SPOILER ALERT.... kinda
J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher
in the Rye”, Pretty interesting, might hold on to the
book for a couple more days in order to jot down some quotes and re-read some
of my favorite parts and gather more final thoughts. The book tells the story
of Holden Caulfield, the narrator. Holden is 16 years old and feels rather
uncomfortable with almost everything and anything he comes in contact with. A
bit of a cynic, Holden comes from a wealthy family, and I say this because he has
attended several private schools; his parents reside in a townhouse in Fifth Avenue,
he describes many childhood memories that most middle-class or lower-class children
wouldn’t be able to relate too such as his summer house in Maine and playing
golf with his family at a country club in Long Island. Throughout the story,
Holden is constantly in a depressed mood, there are one or two instances of
happiness I can account for. He hates communicating with people, he believes he
is surrounded by “phony” people in every aspect of his life. There is this one
part where he expresses his desire to live in a cabin close to the woods and
away from everybody, another where he plans to run away from home and hitch-hike
his way out west and once he settles down, he’ll pretend to be a deaf-mute, that way, if anybody wanted to
communicate with him, they would have no alternative other than to “write stuff
down on a piece of paper”. I personally think Holden is just a spoiled brat,
for lack of a better word, who thinks he has nothing to lose and unaware of the
abundance of resources at his disposal.
BUT WAIT…
Don’t like stories revolving around spoiled brats? Hold
your horses, there’s a lesson to be learned. The most intriguing characters of
the book, besides Holden, have to be the two teachers Holden goes to seek
advice from, unintentionally or at
least subconsciously. He visits them knowing they’re going to lecture him about
the truth; the truth I’ve been
wanting to tell him myself, the truth that even he, Caulfield, knows he should
hear but doesn’t want to. The truth that he has to grow up, that he ought to be
more mature, and take advantages of the opportunities around him. He visits
them knowing those lectures will happen, knowing that certain conversation
might come about or at least with the idea of knowing that conversation might
take place but hoping it won’t, certainly a sixteen year old trait. In both
cases, he visits the teachers just before he is about to make a decision to
head off somewhere, which is pretty interesting and maybe the author did that
purpose. The first was before he was going to leave his school and head home
and the second was before he was going to leave home and head off out west. In
my opinion, these two characters, Mr. Spencer and Mr. Antolini and the
conversations shared with Holden defined the book for me; the author really
nailed it with that one. I think we can all relate to Holden in a way, in the
sense that we all wish things to go our way and have perfect things happen to
us but of course, we must be realistic and stop living in Disney land. There is
certainly no justification towards Holden’s behavior throughout most of the
book, though. Part of me wishes to give him the benefit of the doubt in a way,
justify his lack of maturity due to his young age but he is certainly a piece
of work. A cynic; everything affects his mood, makes him depressed and on top
of that he doesn’t want to change his behavior. After reading this book, I sort
of dislike Holden Caulfield but at the same time see why he would do or say
certain things that mixed feeling proves how brilliantly this book was written.
J.D. Salinger left me hanging by the book’s end, I didn’t know how or what to
feel. He left me to reflect, and that’s always a sign of a good piece of
writing. Although I may dislike Holden, or at least most of his attitude, I
must admit that I learned because of
him. Salinger’s use of the “ducks at central park” metaphor, in which Holden
kept pondering and asking anybody he’d have a chance to ask during a
conversation, if they knew where the ducks, that swam in a lake at central park,
went during the winter time. It must’ve been around the 3rd or 4th
time Salinger brought it up in the story that I realized why he kept mentioning
it. It occurred to me that Holden, himself, is
“the ducks” he keeps asking about and the lake, where the ducks swim in, is “home”. Holden was unintentionally or
subconsciously trying to find out where the ducks went during the wintertime
because he himself wanted to somewhere to go. He had no direction, and in some
way he wanted to know of somewhere he can leave to.
The conversation Holden had with the cab driver, is
the most accurate illustration of the metaphor, in which Holden asks Horwitz
about the ducks at central park…
Caulfield: “Hey, Horwitz,” I said. “You ever pass by
the lagoon in Central Park? Down by Central Park South?”
Horwitz: “The what?”
Caulfield: “The lagoon. That little lake, like,
there. Where the ducks are. You know.”
Horwitz: “Yeah, what about it?”
Caulfield: “Well, you know the ducks that swim
around in it? In the springtime and all? Do you happen to know where they go in
the wintertime, by any chance?”
Horwitz: “Where who
goes?”
Caulfield: “The ducks. Do you know, by any chance? I
mean does somebody come around in a truck or something and take them away, or
do they fly away by themselves--go south or something?”
Horwitz: “How the hell should I know? How the hell
should I know a stupid thing like that?”
Caulfield: “Well, don’t get sore about it,”
Horwitz: “Who’s sore? Nobody’s sore.”
Horwitz: The fish
don’t go no place. They stay right where they are, the fish. Right in the
goddam lake.”
Caulfield: “The fish—that’s different. The fish is
different. I’m talking about the ducks,”
Horwitz: “What’s different about it? Nothin’s
different about it. It’s tougher for the fish,
the winter and all, than it is for the ducks, for chrissake. Use your head, for
chrissake.”
Caulfield: “All right. What do they do, the fish and
all, when that whole little lake’s a solid block of ice, people skating on it and all?”
Horwitz: What the hell ya mean what do they do? They
stay right where they are, for chrissake.”
Caulfield: They can’t just ignore the ice. They
can’t just ignore it.”
Horwitz: “Who’s ignoring it? Nobody’s ignoring it! They live right in the goddam ice. It’s their nature,
for chrissake. They get frozen right in one position for the whole winter.”
Caulfield: “Yeah? What do they eat, then? I mean if
they’re frozen solid, they can’t swim
around looking for food and all.”
Horwitz: “Their bodies
for chrissake—what’sa matter with ya? Their bodies take in the nutrition and
all, right through the goddam seaweed and crap that’s in the ice. They got
their pores open the whole time.
That’s their nature, for chrissake.
See what I mean?”
Caulfield: “Oh… Would you care to stop off and have
a drink with me somewhere?”
Horwitz: “I ain’t got time for no liquor, bud, how
the hell old are you, anyways? Why ain’tcha home in bed?”
Caulfield: “I’m not tired.”
Moments later…
Horwitz: “Listen, if you was a fish, Mother Nature’d
take care of you, wouldn’t she?
Right? You don’t think them fish just die
when it gets to be winter, do ya?”
Caulfield: “No, but--“
Horwitz: “You’re goddam right they don’t,”
Sometimes
a pretty long book, that appears to be endless, can make up for it by having
three or four moments that make everything come together; sweet as tea. The
attention to detail, J.D. Salinger’s got enough to go around.
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