Catcher In The Rye Controversial Classic

Professor English 101 14 April 2014 The Catcher in the Rye Controversial Classic The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger has been one of the biggest sources of contention in American literature since its first publication as a novel in 1951. The author himself has proven to be an elusive creature, not writing much of lasting value after the publication of his first novel, granting interviews extremely infrequently, and eventually allowing himself to fade away from the public eye. Yet the spirited debate over his first novel continues to this day. What is it about this novel that has provoked such visceral and wildly different reactions and opinions For one, it is difficult to pin down and define and many, many readers have offered various
(Heiserman, Miller, Junior 5). In the above passage, the authors use T.S. Elliots long poem The Waste Land to make parallels to Holden and illustrate their point, which backs up my argument that Holden Caulfield is a young man eager to find and achieve stability, that he is a misunderstood hero who is held at bay by a cruel and often unfeeling world, and thus, offers a voice to the thousands of voiceless among the young. He is a compelling and largely sympathetic protagonist whose plight is shared and understood by many, who shines a light on the injustice and deep unfairness of the world. It is in this that The Catcher in the Rye displays its major literary value. To further illustrate my point, Id like to examine the symbolic structure of Salingers work, which is something that is often overlooked by reader and critic alike. Symbolism plays a large part in the novel, as the title itself indicates in the novel, during a conversation with his younger sister, Phoebe, for whom he has enormous affection, he tells her that if he could be anything in the world, he would be the catcher in the rye, after an idea he had of children playing on top of a cliff in a field of
But it is my opinion that if critics were to delve deeper into psychoanalyzing Holden, they would find a number of troubling factors at play. After all, Holden tells us himself that the narrative is being written in a mental hospital under the care of a psychoanalyst guy. Even though Holden is reluctant to go into detail about his lousy childhood, two things we know for certain his family life has been disruptive and he is greatly affected the death of Allie. I believe that Allies death in particular had a significant effect on both Holdens perception of the world around him as well as his state of mind. Thus, all of the things that detractors of the novel state to invalidate its artistic meritHoldens extreme cynicism and aggressive nature, his immaturity and limited, coarse vocabularyI think are products of a childhood and a home life plagued by tragedy. So, in conclusion, The Catcher in the Rye is a largely misunderstood work that in my opinion is of immense literary value and offers us not just a character study of an idealistic, haunted young man, but a very real analysis of the world we live in, a world that is steadily failing us, hour by hour, minute by minute. Works Cited Bloom, Harold.