The New York Times - “Reaching Holden Caulfield’s Grandchildren”
Reading J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye” was a rite of passage for generations of teenagers who saw in Holden Caulfield, the high school truant, an enemy of adult phoniness and hypocrisy. The novel, as Charles McGrath wrote in Mr. Salinger’s obituary, attained cult status in mid-20th century America for its portrayal of adolescence and “its fierce if alienated sense of morality and distrust of the adult world.”
Does “Catcher in the Rye” resonate with teenagers today? Does the Holden Caulfield version of alienation speak to a generation connected on Facebook?
Time and Place
Jay Parini, a poet and novelist, teaches literature at MiddleburyCollege. His most recent book is “Promised Land: 13 Books That Changed America.” His novel about Tolstoy’s final year, “The Last Station,” has been made into a movie starring Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer.
I remember reading “Catcher in the Rye” in high school — that was in the early 60’s. The voice of Holden Caulfield rang in my ears. Although I didn’t know this at the time, here was a teenage voice equaled only by Mark Twain in “Huckleberry Finn.”
It was sassy and wan, moody, detached. It seems probable that Salinger actually minted that particular tone, which in 1966 seemed to typify that way everybody in my college freshman dorm spoke. They had somehow picked up that note from Salinger.
When I read the book again in college, it seemed even more “right” for the times. What seemed more “relevant” than ever was the feeling that the adult world was hypocritical, even “phony.” I believed that firmly, at 21. I wanted genuineness. I didn’t want all those “stupid” adults (a favorite word of Holden’s) telling me how to dress, wear my hair, or act with my peers. I was also, like Holden, in search of romance if not raw sex.
I read it again not so long ago, nostalgic for what I remembered. But it felt horribly dated. I could still see the exquisite craft — Salinger is never less than dazzling as a prose artist. I could still enjoy some of the scenes. But that voice has, perhaps, been so absorbed by the culture, so transmogrified by movies and endless TV shows that feature more up-to-date versions of Holden Caulfield, that I could no longer find it thrilling. I have a teenaged son, and I doubt that Salinger would hold, for him, the appeal it had for me.
However brilliant and original, “Catcher in the Rye” worked better in its particular place and time than it does now. The perpetual youth of Huck Finn’s voice is not there. The novel is a period piece, one that had a good run. It will always have its niche in American literature: that isn’t the question. That many readers will shiver with delight as they read it, as I did when I was 16, seems hard to believe.
Where Have All the Teenagers Gone?
Elizabeth Wurtzel is the author of “Prozac Nation,” “Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women” and “More, Now, Again: A Memoir of Addiction.”
The sweet indignance of Holden Caulfield’s smart-alecky voice has not aged that much since 1951. He still sounds the way fed-up kids trying to imitate adults tend to sound, even if nowadays we’ve nice-ified the word phony into hypocrite.
But I’m not sure the latter-day teenager would find comfort in Caulfield the way a few generations past have, because I suspect they are no longer exactly teenagers anymore. As a marketing concept, as a Twitter tribe, as girls who shop at Forever 21 and boys who skateboard, of course teenagers still exist. But as a true age of rebellion and confusion, adolescence went away with the 20th century.
Most of the young people I encounter fall into two categories: they are either supergood kids, overscheduled little adults like their parents, who have a staff of tutors, coaches and therapists to ensure that all will work out as it is supposed to. Or they are so bad and in situations beyond redemption — babies with babies, little meth-heads and big screw-ups who are never going to get on the right track.
The world now is so much more dangerous, the temptations so much darker than anything Holden could have encountered, that kids are either L7-square or they’re just messed up. The chance to be a tiny bit wild and crazy in the teenybopper tradition is not part of what we know.
So assuming it’s the good kids who are reading “Catcher in the Rye” in ninth grade English class, they are bound to be stumped by Holden’s mismanaged troubles because theirs are so masterfully managed. They are medicated out of adolescence before they even have a chance to experience teenage angst, because their overprotective parents are desperately frightened of where all that friction might lead. (Perhaps with good reason: a kid gone wrong today could actually end up in a terrorist sleeper cell, which was not a possibility even a decade ago.)
Never mind that these are financial hard times, that everyone has to compete in a global economy that seems to be getting the better of us, and that the stakes are higher all around. The feeling that it’s Harvard or bust has hit a feverishness that in Holden’s era was merely a minor gripe, as he would have called it. There’s no room for adolescence in all this. Hence, medication.
