I wish I could write you a better summary about the book,
but I'm finding that hard to do as not much really... happened in the story.
It's basically an angry teenage boy ranting about all the things that irritate
him and all the things he hates (and, believe me, there are quite a lot of
things that he hates). He has severe problems with most of the people in his
life and spends much of his time complaining about them, but, at the same time,
he compulsively needs to be around them.
Let me try to summarize. Holden Caulfield has just flunked
out of school. From the way he attempts to keep this from his parents for a
lengthy amount of time, I'd guess this isn't the first time he's been expelled.
He spends a great deal of time in the city, uses an exorbitant amount of money
on bars, food, and taxis, rents a hooker that he only wants to talk to, and
goes on a date with a girl that he loathes. Thought Holden tells us his story
as though it is current, he does allocate a great deal of time for ruminating
on things that happened in the not-so-recent past, such as the death of his
brother, Allie.
Allie's death is subtle but quite significant, although
Holden himself never quite tells us that. The way I interpreted his reaction
was that he became embittered and hateful because of the death (before the
start of this story). The loss caused him to hate everyone and everything.
Maybe this is the case; maybe it isn't. Maybe he's just legitimately an angry
person with no reason for being angry other than being alive.
I didn't spend too much time trying to psychoanalyze Holden.
It's just hard not to notice how hardened and cynical he is, particularly for a
teenager. I've heard it said that he is an icon for teen rebellion, but,
honestly, I didn't see a whole lot of rebelling at all. If by
"rebelling," people mean that he spent all of his money wandering
around in the city for a few days, then I guess the saying is true. I guess his
notorious defiance is more evident in the way he tells things rather than what
he does.
Don't get me wrong: I love Holden. The book is certainly
funny. Holden is certainly enjoyable. He truly is the opposite of an exemplary person.
He really is quite the character, hilarious and delightfully derisive. Really,
if he hadn't been, I don't know that I would have made it through the (less
than) 200-page book. I just couldn't get past the fact that I kept waiting and
waiting for something to happen and it never did.
Certain bizarre and/or uncomfortable things occur in the
book, such as his classmate's suicide and his teacher's strange behavior when
Holden spends the night. There's the hooker's pimp that demands twice as much
money as he initially asked for. There's the girl named Jane who Holden
continuously thinks about calling but never does. There's the promise of a
fight when he encounters a girl he doesn't like in the bar. There are all of
these things that promise action and never amount to anything. There's all this
constant rising action, but it never leads to a climax.
I guess the faint moral of this story would have to be that
innocence should be preserved and held onto as long as humanly possible. Holden
is surprisingly defensive when it comes to people he views as having fewer
hard-life experiences than he has, such as when his roommate dates a girl he used
to know. He's constantly mindful and watchful of his younger sister. It seems
like his biggest wish is that his sister not end up like him, even though he's
quite young to be so hopeless.
When I finished this book, I felt like I was missing
something. For years, I've viewed this book as a hole in my personal literary prowess,
something that was necessary to read. In fact, when other people talked about
it, I was rather embarrassed that I hadn’t
read the book, and that shame is what led me to reading it now.
I enjoyed Holden, despite the fact that he is a miserable hypocrite, but I still don't get the famous big deal or how this was a life-changing experience for so many generations.
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