Archive for April, 2010

Much as W.H. Auden achieved with his controversial The Age of Anxiety, Salinger’s “Catcher” revealed to a compliant U.S. citizenry that all was not well in America, contrary to President Eisenhower’s subsequent head-patting.

This is the genesis of a series of period tales concerned with the classic “troubled youth” of 1950s America. Most people became even more aware of this cultural rift through the most famous of James Dean’s three significant films: Rebel Without a Cause (Two-Disc Special Edition).

“Catcher” was published in 1951 and was immediately banned from numerous school and public libraries. But like Peyton Place, by Grace Metalious, young people still managed to acquire a copy, hiding it under the mattress. By today’s standards there’s nothing particularly earth shattering in the novel, just a few instances of the f-word and some sexual tension. But that was pretty radical stuff back in the early ’50s.

The story’s protagonist is Holden Caulfield, a young man who struggles with the ethics of every situation. Since we live in an imperfect world Holden determines that nearly everyone is a “phony” and, as a consequence of his grim paradigm, he’s perpetually disappointed with the human race in general. He wants to “protect” children (thus he daydreams of being “The Catcher” [of children] in a fantasy-based rye field which borders on a dangerous cliff — once these children fall over life’s cliff [depravity] they are lost, in Holden’s view.) As one might expect, Holden has few positive encounters with prospective girlfriends and his interaction with male peers is usually not all that positive either.

This tale is pretty bleak but it does yield its lighter and more hopeful moments. It’s conveyed from the first person perspective of the protagonist, which was no easy task for Salinger. In any case this is fine American literature of the First Water. It seems like a straightforward read but upon subsequent readings one discovers much more.

If you’re a person
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