Tricia Allen
Young Adult Literature
Winter 2015
Young Adult Literature
If you haven't heard about me by now you must be living under a rock. Just in case, my name is Holden Caulfield and I am drop out, phony, rich bastard, who has yet to find my place in this world. To be honest, that is kinda a funny thing for me to say, "TO BE HONEST," not really sure if I have a place in this world. As far as feelings go, that is the most you may get out of me. Hollywood is real interested in me and want to make a movie about my life, but good ole J.D. Salinger won't allow it. "If we’re lucky, Catcher in the Rye will never be made into a movie. It’s managed to avoid that fate for over sixty years, and hopefully it will continue to do so. Not everything needs to be a movie, and I say that as someone who loves movies. We live in an age where something always had to be translated into other things, and whoever owns the rights happily takes the money that translation provides." (Salinger) Kind of figure, if a movie was made about my life, it would be phony bull shit that would leave girls clutching onto their boyfriends at the movies. They wouldn't get my character right because people think they understand me, but really how are they supposed to get me, when I don't.
Who would be casted as Holden Caulfield?
Goldberg, Matt. "957 Letter from J.D. Salinger Explains Why Catcher IN THE RYE Wouldn't Work as a Movie." COLLIDER. 23 Feb. 2012. Web. 23 Feb. 2012. <http://collider.com/catcher-in-the-rye-movie-rejection-jd-salinger/>.
I have only really allowed one girl to really get to know me and maybe that is because she allowed me to understand her. Jane Gallagher. My neighbor and friend. Tonight she is on a date with my roomate Stradlater. That pisses me off because I know what a pervert Stadlater is. He will get her in the back seat of his car and try to get dirty with her. I feel sick thinking about it. If it were me out with Jane, I would not try to make her do anything she doesn't want to do. I wouldn't put any pressure on her.
I know the look in her eyes, the look that nobody else would really understand. You see Jane's stepfather is one of those creepy men who like to look at younger girls. He has the eyes for Jane and I am sure he has tried some funny stuff. You see that is why I wouldn't try any funny business with Jane. Not like that phony Stradlater who will come home and act all cool pretending that he got some ass even if she said no. Asshole phony.
"For Holden, she represents the unknown—the space between innocence and adulthood. Having loved her in his childhood, he is zealous to hold onto this image of her, rather than have it corrupted by something she may have become."
"Salinger's Purposes for Allie, Phoebe, and Jane Gallagher (Catcher in the Rye" StudyMode.com. 11 2010. 2010. 11 2010 <http://www.studymode.com/essays/Salinger%27s-Purposes-For-Allie-Phoebe-And-465698.html>.
My brother Allie died three years ago of leukemia. I can't help but think that the wrong brother died. I wonder if my family wishes it was me who died. Allie was so full of happiness and life. My little brother who was supposed to live forever, taken for what reason? What really happens when people die? Does anyone really know? It scares me that people can't answer simple questions about the ducks in central park. People don't look at life the same way that I do. I think of death and normal people think of life. What a fucked up world to live in. We have so many answers about the living, but what do we really know about death and dying? Shouldn't that be the focus? I for one would like to know when I am going to die. What will happen to me? Better yet, where is Allie now? Every time my family looks at me, I think they wish I was Allie. Off to boarding school with me. My mom and dad won't have to deal with their crazy bastard of a son.
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1951.
I tend to obsess about keeping my innocence. So much shit has happened in my life. I can't seem to keep it together. This makes me feel like a horrible person. My mother has been through so much already and I just can't seem to be normal. I just fuck everything up. When I left all of the fencing foils on the subway I felt so angry. Who really cares? Really? If these phony guys walked in my shoes for only a day, they wouldn't care about fencing. Phony bastards are so shallow. When I realized what I had done, I felt sick to my stomach, I really did. Just one more simple thing I couldn't do right. I was the equipment manager and I couldn't even manage the equipment.
When I bought that hat for a buck, it allowed me to feel like I was somebody else, like Allie or good ole Pheboe. Everyone liked them. Both able to see the world through the innocence of a child. They didn't know the feeling of disappointing an entire team, getting kicked out of school, failing their parents. It feels good to put on my hunting hat and to pretend to be someone I am not. I love the red color of the hat. It covers my grey patch and makes me feel like my innocent siblings.
Carlson, Kathrine. "The Symbolic Importance of Holden's Hat." The Bildungsroman Project. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1 Jan. 2012. Web. 1 Jan. 2013. http://bildungsromanproject.com/the-catcher-in-the-rye-a-close-reading/.
THINGS I FUCKEN HATE:
1. Phonies
2. Movies
3. Stupid Girls
4. Getting Older
“Certain things they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone. I know that’s impossible, but it’s too bad anyway.”
