5 ms·

Get a Life, Holden Caulfield

28 points by robg 17y ago

rnernento 17y ago
Kind of depressing... If we're replacing Holden Caulfield with Harry Potter I'm worried.
- ramidarigaz 17y ago
  I dunno... I enjoyed Catcher, but I see it as being less and less relevant these days. Call it social evolution. I feel old now...
- zimbabwe 17y ago
  I'd be worried if Harry Potter was replacing Holden, but the two can stand proudly side-by-side. The alienation in Harry Potter may not be as overwhelming as it is in Catcher, but it's probably even more pervasive in how it illustrates the world as a relatively amoral place where few people care about others for the sake of caring. The Goblet of Fire marked a moment when a whole generation of kids suddenly got a lot older.
jdp 17y ago
Did teachers in the 1950's feel the same way about Caulfield as teachers feel now about Potter? I'm sure they did, and I'm just as sure that in 2050 Potter will be just as dated children will have just as much trouble relating.
zandorg 17y ago
Reading it depressed me because he was having such a good time. The film (and moreso, the book) Wonderboys I think depicts young academia brilliantly, much better than Catcher. It has the crazy mentor (which I also had) which Catcher lacks.
100k 17y ago
Having read Catcher in the Rye later in life (in my 20s rather than as a teenager) and rather enjoying it, I find this interesting. I do think the millennials are more integrated into society than the Gen Xers or earlier Gen Ys who were more interested in rebelling. It will be interesting to see how this plays out as the millennials come of age.
- zitterbewegung 17y ago
  As a millennial (born 1988) I enjoyed the book but I was unhappy that we couldn't finish the book in class for some reason (time constraints?). I want to rebel against some of my parents values but I am primarily more concerned about getting a college degree and integrating into society.
misuba 17y ago
The kids who show up in this article are framed to sound callow and shallow. I'm suspicious. I want to hear more from them directly. What does it say about the author of this piece, and her generation, that she seems to think teens (and the rest of us) should want to be miserable? Hell, I can't prove that we shouldn't, but that's no reason to assume it.
zimbabwe 17y ago
It's depressing to see Catcher In The Rye continually misinterpreted. Salinger's fault for being so obscure, perhaps, but I blame English teachers for not explaining the book well. The "Catcher In The Rye" is a snippet Holden Caulfield mishears from a poem about two children growing up and having sex. He thinks it's about catching children who are falling out of the field, protecting people from growing up, when in fact it's the opposite. His sister points this out to him when he takes her from their home. The point of Catcher is that Holden is wrong. He thinks he's being bold and brave and telling the truth and rebelling, when in fact he's too young to know anything. The moral is supposed to be that we all make mistakes and think we're the heroes, but that eventually we all grow up. But that's not taught anymore, so instead we have a bunch of whiny kids idolizing that book and a bunch of people who ought to appreciate it all thinking it's whiny. Salinger's better than he's given credit for. Again I blame schools.
- zitterbewegung 17y ago
  Your right, my teacher didn't tell us this interpretation in my school. The book makes more sense now.
  - micks56 17y ago
    I will add another interpretation from my HS English teacher: whether anything in the book actually happened. Read the first page: "Besides, I'm not going to tell you my whole goddam [sic] autobiography or anything. I'll just tell you about this madman stuff that happened to me around last Christmas just before I got pretty run-down and had to come out here and take it easy." Holden is in a mental hospital. This is confirmed on the last page [approx.] of the book. "I could probably tell you what I did after I went home, and how I got sick and all, and what school I'm supposed to go to next fall, after I get out of here." From that, Holden is in the hospital. The last line of the book says, "Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody." From what I remember, this means that Holden made up all of those stories. His family realized he was crazy because they know none of those things actually happened, put him in the hospital, and now he doesn't get to see his family or friends very often.
indraneel24 17y ago
I just read this book for the first time, in my American Literature class, and as my fellow peers read it, I heard them remark that Holden was "annoying and whiny." Personally, having looked up a lot of the symbolism in the novel on my own, I truly enjoy <em>Catcher</em> and all the life lessons it teaches. I, at times, related to Holden, even through all his inconsistencies and flaws. It's an excellent book and I hope teachers understand how to teach it better at their "work"shops.
neilk 17y ago
Holden Caulfield is an Establishment figure's idea of a rebellious youth. Privileged life, no real problems, whiny about small hypocrisies, ambivalent about sex, and deep down he wishes to return to innocence. This has become the acceptable image of youthful discontent, the one that educational institutions prescribe for their students.
DannoHung 17y ago
(Disclaimer: I haven't read Catcher) Maybe this is just the inevitable phase change for Catcher in the Rye, from beloved literature to stodgy bullcrap your English teacher thinks is awesome. I mean, I'm sure people loved Ethan Frome and Wuthering Heights at some point, but I just think they're miserable books about miserable people being miserable to each other and, subsequently, making the entire world more miserable. Which is not to say that I find all classic literature terrible. Just some of it.
Tichy 17y ago
"Young people, with their compulsive text-messaging and hyperactive pop culture metabolism, are more enchanted by wide-eyed, quidditch-playing Harry Potter" What a completely random sentence.

