Holden Caufield likes to use short sentences. It is like reading the Dick and Jane books. But with more adult content. I am not kidding. Holden Caufield likes to say he's not kidding a lot too.
Starting out, Caulfield seems quite normal. Six chapters in, you start to wonder. He seems flawed. And so does everyone one else around him. Are they flawed? Or, do they just seem that way through Holden's eyes?
Holden seems like a bit of a loner. He seems to not have any drive. He has no care about the consequences of his actions. He is an adolescent's adolescent.
Salinger captures the thought process and rythyms of an adolescent quite well. He makes the shallowness of Holden's thoughts entertaining if not repetitive.
As I have read other reviews and commentaries on the book, it is apparent that there are many subtle poltitical references in the pages from the times when it was written. McCarthyism and Communism are both posited because of the red hunting hat. The references are very subtle which lends the novel a certain brilliance. You don't pick up on them as you read the story, but they make sense after you read it and discuss it..
I had an expectation that something terrible was going to happen to Holden, and perhaps he senses it himself. The end of innocence is near.
Does he see adolesence as a good thing or a bad thing? I think he sees it as both, but he doesn't see that adulthood will be much different or better. Too many phonies. Too many people not understanding him or his thoughts.
The book is an interesting dichotomy because it doesn't have much to say, and at the same time it has a great deal to say. It just doesn't come right out and say it.
It kills me when English teachers assign this kind of stuff. It really does. To a student reading it, it really seems to be a total waste of time because it isn't saying anything right to your face. But the discussions that the class could have about the subtext could be quite interesting. That kills me. It really does. I'm serious.
I found several stories within the book quite funny. Like the boy stepping on the woman's toes and Caulfield saying he probably broke every toe in her body as if her skeleton were made of toes rather than bones. Or the graffiti he says will be on his grave stone. Or the tension breaker in the Hall during a serious speech given by a benefactor to Pencey.
Will you feel good after having read The Catcher in the Rye? You can be the judge of that, but I don't think you will feel it was a waste of your time.
By the way, I really hate it when someone says you can be the judge of that. I really do. It depresses me.
It doesn't really depress me. If you read the book, you'll get it.
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