The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, was required
reading for my tenth grade English class. I remembered it as a story about the
struggles of adolescence, the yearning for independence, and the reluctance to
let go of youth. My son is now about the same age as I was when I read the book
and we are living through his own nudge for independence, which sparked my
interest to give the story another read. Before I began, I wondered what my
take on the book would be at this point in life having survived adolescence and
received training and experience in child development in addition to having a
teen in the house. This reading accentuated the unresolved grief, family
dysfunction, mental illness, and lack of social connectedness of the main
character, Holden Caulfield, and how these difficulties exacerbate the issues
experienced during the typical maturational process. As the country still
debates gun control laws in the aftermath of Sandy Hook, and as we try to
recover from the Boston Marathon bombing, The Catcher in the Rye reminds us
about the importance of developing meaningful and genuine connections with our
children and the need to address their mental health issues.
The Catcher in the Rye begins as a flashback story about
Holden Caulfield’s experiences leading up to his nervous breakdown prior to
Christmas. Holden narrates the story while receiving inpatient psychological
treatment on the west coast. The events begin at Pencey Prep in Pennsylvania,
where Holden has been expelled due to poor academic performance, and conclude
in New York City as Holden attempts to return home. During the course of his
journey, Holden attempts to make connections with a number of people however, he
fails miserably due to his social ineptitude, lack of appropriate treatment for
what may possibly be bipolar disorder, and inability to believe that other
people are capable of being genuine. Holden eventually makes it home and
connects with his younger sister. By that time he has decompensated to the
point that, even though he is no longer experiencing suicidal ideations, he
feels disconnected, misunderstood, and alone. Holden decides that he is going
to go away, to escape from society and the rejection, the loneliness, and the
pain that he feels. However, Holden makes one last trip to see his sister
Phoebe before he disappears. Phoebe’s caring, anger, and innocence provide
Holden with the connection he is looking for; she is both a peer and dependent
to him. Through Phoebe, Holden is able to cling to his childhood and put off
making the leap to young adulthood and independence.
One theme that I was more attuned to during this reading was
the unspoken dysfunction of the Caulfield family. Holden frequently compares
himself to his younger, deceased brother, whom he describes as brilliant and
athletic, as well as his older brother, who has become a successful author. It
is suggested that Holden is a challenging child, and somewhat of a
disappointment to his parents as he has been unable to live up to their
expectations. He has been expelled from at least four preparatory schools due
to poor academic performance, he has difficulty socially connecting with
others, and he has frequent mood swings. It is possible that Holden’s parents
were drained from watching their youngest son battle with leukemia which left
them with little strength to effectively deal with Holden’s grief and potential
disability. In Holden’s eyes, they appear to have emotionally and physically
divested themselves from him. He has little to no emotional family support and
what appears to be very little communication with them. Holden is left adrift
to navigate this tumultuous time in his life without support, understanding,
and treatment. His efforts to reach out and communicate, including failing out
of schools and getting into fights, are not understood as cries for help but
are seen as personal shortcomings.
Holden perceives most people as being phony, superficial,
and hypercritical. This may in part be due to his social awkwardness, lack of
maturity, and feeling of being abandoned by his parents. He is continuously let
down by everyone that he reaches out to for help as they either don’t live up
to what Holden has built up in his mind, or they try to take advantage of him.
Therefore, Holden comes to believe that everyone is phony who doesn’t or is
incapable of meeting his preconceived expectations. In addition, Holden clearly
experiences moments of mania during the story, which are often followed by
feelings of sadness to the point where he does express some suicidal thoughts.
It seems that the lack of communication with his parents, the unresolved grief
and guilt over the death of his brother, and the inability to effectively and
appropriately connect with others result in Holden being unable to interact
with others on anything but a superficial level. The exception to this is
Phoebe. Her reluctance to let her brother leave provides Holden with the
strength to go home and ask for help. However, in the end, Holden continues to
suffer from a lack of love and feelings of loneliness. He states, “Don’t ever
tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.” At this point,
Holden continues to find it difficult to have genuine, meaningful relationships
believing that when you open up to people that they will turn away from you in
order to keep the relationship on a superficial level. Holden continues to be
plagued by this emotional void and, while there is a hunger for social connectedness,
he will continue to experience emptiness and rejection due to his quirkiness.
For me, reading The Catcher in the Rye in high school
highlighted the struggle for independence and Holden’s war on hypocrisy. On
this reading, I was able to obtain a better understanding of the tragedy that
occurs as a result of Holden’s parents being unable to provide him the emotional
support that he needs to overcome his brother’s death and deal with his mental
health needs. Holden’s repeated failure to socially connect and develop a meaningful
relationship with anyone other than his sister and the lack of treatment for
his mental health issues made me think of the recent tragedies in Colorado,
Sandy Hook, and Boston. It reinforced the need to take mental health needs and
services seriously; just because these conditions are unseen doesn’t mean that
they aren’t debilitating. Feeling cared for and connected to others reduces the
stress, stigma, and isolation that are associated with these conditions. It
made me wonder whether these tragedies could have been avoided if the people
involved had received appropriate therapy and treatment. They may have felt
connected and accepted, and these tragedies may have been avoided. The message of
being accepted and cared for from The Catcher in the Rye continues to be
relevant to young people today as we all strive for acceptance.