28 points by robg 17y ago

rnernento 17y ago

Kind of depressing... If we're replacing Holden Caulfield with Harry Potter I'm worried.

ramidarigaz 17y ago
I dunno... I enjoyed Catcher, but I see it as being less and less relevant these days. Call it social evolution. I feel old now...
zimbabwe 17y ago
I'd be worried if Harry Potter was replacing Holden, but the two can stand proudly side-by-side. The alienation in Harry Potter may not be as overwhelming as it is in Catcher, but it's probably even more pervasive in how it illustrates the world as a relatively amoral place where few people care about others for the sake of caring. The Goblet of Fire marked a moment when a whole generation of kids suddenly got a lot older.

jdp 17y ago

Did teachers in the 1950's feel the same way about Caulfield as teachers feel now about Potter? I'm sure they did, and I'm just as sure that in 2050 Potter will be just as dated children will have just as much trouble relating.

zandorg 17y ago

Reading it depressed me because he was having such a good time. The film (and moreso, the book) Wonderboys I think depicts young academia brilliantly, much better than Catcher. It has the crazy mentor (which I also had) which Catcher lacks.

100k 17y ago

Having read Catcher in the Rye later in life (in my 20s rather than as a teenager) and rather enjoying it, I find this interesting. I do think the millennials are more integrated into society than the Gen Xers or earlier Gen Ys who were more interested in rebelling. It will be interesting to see how this plays out as the millennials come of age.

zitterbewegung 17y ago
As a millennial (born 1988) I enjoyed the book but I was unhappy that we couldn't finish the book in class for some reason (time constraints?). I want to rebel against some of my parents values but I am primarily more concerned about getting a college degree and integrating into society.

misuba 17y ago

The kids who show up in this article are framed to sound callow and shallow. I'm suspicious. I want to hear more from them directly. What does it say about the author of this piece, and her generation, that she seems to think teens (and the rest of us) should want to be miserable? Hell, I can't prove that we shouldn't, but that's no reason to assume it.

zimbabwe 17y ago

It's depressing to see Catcher In The Rye continually misinterpreted. Salinger's fault for being so obscure, perhaps, but I blame English teachers for not explaining the book well. The "Catcher In The Rye" is a snippet Holden Caulfield mishears from a poem about two children growing up and having sex. He thinks it's about catching children who are falling out of the field, protecting people from growing up, when in fact it's the opposite. His sister points this out to him when he takes her from their home. The point of Catcher is that Holden is wrong. He thinks he's being bold and brave and telling the truth and rebelling, when in fact he's too young to know anything. The moral is supposed to be that we all make mistakes and think we're the heroes, but that eventually we all grow up. But that's not taught anymore, so instead we have a bunch of whiny kids idolizing that book and a bunch of people who ought to appreciate it all thinking it's whiny. Salinger's better than he's given credit for. Again I blame schools.

zitterbewegung 17y ago
Your right, my teacher didn't tell us this interpretation in my school. The book makes more sense now.
- micks56 17y ago
  I will add another interpretation from my HS English teacher: whether anything in the book actually happened. Read the first page: "Besides, I'm not going to tell you my whole goddam [sic] autobiography or anything. I'll just tell you about this madman stuff that happened to me around last Christmas just before I got pretty run-down and had to come out here and take it easy." Holden is in a mental hospital. This is confirmed on the last page [approx.] of the book. "I could probably tell you what I did after I went home, and how I got sick and all, and what school I'm supposed to go to next fall, after I get out of here." From that, Holden is in the hospital. The last line of the book says, "Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody." From what I remember, this means that Holden made up all of those stories. His family realized he was crazy because they know none of those things actually happened, put him in the hospital, and now he doesn't get to see his family or friends very often.

indraneel24 17y ago

I just read this book for the first time, in my American Literature class, and as my fellow peers read it, I heard them remark that Holden was "annoying and whiny." Personally, having looked up a lot of the symbolism in the novel on my own, I truly enjoy <em>Catcher</em> and all the life lessons it teaches. I, at times, related to Holden, even through all his inconsistencies and flaws. It's an excellent book and I hope teachers understand how to teach it better at their "work"shops.

neilk 17y ago

Holden Caulfield is an Establishment figure's idea of a rebellious youth. Privileged life, no real problems, whiny about small hypocrisies, ambivalent about sex, and deep down he wishes to return to innocence. This has become the acceptable image of youthful discontent, the one that educational institutions prescribe for their students.

DannoHung 17y ago

(Disclaimer: I haven't read Catcher) Maybe this is just the inevitable phase change for Catcher in the Rye, from beloved literature to stodgy bullcrap your English teacher thinks is awesome. I mean, I'm sure people loved Ethan Frome and Wuthering Heights at some point, but I just think they're miserable books about miserable people being miserable to each other and, subsequently, making the entire world more miserable. Which is not to say that I find all classic literature terrible. Just some of it.

Tichy 17y ago

"Young people, with their compulsive text-messaging and hyperactive pop culture metabolism, are more enchanted by wide-eyed, quidditch-playing Harry Potter" What a completely random sentence.