Summer Reading, year 2: "The Catcher in the Rye"

This post will fulfill the "read a classic I've never read before" entry on my summer reading list. The Catcher in the Rye has been in my personal library for years and I finally felt it was time to actually read it.

The Catcher in the Rye is one of those "classic" pieces of literature that I never read while in school. Maybe my teenage years were less tumultuous or rebellious or meaningful because of it; or at least that's what literary critics and fans of this book would have you think. But personally, I think waiting to read it during my late twenties has been the best decision. I enjoy the perspective I have now. I've been a teenager, I have teenaged siblings and at my job I work with teenagers every day. There will always be foolish decisions, unnecessary reactions and unneeded drama, but for the most part the teens I know handle life with grace and clarity. Most of them are well-grounded, even when dealing with difficult situations.

Reading the troubled, erratic, lonely and angry thoughts of the fictional Holden Caulfield filled me with sadness.  He is confused and hurting, and as a pastor in my church teaches, "hurt people hurt people." Someone who is completely enveloped in their own pain has no idea how much pain they are capable of causing others. There are many people in Holden's life that care for him, but he shuts them out and follows his own destructive path instead. The only person that can get through to him is his sister. Little Phoebe longs for Holden to be home and safe, for him to succeed, for him to love her. He does loves her, but steals from her, literally and emotionally, and almost breaks her before he is broken. Holden's self-destructive will is eventually broken enough to accept help, but by the end of the story it is still very unclear what his future will hold.

Catcher was published in 1951, and initially I was surprised at the amount of language and harsh subject matter in this book. But that decade was the beginning of the teenage movement. It was after the wild 1920s, the bleakness of two World Wars, the adjustment of men coming back from war and women leaving jobs and going back home, the rising revolution of youth not wanting to be forced into military service the way their fathers were. It was a messed-up time. Just like now. Modern-day equivalents of Catcher are teen-angst dramas like The Perks of Being a Wallflower, a terribly depressing story of a boy bears the emotional burdens of his abused sister and self-destructive, promiscuous friends while fighting through his own repressed trauma stemming from childhood abuse.

No matter what the decade, these stories ring true because there are always hurting people. They should be cautionary tales, however, and not empathetic anti-heroes. Hurting people need hope. While every story doesn't end happily, there is always a chance for hope.