“I don't exactly know what I mean by that, but I mean it.”
-Holden Caulfield
J.D Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye narrates a teenager's adventure after being expelled from his boarding school. It is a book that caused controversy and was even banned from schools because it undermined moral codes, with the main character being looked out on as a "poor role-model". The truth is he isn't a role model, how many of us are at this age? Filled with metaphors, the book is a conversation between Holden Caulfield, a sixteen year old who has a distaste for almost everyone and everything, and the reader.
Being used to books that have a point, a message, a closure, I found that The Catcher in the Rye seems to have no point, its just a collection of thoughts a teenager has. But once you've passed the 1000 "phonies" (which btw is just around page 20), you start realising Holden's serious alienation to the world, a sort of teenage ideal that the world is a sad, fake, two-faced mediocrity. The gap between childhood and adulthood is a rough one, and although we try to grow up as fast as we can and be "mature", we are not always ready to deal with life. As we all know, we teenagers tend to be melodramatic, but what I think that book tries to somewhat say is that "what is the point"? I mean all this things that we do will soon vanish, school will go away, school friends will probably be replaced by college friends, some passions will become careers and other will be lost, or worst yet, we lose them all. And I don't exactly know what I mean by that, but I mean it.
Either way the books is a great read. Short and easy (unless you wanna analyse it, that could take forever).
-Holden Caulfield
J.D Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye narrates a teenager's adventure after being expelled from his boarding school. It is a book that caused controversy and was even banned from schools because it undermined moral codes, with the main character being looked out on as a "poor role-model". The truth is he isn't a role model, how many of us are at this age? Filled with metaphors, the book is a conversation between Holden Caulfield, a sixteen year old who has a distaste for almost everyone and everything, and the reader.
Being used to books that have a point, a message, a closure, I found that The Catcher in the Rye seems to have no point, its just a collection of thoughts a teenager has. But once you've passed the 1000 "phonies" (which btw is just around page 20), you start realising Holden's serious alienation to the world, a sort of teenage ideal that the world is a sad, fake, two-faced mediocrity. The gap between childhood and adulthood is a rough one, and although we try to grow up as fast as we can and be "mature", we are not always ready to deal with life. As we all know, we teenagers tend to be melodramatic, but what I think that book tries to somewhat say is that "what is the point"? I mean all this things that we do will soon vanish, school will go away, school friends will probably be replaced by college friends, some passions will become careers and other will be lost, or worst yet, we lose them all. And I don't exactly know what I mean by that, but I mean it.
Either way the books is a great read. Short and easy (unless you wanna analyse it, that could take forever).