Flipping Through

The Catcher In The Rye

by J.D. Salinger

The Catcher in the Rye is a 1951 novel written by J.D. Salinger, who is a self-proclaimed Holden Caulfield; Holden Caulfield being the protagonist of this book.

When I first picked up a copy of The Catcher in the Rye, the only words that popped into my mind were Plain Jane.It was just a small, two hundred-paged novel with a basic black jacket and its title written on the cover page in a snaky font. The beginning and the ending statements of the book are amazingly lucid and the entire book is pretty inconsequential. And yet, whenever someone asks me the name of my favourite novel, it is always“The Catcher in the Rye.”

The transparent words sprawled over the 192 pages of the book follow a certain Holden Caulfield’s lead as he wanders purposelessly along the cobbled paths of New York City over a span of seemingly endless two days. The novel takes into account his several encounters with friends, strangers, like-minded passersby, who occupy a significant meaning, but cramped space in his life. Over these two days, Holden collides with his demons and attempts to exorcise them, confronts his erratic identity and bizarre thoughts. And even after spun out endeavours, the outcome of these baffling rendezvouses is zilch.

The Catcher in the Rye’s Holden Caulfield harbours a sanctuary in his mind, which is inhabited by errant ideas and perplexings, much similar to the mind of any other teenager’s. The writer perfectly captures the turmoil that usually takes place inside the mind of a regular teenager. Holden is standing on the edge of an end, at the peak of a dawn and high above the valley of beginning, but he doesn’t want to take a step forward. Caulfield, in the book, is soon about to start a new episode in his life, and he feels absolutely barren about bidding farewell to the previous chapter and equally fallow about the one to follow. But what makes this book so great is the sabotage of a cliché, and the admission of the fact that it is fine to feel that way. It is fine to endure stretches of self-inflicted alienation and aimlessness. This book, ideal for adolescents, is the kind of book which makes you challenge your motives and meaning and helps you discover a discreet yet empowering being inside of you. Inside each one of you. It helps you question and deal with the unfoldings of life and makes the realization dawn upon you that an erring; lost Holden Caulfield is what we need. What we need is a catcher in the rye, and this mind-blowing masterpiece compels you to search for one inside you.

Happy reading!

Arushi Ganju