Although it was, in fact, Prozac that saved me from my own young adult alienation, I am greatly relieved I was over 20 before the drugs were prescribed to me. I was given a fighting chance to fight it out — possibly at great risk to my life. I had an opportunity to think of Holden Caulfield as my imaginary best friend before they took all my demons away. I got to be a real teenage girl.
What Would Holden Do?
Anastasia Goodstein is the founder and editor in chief of Ypulse, a Web site for and about teenagers and young adults. She is the author of “Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens Are Really Doing Online.”
When I was asked to comment on “Catcher in the Rye” for this forum, I did what most teens today would do –- Googled the book and read the Wikipedia entry. Like most of my generation (I’m an Xer), I read the book in high school. But I only vaguely remembered the plot. What I did remember was that Holden Caulfield was a loner, a rebel.
The current generation has been characterized as being, well, just the opposite -– team oriented, collaborative and closer to their parents than past generations. Even so, there is still always an element of self-imposed isolation when it comes to growing up that even today’s teens can relate to. And of course these characterizations of an entire generation are simply generalizations. There are always exceptions, and there will always be rebels for whom the book will resonate on a deeper level.
While Holden may have roamed the streets of New York in his loneliness, today’s totally wired teens are never really alone.
The Internet and cellphones have enabled them to stay connected to their friends 24/7. Even today’s loners can find company online in anonymous forums allowing them to vent or escape the social order of high school by creating an avatar in a virtual world or game.
We also live in a confessional culture saturated with reality TV, and sharing your feelings with an invisible audience has become the norm through Twitter, Facebook status updates, etc. So Salinger’s writing in the first person may well resonate with readers in a world where confessions are everywhere. Maybe an interesting question to think about is what would Holden Caulfield do if he were a teenager today?
A Teenage Throwback
Mark Bauerlein is a professor of English at EmoryUniversity and the author of “The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future.”
When I first read “The Catcher in the Rye” as a 16-year-old in 1975, the book was already a youth classic, but it still came off as an immediate summons, something fresh and relevant and ME.
Holden Caulfield, damaged and solitary, voiced so well my stern but halting judgment of those phony adults at home and beyond, and he tossed the word “goddam” around as if he’d really earned the right to do so. Even more, he caught the romance of a knowing young guy in the BigCity, hopping into taxis, blustering with bartenders, and swinging women around the dance floor.
The book may have been clumsy, puerile and self-involved, but it served me (and millions of others for four decades) as a companion of the ego — something to outgrow, yes, but a meaningful step along the way.
No longer. The things about Holden Caulfield that sparked a youth back then fall flat with today’s teens. His glib irreverence doesn’t impress them. They’ve been ironic since age 11 (“What-EV-er!”).
His personal dramas don’t look unusual. They all have personal dramas, and they don’t need Holden Caulfield to express them. They’ve had profile pages recounting life stories with weekly updates for years. They pass 2,900 text messages a month and they rotate dozens of portrait and action photos on the iPhone every week.
In an age of the empowered, outfitted, liberated kid with 24/7 ties to buddies and reflections of self on big and small screens, Holden Caulfield is a throwback, the troubled teen of another time. Who needs him?
A Timeless Voice
Patrick Welsh teaches English at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Va. He writes often about education.
For me the true test of a great novel is this: Can I get excited about teaching it year after year and can I get a majority of my students to share my excitement? By that measure, “The Catcher in the Rye” is truly a great novel.
Admittedly not all my students share my excitement. Some say it’s “random,” that there is no real plot. Others say Holden is a whiner, a rich spoiled brat who ought to shut up and get on with his life. Sometimes I think the book may be a little too close to the bone with a lot of kids. One of the funniest parts of the book is Holden’s description of why he has not yet lost his virginity, but when I ask students to read out loud their favorite parts of “The Catcher,” no one ever chooses that section.
Also, in an age where so many teens are being diagnosed with depression and come to school juiced up on Adderall or chilled out with Zoloft or other psychotropic drugs, the fact that Holden is struggling on his own with depression can be unsettling. And while Holden does complain a lot, he does have the courage to blow off school, a move many of today’s kids, obsessed with building resumes to get into the name colleges, could never contemplate.
For kids who do love “The Catcher,” I think the secret lies in the authenticity of Holden’s voice. The teen lingo may have changed over the years — at my school it changes every other month — but the hilarious, cynical, sometimes tender tone in Holden’s voice is timeless, not only for teenagers but for anyone who gets occasionally fed up with the ways of the world.