This blog is about The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. My first impressions is that this book copes with mental illnesses and sexuality through a young man named Holden Caulfield.
The patterns discussed in the class discussion were mainly mental illness and women and sexuality. The word depressed is used very frequently in Catcher in the Rye. Since Holden is a teenager, he faces typical teenage issues of identity, making him using words as “crazy” and “depressed” for dramatizing effect. When he says that he wishes he is dead, he uses it as a teenage expression to intensify his feelings so the reader feels the feelings as intense as they are to him. “It took me quite a while to get to sleep—I wasn’t even tired—but finally I did. What I really felt like, though, was committing suicide. I felt like jumping out the window. I probably would’ve done it, too, if I’d been sure somebody’d cover me up as soon as I landed. I didn’t want a bunch of stupid rubbernecks looking at me when I was all gory.” (Salinger, 1951, p. 136). Here he intensifies his feelings again by considering suicide, but not doing it because of an imagined social response. The phase that he is going through from one of Erikson’s phases is the “Identity vs. Role Confusion” phase. According to Erikson (1970) success leads to an ability to stay true to yourself, while failure leads to a weak sense of self. When Holden fails, he sees himself as weak and displays this by intensifying his emotions. The other thing that was discussed was women and sexuality. He thinks of himself as a “sex maniac” but is also sexually inexperienced. He also has very contradictory feelings about women. He greatly dislikes Sally Hayes and Bernice Krebs because they are interested in boys. However, he is fond of Jane Gallagher but he is scared to talk to her. He wants to have an emotional and sexual relationship with a girl, but at the same time he is afraid. “If you want to know the truth, I’m a virgin. I really am. I’ve had quite a few opportunities to lose my virginity and all, but I’ve never got around to it yet. Something always happens… I came quite close to doing it a couple of times, though. One time in particular, I remember. Something went wrong, though—I don’t even remember what any more.” (Salinger, 1951, p. 120). In this passage, Holden reveals that he is anxious about being a virgin and recounts his attempts to having sex.
This is a suitable book for young adults, because this book covers taboo topics such as sexuality and mental illness. According to Appleyard (1991) the young adult’s books deal with sex, death, sin, and prejudice, and good and evil are not neatly separated but mixed up in the confused and often turbulent emotions of the central characters themselves. When looking at the language level of the book, the language of it is old school and would be slightly difficult to follow for people whose native language is not English. This, however, is good according to Vygotsky (1978). His Zone of Proximal Development theory states that tasks which are slightly more difficult than what an individual already knows help the individual develop that skill. This book could also help young adults for their search of identity by the words of wisdom that are being shared in the book by different people, like Mr. Antolini.
Mr. Antolini was Holden’s former English teacher whom Holden respects. He is one of the few people who wants to engage with Holden but also not let him get away with the things Holden does. He warns Holden that Holden is going to have a “terrible fall”. Holden does listen to him but he ends up falling asleep because he was too tired. “Among other things, you’ll find that you’re not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You’re by no means alone on that score… Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You’ll learn from them—if you want to.” (Salinger, 1951, p. 246). This passage shows Mr. Antolini guiding Holden through his emotions. I identify with Mr. Antolini because I too would like to be someone who guides somebody who is facing the troubles that I have faced and overcome.
My last impression is that this book is a very interesting book for a young adult to read and learn from because of the way how the writer discusses taboo subjects like sexuality and mental illness. I have learnt a lot from this book as well, being a young adult.
Bibliography:
Appleyard, J. A. (1994). Becoming a Reader. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
Salinger, J. D. (1951). The Catcher in the Rye. New York, United States: Little, Brown and Company.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Najia's Book Reviews 