Lamron Lit Corner: Lost in thoughts with The Catcher in the Rye

“I can’t explain what I mean. And even if I could, I’m not sure I’d feel like it.”

~J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

The title The Catcher in the Rye is likely one you’ve heard before, even if you’ve never read the novel. J.D. Salinger’s work has become one of the most widely recognized pieces of 20th century literature, up at the top with things like The Great Gatsby and To Kill a Mockingbird in terms of most-taught books in high school. Despite its stature, how many people actually know what ‘the catcher in the rye’ is? Even those who read the book may find themselves wondering.

Published at the dawn of the postmodern literary period, Salinger uses a technique that had become incredibly popular since the beginning of the 20th century—modernism. Virginia Woolf is credited with the initial success of this technique, but in terms of general popularity and recognition, Salinger took it and ran. Modernism includes a variety of processes, but most important is the focusing in on one’s individual thoughts. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf is famous for this, focusing on one woman’s thoughts over the course of a day for an entire novel, but it continued to grow far past this initial introduction into the literary sphere.

The Catcher in the Rye is arguably the most notable novel that uses stream of consciousness narration. Like Woolf, Salinger focuses on one individual for the entire novel. However, The Catcher in the Rye also appears as much less rigorously edited—this is our protagonist, Holden Caulfield, giving his direct and unedited interpretation of the story. On the surface, this makes the story come off almost as immature and childish, even poorly written. However, it all comes together to completely and utterly engulf the reader in Holden’s mind.

And it’s not a mind one particularly wants to see. Being also one of the most recognizable banned books in the schooling system, our protagonist in The Catcher in the Rye is experiencing a total collapse of his life. Holden frequently swears, talks about his nihilistic view of the world, how much he hates other people, and even commits crimes over the course of the novel. Seeing a young white man not only doing these things but writing about it in such an engrossing way immediately put the novel on watchlists in conservative states. However, as most know, this behavior is not only common, but its absence is uncommon. Holden and his ideology do not stray far from what an angsty teen is likely to think and feel.

The real beauty of the novel is not the angst, however. If the whole story revolved around Holden’s flawed viewpoint and nihilism, the book wouldn’t be a world-wide bestseller and would instead be more akin to a sad fanfic on Wattpad. Salinger makes it beyond clear that not only is Holden’s world perspective flawed—Holden himself knows this and wishes only to get away from it all.

While the stream of consciousness in the book is what most point to as the revolutionary aspect of the story, what is even more important to me is the way Salinger portrays mental illness. Published in 1946, this book came out in a time where mental health, especially for men, was not in the conversation whatsoever. Salinger’s depiction of a teen who appears to be suffering from at least one if not more than one serious mental illnesses, he is moving that idea into the conversation. And yes, there are still faults in Salinger’s writing on the topic. There are bound to be considering when the piece was written. Despite this, The Catcher in the Rye puts the reader into a mind so confused and sad that it’s impossible to not feel empathy for Holden.

So, determining what ‘the catcher in the rye’ really is is unimportant. It’s important to Holden and his spiraling mind to have something to hold on to. If you haven’t read Salinger’s masterful novel, I’m happy to say there is no better time than now—the modern reader can not only see the same through-lines of individual mental health crises that remain true today, but the same overarching problems that need to be addressed.