(Salinger)
5. Cliques
“Everybody sticks together in these dirty little goddam cliques. The guys that are on the basketball team stick together, the Catholics stick together, the goddam intellectuals stick together, the guys that play bridge stick together. Even the guys that belong to the goddam Book-of-the-Month club stick together.” (Salinger)
6. Saying Goodbye
“I was trying to feel some kind of a good-by. I mean I’ve left schools and places I didn’t even know I was leaving them. I hate that. I don’t care if it’s a sad good-by or a bad good-by, but when I leave a place I like to know I’m leaving it. If you don’t, you feel even worse.” (Salinger)
When Phoebe asks me what I want to do with my life there is really only one answer. I want to be THE catcher in the rye! It is the only thing that seems to make sense. A job where I get to be the hero of children. To save them from all of the evil in the world and preserve their innocence. Hell, I can't think of a job that could be better then that. “If a body catch a body comin’ through the rye.”
I started telling my kid sister that I can see a huge field of rye on a cliff where children are playing. When they are about to fall it will be my job to save them.
Of course Phobe corrected me, she didn't want to hurt my feelings or anything, she might be the only one who might understand me, so she must of felt it real important to tell me that my lyrics were wrong. She said the lyrics are from a Robert Burns poem, “Coming Thro’ the Rye,” is “If a body meet a body coming through the rye.” (Salinger)
This really made me angry, but I was too exhausted to argue. I just felt sad. How can you save the kids? There are so many crappy perverts and criminals in the world. How do you keep the children safe? I wasn't sure if I was having a break through or a break down. I was starting to believe that everone loses their innocence.
I have only really allowed one girl to really get to know me and maybe that is because she allowed me to understand her. Jane Gallagher. My neighbor and friend. Tonight she is on a date with my roomate Stradlater. That pisses me off because I know what a pervert Stadlater is. He will get her in the back seat of his car and try to get dirty with her. I feel sick thinking about it. If it were me out with Jane, I would not try to make her do anything she doesn't want to do. I wouldn't put any pressure on her.
I know the look in her eyes, the look that nobody else would really understand. You see Jane's stepfather is one of those creepy men who like to look at younger girls. He has the eyes for Jane and I am sure he has tried some funny stuff. You see that is why I wouldn't try any funny business with Jane. Not like that phony Stradlater who will come home and act all cool pretending that he got some ass even if she said no. Asshole phony.
"For Holden, she represents the unknown—the space between innocence and adulthood. Having loved her in his childhood, he is zealous to hold onto this image of her, rather than have it corrupted by something she may have become."
"Salinger's Purposes for Allie, Phoebe, and Jane Gallagher (Catcher in the Rye" StudyMode.com. 11 2010. 2010. 11 2010 <http://www.studymode.com/essays/Salinger%27s-Purposes-For-Allie-Phoebe-And-465698.html>.
DUCKS IN THE POND
"You know those ducks in that lagoon right near Central Park South? That little lake? By any chance, do you happen to know where they go, the ducks, when it gets all frozen over? Do you happen to know, by any chance?'" (Salinger, 60)My brother Allie died three years ago of leukemia. I can't help but think that the wrong brother died. I wonder if my family wishes it was me who died. Allie was so full of happiness and life. My little brother who was supposed to live forever, taken for what reason? What really happens when people die? Does anyone really know? It scares me that people can't answer simple questions about the ducks in central park. People don't look at life the same way that I do. I think of death and normal people think of life. What a fucked up world to live in. We have so many answers about the living, but what do we really know about death and dying? Shouldn't that be the focus? I for one would like to know when I am going to die. What will happen to me? Better yet, where is Allie now? Every time my family looks at me, I think they wish I was Allie. Off to boarding school with me. My mom and dad won't have to deal with their crazy bastard of a son.
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1951.
RED HUNTING HAT
"Holden
resists his own development towards maturity and wishes for others to
do the same. Thus, critics find significance in the hat being red. Both
of Holden’s siblings, Allie and Phoebe, have red hair. By wearing the
red hunting hat on his own head, he is identifying with his younger
siblings and the innocence that they represent. Holden wishes “to
retreat backward into the world he is leaving—that of childhood
innocence—rather than advance into adolescence, maturity, and the world
of adult American society.”(Carlson)I tend to obsess about keeping my innocence. So much shit has happened in my life. I can't seem to keep it together. This makes me feel like a horrible person. My mother has been through so much already and I just can't seem to be normal. I just fuck everything up. When I left all of the fencing foils on the subway I felt so angry. Who really cares? Really? If these phony guys walked in my shoes for only a day, they wouldn't care about fencing. Phony bastards are so shallow. When I realized what I had done, I felt sick to my stomach, I really did. Just one more simple thing I couldn't do right. I was the equipment manager and I couldn't even manage the equipment.
