The Alienation of Holden Caulfield
Catcher In the Rye. A book that is a required read in many school curricula. Recently, an article by Jennifer Schuessler titled, “Get a Life, Holden Caulfield” appeared in the The New York Times.
After reading it, I was left with a few questions and thoughts.
Holden no longer the “paradigmatic teenager”
The premise of the article is that Salinger’s Holden Caulfield “may be losing his grip on the kids.” Apparently, today’s youth are not connecting to Holden in a way that justifies keeping Salinger’s book on the required reading list.
Teachers say young readers just don’t like Holden as much as they used to. What once seemed like courageous truth-telling now strikes many of them as “weird”, “whiny”, and “immature.”
As our society increases its pace through the generations, is the result a more jaded youth?
A teacher interviewed for the article stated that “The alienated teenager has lost much of his novelty.” Alienation is not new, so I wasn’t surprised to read this. However, where is the empathy for what Holden experiences?
Compared to the early 1950’s, there is not as much room for the adolescent search, for intuition, for empathy, for the mystery of the unconscious and the deliverance made possible through talking to another person. — Barbara Feinberg, quoted from “Get a Life, Holden Caulfield”
In reading this, it is clear that the kids quoted in the article epitomize the above statement.
So why is this book still so popular with teachers?
As Finlo Rohrer noted in his article, “The Why of the Rye”:
Adults give it to teenagers hoping they will be reassured that having a train of misanthropic and cynical thoughts parading through their mind is entirely normal, perhaps even desirable.
Those who embrace the novel recognize Holden as a teenage everyman.
Aye, there is the rub. Define “teenage everyman”. Do today’s youth feel, or think, “misanthropic and cynical thoughts” as much as their parents assume? And for those that do, is identifying with a character in a book more powerful than what their peers have to say?
It seems many teenagers today internalize their feelings for fear of being perceived as whiny, emo – weak. This is borne out by the comment quoted at the end of Schuessler’s article:
Oh, we all hated Holden in my class. We just wanted to tell him, ‘Shut up and take your Prozac.’
For empathy to be given, it must be felt. Not only are the readers not connecting to Holden Caulfield, it seems some cannot even connect with each other.
Contention from the beginning
Salinger’s novel has been criticized from the beginning for some of the same things that are at issue today.
In “Stop Teaching Catcher In the Rye” by Anne Trubek, she (as well as Schuessler in her article), refer to critics who “considered Catcher of minor literary merit” and questioned its “relatability factor”. Trubek also brings up a good point, if coming-of-age stories are to be part of the curriculum, why not ones with characters the readers can more easily understand and relate to?
As much as Holden Caulfield is not a character many 16-year olds can empathize with, his story still carries a message.
All the kids kept trying to grab for the gold ring, and so was old Phoebe, and I was sort of afraid she’d fall off the goddam horse, but I didn’t say anything or do anything. The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it’s bad if you say anything to them. — Holden Caulfield, Catcher In the Rye
Every generation has it’s angst ridden experiences. Each tries for that golden ring, their parents fearing the worst, hoping for the best, and knowing no matter what they do, it’s the experience of success, failure, or both that will build character.
They also believe their experiences are unique and therefore cannot relate to those that have gone before. Perhaps this is the case with the lack of empathy regarding Holden Caulfield.
The issue then, isn’t identifying with his alienation: it’s the reaction to it. These kids may understand what he is going through, but cannot accept the way he handles it.
Is it a true lack of empathy that causes this?
Or is Holden Caulfield a character who is out of step, out of touch, and out of time?
What do you think?
Quick Links to the articles referenced above:
“Get a Life, Holden Caulfield” by Jennifer Schuessler
“Stop Teaching Catcher In the Rye” by Anne Trubek
“The Why of the Rye” by Finlo Rohrer
Great post… not much to add to the comments discussion, just that I wholeheartedly believe in each individual teacher's right to choose her material. Some groups will 'get' Catcher, others would never be able to get past the aging language usage and time-period. I additionally think this involves how much time a teacher is willing to devote to discussion and analysis.
Again, great post.
1Very interesting post. I just finished reading Catcher for the first time. I missed reading it in high school somehow and now I'm well beyond the demographic of this book (I'm in my 40s). I really enjoyed the book, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have had the same reaction when I was a teen. In fact, even with my years of experience, I occasionally felt like someone needed to slap Holden upside the head ;o).
Now that certainly doesn't mean that I would advocate it being removed from the classroom. I think that decision lies in the hands of individual English teachers and what they feel best serves their population of students. I'm just glad I had some life experience under my belt before tackling the themes in the book. I believe my reading experience was better because of it.
2I had two experiences reading this in class. First was in high school; everyone loved it and related to Holden, including me. Second time was in college in a class on YA lit; everyone thought Holden was whiny and hated the book. Except me. I related even more because I finally got how Holden's problems related in part to his brother's death, because my brother had just passed away. It always seems to me that kids/teens may feel some of the angst that Holden has, but since they don't really know where it's coming from, generally can't relate to losing someone so important to them, and can't understand why Holden is fixated on protecting kids, they lose a lot of the meaning.
