The abyss in the rye Salinger
J. D. Salinger,
The Catcher in the Rye
Seventeen Holden Kolfild, who is in a sanatorium, recalls “the crazy story that happened last Christmas,” whereupon he “just did not give the ends”, long ill, and now undergoing treatment and soon hopes to return home.
His memories begin the day he left Pensi, a closed high school in Egerstown, Pennsylvania. Actually, he went out of his own free will – he was expelled for academic underachievement – out of nine subjects in that quarter he toppled five. The situation is complicated by the fact that Pansy is not the first school that the young hero leaves. Prior to that, he had already abandoned Elkton Hill, because, in his opinion, “there was one solid lime tree.” However, the feeling that around him “linden” – falsehood, pretense and window dressing – does not let go of Colfeld throughout the whole novel. Both adults and peers, with whom he meets, cause him
The last day in school is full of conflicts. He returns to Pensi from New York, where he went as captain of the fencing team for a match that did not take place due to his fault – he forgot to wear sports equipment in the subway car. Stradlater asks for him to write for him a composition – to describe a house or room, but Caulfield, who loves to do everything in his own way, tells about his baseball glove to his late brother Allie, who wrote it down in verse and read them during matches. Stradlater, after reading the text, takes offense at the deviant author, stating that he had poured him a pig, but Caulfield, upset that Stradlater was going on a date with a girl who liked himself, does not remain in debt. The matter ends with the brawl and the smashed nose of Caulfield.
Once in New York, he realizes that he can not go home and tell his parents that he was expelled. He sits in a taxi and goes to the hotel. On the way, he asks his favorite question, which does not give him rest: “Where do the ducks go in the Central Park when the pond freezes?”
This world and oppresses it, and attracts. With people it’s hard for him, without them it’s unbearable. He tries to have fun in the nightclub at the hotel, but nothing good comes of it, and the waiter refuses to give him alcohol as a minor. He goes to a night bar in Greenwich Village, where his elder brother DB was fond of, a talented writer tempted by the big screenwriter’s fees in Hollywood. On the way, he asks a question about the ducks to the next taxi driver, again without getting an intelligible answer. At the bar he meets a familiar DB with some sailor. This girl causes in him such dislike that he quickly leaves the bar and goes on foot to the hotel.
The hotel elevator operator is wondering if he wants a girl – five dollars for a time, fifteen at night. Holden negotiates “for a while,” but when the girl appears in his room, does not find the strength to part with his innocence. He wants to chat with her, but she came to work, and since the client is not ready to match, he requires ten dollars from him. He recalls that the contract was about five. She disappears and soon returns with the lifter. Another skirmish ends with another defeat of the hero.
The next morning he arranges for a meeting with Sally Hayes, leaves an inhospitable hotel, delivers his suitcases to the luggage room and begins the life of the homeless. In a red hunter’s hat backwards, bought in New York on that ill-fated day when he forgot fencing equipment on the subway, Holden Caulfield hovers through the cold streets of the big city. A visit to the theater with Sally does not bring him joy. The play seems stupid, the audience admiring the famous actors Lant, nightmarish. Companion also irritates him more and more.
Soon, as expected, there is a quarrel. After the play, Holden and Sally go skating, and then, in the bar, the hero gives vent to the feelings that were tearing his soul. Explaining his dislike for everything that surrounds him: “I hate… Lord, how I hate all this, and not just school, I hate everything.” “I hate cabs, buses where the conductor yells at you so that you go out through the back platform, I hate getting acquainted with the lobes that call Lantov “angels”, I hate to ride in elevators, when I just want to go out on the street, I hate measuring suits from Brooks… “
His order is annoying that Sally does not share his negative attitude to what he was so unhappy, and most importantly, to school. When he asks her to take a car and go off for a couple of weeks to go to new places, and she responds with a refusal, reasonably recalling that “we, in fact, are still children,” is irreparable: Holden pronounces offensive words, and Sally retires in tears.
New meeting – new disappointments. Carl Lewes, a student from Princeton, is too focused on his person to show sympathy for Holden, and the one left alone gets drunk, calls Sally, asks her for forgiveness, and then wanders through the cold New York City and Central Park, near the very pond with ducks, drops the plate, bought as a gift to younger sister Phoebe.
Returning home, and to his relief, after discovering that his parents had gone to visit, he gives Phoebe only shards. But she is not angry. She in general, despite her small years, perfectly understands the state of her brother and guesses why he returned home early. It’s in a conversation with Phoebe Holden that she expresses her dream: “I imagine how little children play in the evening in a huge field in the rye, a thousand kids, and not a soul, not a single adult, except me… And my business is to catch kids, so that they do not break into the abyss. “
However, Holden is not ready to meet with parents, and, borrowing money from her sister, put aside for Christmas presents, he goes to his former teacher Mr. Antolini. Despite the late hour, he takes it, arranges for the night. As a true mentor, he tries to give him some useful tips on how to build relationships with the outside world, but Holden is too tired to take sensible sayings. Then suddenly he wakes up in the middle of the night and finds a teacher at his bed, who is stroking his forehead. Suspecting Mr. Antolini of bad intentions, Holden leaves his house and sleeps at the Central Station.
However, he soon enough understands that he misinterpreted the behavior of the teacher, fooled the fool, and this further strengthens his longing.
Reflecting on how to live on, Holden decides to go somewhere to the West and there, in accordance with the old American tradition, try to start over. He sends Phoebe a note, where he announces his intention to leave, and asks her to come to the agreed place, because she wants to return the money borrowed from her. But the little sister appears with a suitcase and declares that she is going to the West with her brother. Unwittingly or unwittingly little Phoebe plays before him himself – she declares that she will not go to school either, and in general this life has bothered her. Holden, on the other hand, has to become a common-sense point of view, forgetting for a while about his all-negative. He shows prudence and responsibility and convinces the little sister to abandon his intention, assuring her that he himself will not go anywhere. He leads Phoebe to the zoo, and there she rides a carousel,
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