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 By Jack Lepiarz Feb. 25, 2006 Almost every single teenager I have ever met was in love with the novel "The Catcher in the Rye," by J.D. Salinger. I am included in that demographic myself. But why is it that so many people can stand to put up with a whiny 17-year-old kid that thinks he knows everything. Wait a sec, who are we talking about again? That, actually, is my point. Every teenager can relate to Holden Caulfield because he is so similar to them. Nearly every other sentence has either goddamn or bastard in it, and speaking as a teen, I can tell you that EVERY sentence that goes through my head probably has one of those words in it. Furthermore, this is probably the only book in high school literature that features a teenager in a contemporary setting. Other books may have one of these aspects, like Huckleberry Finn, which features a teenage voice (albeit a young one), but at the same time takes place in the early 1800's. Perhaps it is Holden's carefree recklessness that every teen would love to possess. Very few teens decide to not do any work at all, like Holden does. At the same time, very few teens hire prostitutes and get beat up by a pimp/elevator boy (or at least the 50's equivalent of one). However, most teens are very melodramatic. They curse profusely, and they have a tendency to hate just about anybody else their age, denouncing them behind their back. The movie "Mean Girls" documents that very well, but I digress. Teens will continue to fall in love with Holden Caulfield until they no longer relate to him (maybe by 2015?). I had an interesting experience in relating to Holden Caulfield. It was an early morning and I was packing up my backpack, preparing for school and talking to myself. I do that a lot. I'm doing it right now as I write this article. But anyway, as I was talking to myself, I said something the lines of "I need to stop doing that. I really do." I paused and ran that sentence through my head. I was about 35 pages into "The Catcher in the Rye" at that point, and had already noticed a definite speech pattern emerge in the novel. Words like "goddamn" and phrases like "that killed me," and "I really do." Which brings me to my point. Everyone can connect with Holden on some level. It could be that they know someone as pompous as Carl Luce, or obnoxious as Robert Ackley, or it could be something completely coincidental. For example, it could be that they, like Holden, were infatuated with a girl from Maine when they read the book. Or perhaps they're a pathological liar. I don't know. Everyone has their own way of connecting with Holden. Of course, there are some people that believe that they are the only ones that feel any connection with the novel. I had one girl tell me once that I didn't know what it was like to connect with a novel in the way that she did with "The Catcher in the Rye." I walked away from that conversation. Those people are, in my mind, still children--or teenagers, if you want to put it that way. They think that they are the only ones that understand this and what Holden is going through. It's the whole "nobody understands me!" mantra. "The Catcher in the Rye" without a doubt, my favorite book. It is probably what got me back into writing--my first novel was very similar to it in terms of narration, although that might be from me simply speaking like the narration. I often use one word sentences (as any of my more constant readers have probably learned.), and use phrases like "the thing is" and "I really do." I really do. Even the other day, when somebody took a look at a short story I wrote for English class, the remarked on how "Holden Caulfield-like" it was. I'm not totally sure as to how to conclude this article. The whole thing was rather forced out. Articles ususally don't take me more than an hour to write, as this did. I'm usually done with them in about 20 minutes. Instead I'll leave you with my favorite quote from the novel: "Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody." ------------ About the author: Jack Lepiarz is a senior at Madison High School. Born in Waco, Texas, he lived with the Big Apple Circus for much of his early childhood, eventually moving to Madison, New Jersey, where he now resides. Although he is often described as stubborn and egotistical, he tries to keep an open-mind towards new ideas and treat people the way he would like to be treated. Email: Jackwuzhere42@aol.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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