This is a particularly interesting post. I personally do think that the book is still valuable, but perhaps not for privileged white kids who haven't struggled very much on their own, like those who read the book in my classes. I also was a privileged white kid, but now I can see a little better what's behind Holden's issues.
3Okay, this English teacher MUST speak! I also read this article and thought the reactions of the teens interviewed were a little suspect. Here's my reason. I taught this novel twice, early in my career (about five years ago). In a "regular" classroom, most of the students felt confused by Holden's way of expressing himself (his language), and the time period he lived in…NOT his angst. The article mentions that the student basically want Holden to get over it, and to some degree I'll say that's true of these students as well. In that way, they just thought the book was boring, but it was because they kept getting hung up on things that didn't necessarily pertain to what was central to the book. My response is, so what? I also have my students read Hamlet, which is a time period and language they struggle to understand. It's all pretty foreign to them, including the whole you-killed-my-dad-and-now-I-want-revenge issue. My job is to help them NOT JUST love or catch on to a story, but to understand language use and embedded meanings. In this way, Cather in the Rye has an interesting way of doing just that, embedding a meaning.
Okay, so having said that, let me contrast the experience and opinions above with a different one I've had. I also taught Catcher in the Rye to a group of students that were "high risk," and in fact straight out of our state's juvenile detention center. These were TOUGH kids. I had definitely read more modern/contemporary stories with them to help them catch on to the, "Hey, I like to read" part of my job, but I also read Catcher in the Rye with them. These students had a marked difference of opinion to my regular classroom in that they got it and somehow didn't get bogged down in the time or culture surrounding Holden. It was one of the most interesting experiences in teaching that I've had. Those students (all boys), each understood the internal struggle Holden experienced. In fact, their one negative response was to the ending. When they got dropped into what they thought was a pretty shocking ending, they were pissed (to put it lightly). They wanted to see Holden resolve things in a more "successful" way; they wanted to see things turn out for Holden in ways that they wanted them to turn out for themselves.
So, what do my ramblings mean? I think Catcher in the Rye has a very valid place on the English classroom reading list. I no longer teach it, as students seem to not always be able to get past the language and culture of the novel; however, I do leave it on my outside reading list. Would I teach it again if it might reach a certain demographic of students? Absolutely.
Let's be honest. Aren't there a million different characters and novels that we could argue are "unnecessary" in the classroom today? I'm just thinking that the more a novel gets argued about publicly, the more people make us as English teachers WANT to teach it to have the kids answer the question, "What's all the hub-bub about?"
Trust me, if people want a book to die in the classroom, they'll let it lie. It's when people debate it that we dig it back up, take it into the classroom, and open it up to students for the final say.
There we go. Teens, in general, always lack empathy if they can't see a story's relevancy. A story doesn't have to be contemporary though for that to happen.
4Holden Caulfield represents a generation already past and to be perfectly honest, I think most teenagers could write better teen angst than Mr. Salinger. The story is interesting and Holden's character is an interesting one (though he is incredibly whiny and annoying), but overall it's a weak book. It's a little too boring for its length, doesn't actually get too into the characters and lacks remarkable writing. So it's just not that amazing a book, even if it once embodied the "teen essence". I might be able to empathize with Holden if he was a better written character. But I don't like how he deals with things, I don't like what he does and I've found that most of my generation fully agrees.
In general, I think that the curriculum shouldn't be stagnant and should constantly accommodate for new generations and new literature. In this case, my person dislike of the book adds to the fact that I believe it shouldn't be included in the curriculum. But perhaps as these brilliant teachers say, I just lack "empathy".
5Yes, Holden Caulfield is a character who is out of step, out of touch, and out of time. He was even when I was in high school over 30 years ago. Now, this is just my opinion, but a good English teacher will keep up with current literature and try to also keep the reading list updated to reflect new books. I understand that financial limitations would prohibit getting new books for your curriculum too frequently, but certainly as all those paperback copies of Catcher are worn out they could be replaced with a better option.
6Great topic for discussion!
No idea about the answer but Incredibly interesting issue!
7Wow, those are interesting thoughts! I liked Cather in the Rye when I was in school and I related to it (I guess). I should reread it with these thoughts in mind. I wonder if it is a "lack of empathy" in kids today? Maybe it is just dated. I'd have to reread it to decide.
8I think when I was forced to read this as a kid in school I thought the story was appealing and had a lot of depth but I didn't identify with the characters or situation at all. It is good for children to continue to read books such as this because they are classics, what do they want to discuss the symbolism in when Bella told Edward she knows what he is. It's laughable. I do however agree that some literature should be brought up to date, in progressive schools with good English teachers you are finding books like Laurie Halse Anderson's "Speak" on the reading list, updated and great literary versions of things children can relate to are not a bad thing either.
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