When I bought that hat for a buck, it allowed me to feel like I was somebody else, like Allie or good ole Pheboe. Everyone liked them. Both able to see the world through the innocence of a child. They didn't know the feeling of disappointing an entire team, getting kicked out of school, failing their parents. It feels good to put on my hunting hat and to pretend to be someone I am not. I love the red color of the hat. It covers my grey patch and makes me feel like my innocent siblings.
Carlson, Kathrine. "The Symbolic Importance of Holden's Hat." The Bildungsroman Project. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1 Jan. 2012. Web. 1 Jan. 2013. http://bildungsromanproject.com/the-catcher-in-the-rye-a-close-reading/.
THINGS I FUCKEN HATE:
1. Phonies
2. Movies
3. Stupid Girls
4. Getting Older
“Certain things they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone. I know that’s impossible, but it’s too bad anyway.”
(Salinger)
5. Cliques
“Everybody sticks together in these dirty little goddam cliques. The guys that are on the basketball team stick together, the Catholics stick together, the goddam intellectuals stick together, the guys that play bridge stick together. Even the guys that belong to the goddam Book-of-the-Month club stick together.” (Salinger)
6. Saying Goodbye
“I was trying to feel some kind of a good-by. I mean I’ve left schools and places I didn’t even know I was leaving them. I hate that. I don’t care if it’s a sad good-by or a bad good-by, but when I leave a place I like to know I’m leaving it. If you don’t, you feel even worse.” (Salinger)
When Phoebe asks me what I want to do with my life there is really only one answer. I want to be THE catcher in the rye! It is the only thing that seems to make sense. A job where I get to be the hero of children. To save them from all of the evil in the world and preserve their innocence. Hell, I can't think of a job that could be better then that. “If a body catch a body comin’ through the rye.”
I started telling my kid sister that I can see a huge field of rye on a cliff where children are playing. When they are about to fall it will be my job to save them.
Of course Phobe corrected me, she didn't want to hurt my feelings or anything, she might be the only one who might understand me, so she must of felt it real important to tell me that my lyrics were wrong. She said the lyrics are from a Robert Burns poem, “Coming Thro’ the Rye,” is “If a body meet a body coming through the rye.” (Salinger)
This really made me angry, but I was too exhausted to argue. I just felt sad. How can you save the kids? There are so many crappy perverts and criminals in the world. How do you keep the children safe? I wasn't sure if I was having a break through or a break down. I was starting to believe that everone loses their innocence.
Central Park Carousel
“Then the carousel started, and I watched her go round and round...All the kids tried to grap for the gold ring, and so was old Phoebe, and I was sort of afraid she's fall off the goddam horse, but I didn't say 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 is bad to say anything to them.” (Salinger)
Looking back on my day I spent with my with my kid sister in New York City, I realize that she taught me more in one day then I had learned at all the schools I flunked out of. What I learned from Phoebe while sitting there watching her was that you can't stay a kid forever. I wanted Phoebe to be innocent, I don't want her to be exposed to all the dangers in the world. Sitting there on a bench sobbing, trying to get my own shit together, I lit up a cigerette and just enjoyed watching her try to grab onto a golden ring. I had to let her grow up. Even if my life was shit, surrounded by phony's and bull shit. I might feel alone, but maybe she won't.
Killers and The Catcher in the Rye
The Catcher in the Rye by JD. Salinger is a dark book about a young man's coming of age. Holden Caulfield the main character struggles with groups of people, does not have healthy relationships with woman, sees the world through hateful eyes, and views most people as phonies. What is unusual about this book is that many criminals have read the book and have created almost a cult like addiction to J.D. Salingers words.
Mark David Chapman, the man who murdered John Lennon was obsessed with the book The Catcher in the Rye. He felt a connection to the main character Holden Caulfield. He too saw the world through Holden's eyes. The night of the murder he stood over the dead body of John Lennon and read the book.
Chapman often writes to J.D. Salinger to apologize for his actions.
According to Robert Bardo, The Catcher in the Rye inspired him to take the life of
actress Rebecca Schaeffer. He worshipped Rebecca's innocense and became angry with her when she took on more adult roles. After stalking Rebecca, Bardo showed up at her apartment and shot her. He left a copy of Catcher in the Rye at the crime scene.
"John Hinckley, who attempted to kill President Reagan, and wounded four others, was also enamored with The Catcher in the Rye."
"A new PBS documentary on J.D. Salinger will discuss The Catcher in the Rye and will presumably analyze the fact that many killers have identified with the loneliness and isolation experienced by the book’s protagonist, Holden Caulfield. Although The Catcher in the Rye should not be seen as a contributing factor to their lethal violence, troubled readers undoubtedly identify with Holden’s loneliness and frustration and view his dilemma as support and affirmation for the similar emotions that they are experiencing."
Roche, Mike. "Killers and The Catcher in the Rye." All Things Crime. 22 Jan. 2014. Web. <http://www.allthingscrimeblog.com/2014/01/22/killers-and-the-catcher-in-the-rye/>.
