Catcher In The Rye Adolescence

It comes as no surprise to anyone that teenagers are sometimes naturally moody, angst-ridden, and emotional as they transition from childhood to adulthood. No one, that is, but teenagers. For adolescents such as myself, the shifting position that teenagers come to in these years is awkward at best, and painful at worst. The sudden responsibility and pressure thrust upon a teenager in the latter years of high school (and often before) is near impossible to easily adjust to, especially when there is no real preparation offered. When left at the confusing crossroads of a seemingly transitory crisis, teenagers are faced with serious internal and external conflicts, often manifest in manic-depressive and abusive tendencies, as displayed in Salinger’s
From the way he speaks to the way he carries himself, Holden, while presented as an outsider of his own society, represents the internal struggles faced by teenagers as they transition from childhood into the responsibilities of adulthood. As teenagers, it is exceptionally easy to feel as though we are different from everyone around us, despite that often not being the case. The influences of social norms, school policies, and societal structures are a strong negative influence on Holden throughout the novel, just as they are a massive weight upon almost all teenagers. I do not mean to imply that one well-written character could speak for entire generations of young people, however, it is the universality and multitude of the problems manifest in Holden that make him such a ubiquitously resonant character in our minds. Holden is a complex young man whose past is convoluted and whose experiences have made him wary. As previously mentioned, Holden uses strong language, such as “goddam” to excess throughout the novel, a mannerism very similar to teenagers today (Someguy). This constant use of swears as a modifier actually serves to highlight a deeper lack of understanding toward the thing being cursed in the first place. With Holden, it is plain to see that his view of the world
After all, the book focuses heavily on the alienation felt by teenagers as they transition into adulthood and banning one of the few books taught in school that we might resonate with is more or less completely in synchronicity with the view of adults presented in the book. However, such philosophical digressions can be benched for another day. What my peers and I know is that being a teenager is hard. Being in a place where you are widely misunderstood by anyone outside of your age group is frustrating at the least and can be completely ruinous. By exposing us to a work of literature that not only is technically advanced and well-written, but is sonorous to the reader's psyche, a profound opportunity to truly impact the way a teen reader feels is created. To dismiss such an opportunity because of some ridiculous “American pastime” of denying literature based on superficial discrepancies with what society deems as appropriate is ignorant of the intelligence that teens possess and can apply to literature that has the potential to affect us more