Casual Cogitations

First and foremost, on my halcyon days of youth, this is the beloved book that open my immutable eyes in the ecstatic pleasure of reading. I kept thumbing through the pages with bated breach, committing myself to the memory and imprinting the events on my head. No other book can ever take its place.

There are few masterpieces in classic English literature that are way out wacky, seemingly shallow, funnily defiant and yet emerge as ground-breaking in terms of their impact all the same. J. D Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye is one such terrific book.

The book is amongst the first of its kind and time, presenting no rollicking plot or lyrical language to convey its message. Straightforward in a bewildering way, the author makes this a laughing riot that nudges streams of edgy resonance and earnest reflection.

Holden Caulfield is the sixteen year old endearing but possibly debatable narrator, who finds everything phony, is politically incorrect, is generally bored, swears at the blink of the eye and mostly comes through as a plain pest! - “Grand. There’s a word I really hate. It’s phony. I could puke every time I hear it.” Yes, dear Holden is like that!

Growing up is difficult for teenagers who are as confused as Holden Caulfield. Assuming that the adult world is full of pain and disappointment, Holden protects himself through isolation. Although he isolates himself he still craves the warmth of another person. This novel gives the reader a glimpse into Holden's life through his point-of-view. J.D. Salinger, the author, wrote this novel around the 1950s. The Catcher in the Rye illuminates an adolescence's struggle to find his identity while he is stuck between adulthood and the sweet innocence of childhood.

The book exclusively traces the life and thought process of Caulfield, from the moment he is expelled from prep school, while he roams around directionless in the streets of New York, alienated and revolted by most things human - until he reaches home, all in the span of only a few days. In the course of this time, Holden has a dry night clubbing, a bizarre experience with a prostitute, a lousy meeting with Mr Antolini, and a moving moment with innocent and charming Phoebe, his younger sister; Holden being excessively judgmental, hilariously pessimistic, and hopelessly resigned through out.

While many of us while reading could dismiss him as a bundle of teenage mess and maladjustment, perceiving everything as meaningless, flawed and phony, what Holden really searches for is a world of genuineness and integrity - where the natural is not smashed by societal expectations; hopelessly seeking a perfection of an unearthly standard in a place that is engulfed in pretense, ostentation and foppery - Holden is an intolerable dissident, in a world he just doesn’t want to fit into.

The sole spark in Holden’s desperate life manifests in his heart-warming meet with Phoebe, his bright and instinctive little sister, giving us a peek into the few things Holden really loves and values, beautifully divulging Holden’s fond and tender love for his family. Holden often evokes emotive soliloquies with his late brother Allie, and comes to spend nostalgic moments with Phoebe who personifies the naturalness and purity that Holden wishes to save forever. She so simply is pretty much the one who puts things into perspective for him. It is here when Holden tells Phoebe, that what he really wants to be- is the “The Catcher in the Rye”, as he pictures thousands of children playing untroubled and carefree in a field of rye while he stands guarding them on the edge of a cliff, only to save their untouched spirit if they start to go over it - from a world of incorruptibility, innocence and freedom, to a world he perceives as stunting, fake and typical.

J. D Salinger’s Holden Caulfield is obnoxious and lovable, pleasing and distressing, offensive and righteous. His narrative and reflections are penned down as side-splitting is most parts, literally making you laugh out loud, but his intentions and expectations are solemn and noble - to say the least. This book of Salinger’s is one amongst the most popular in literature, but it takes one who is truly free-spirited, open and unorthodox to appreciate it in entirety.