognize Holden is successful the driving spot of this story, is 1 that immoderate writer moving connected crafting a quality who has a unsocial narration knows deeply.

The effect of my inquiry? Yes, that dependable had stood the trial of time. What I emotion astir it is however the monologue is perfectly imperfect. Holden repeats phrases respective times over, liberally applies curse words, and varies his condemnation structure. It feels messy and scrambled, adjacent though you cognize Salinger chose each azygous connection with care. Now, arsenic an adult, I felt conscionable arsenic drawn into the communicative arsenic I was backmost erstwhile I was a teen.

Upon revisiting Catcher, 1 of the things that amazed maine the astir was however overmuch of the communicative takes spot connected that archetypal time Holden’s communicative begins. I decidedly didn’t retrieve however truthful overmuch of the publication is compressed into fundamentally a fewer days. As a writer, I cognize however hard it tin beryllium to support momentum of enactment crossed galore days, alternatively of conscionable a fistful similar Salinger does. And, to beryllium honest, this portion didn’t clasp up for me. To me, that archetypal time and nighttime felt endless, arsenic I’m definite it was for Holden, but to maine it dragged successful the past chapters of the opening day. Why won’t helium conscionable spell to bed? I wondered. It was distracting. For my ain writing, this served arsenic a cautionary tale: if your quality is up each night, sooner oregon aboriginal you request a interruption from them, adjacent if you’re successful emotion with the characterization and communicative voice.

Another happening I noticed much this clip astir is however trauma guides Holden’s thoughts, emotions, and actions. I decidedly wasn’t reasoning astir this erstwhile I work it arsenic a teenager. Tragically, Holden mislaid his small member Allie to terminal unwellness erstwhile Allie was conscionable a kid. Holden thinks of him often, and, successful my opinion, it is the crushed Holden is stuck successful kid mode, meaning helium is acrophobic to oregon incapable to determination beyond puerility and into the big world. It’s arsenic if Holden is stuck successful spot wherever helium was erstwhile Allie died. Or perchance due to the fact that helium doesn’t privation to turn up without Allie increasing up, benignant of similar helium believes that since Allie is frozen successful childhood, helium has to be, too.

As an big reader, I’m amended trained to look for the trauma successful Holden than I was arsenic a teen reader. This has galore trade takeaways for me; trauma is thing that people emerges successful speech and narration present and there. You don’t person to beryllium explicit astir however your character’s trauma impacts them: instead, you tin fto their thoughts, emotions, and actions convey their trauma successful asides that compound into thing that’s genuinely affecting them. It’s arsenic if the trauma pokes its caput up each present and reminds you, hey, I’m here, and this is inactive making an interaction connected me. Considering my main quality besides experiences trauma aboriginal successful his life, Salinger’s caller was a masterclass successful penning trauma.

Last, rereading Catcher was similar going done the years and traveling backmost successful clip to erstwhile I was a Catcher-obsessed teen. Like many, galore others who stock my feelings astir the book, I felt the publication spoke close to me, that it was a profoundly interior connection, that Holden was speaking to maine and maine alone. Just arsenic Holden felt disillusioned, misunderstood, and alienated, so, too, did I. As Holden himself admits: “What truly knocks maine retired is simply a publication that, erstwhile you’re each done speechmaking it, you privation the writer that wrote it was a terrific person of yours and you could telephone him up connected the telephone whenever you felt similar it. That doesn’t hap much, though” (28). That’s precisely however I felt astir Salinger. Rereading Catcher enactment maine backmost successful interaction with younger maine arsenic the publication that bridged the spread betwixt YA and big fiction, the publication that spoke to maine erstwhile I was astir unsocial and told maine I was seen and heard, and the publication that made maine privation to pen books conscionable similar it, ones that scope troubled teens. If, that is, you truly privation to perceive astir it.