The world of a teenager in the story of D. Salinger “The Catcher in the Rye”
“And bored and sad, and there is no one to give
In a moment of spiritual unhappiness. “
M. Lermontov
About Salinger is known very little. He does not like to give interviews. I liked that he wrote about himself in one of the books shortly and dryly, and then “at the request of his wife,” added “details of his personal life”: “I live in Westport and I have a dog.”
I believe that everything that a writer wants to say, he says in his works. He, like Faulkner, and Updike, shows us his American world. And how he does not look like our ideas about America, where everyone is rich and happy.
For him, the American way of life is that around falsehood and deception, advertising reigns everywhere, science and art are vulgarized.
In the story “Above the Catcher in the Rye” we see a deeply lonely person. Holden Caulfield is expelled from school. This is the third school where he studies. He does
Holden is even glad that he leaves here, from all this regulated fake life. Everyone irritates him with his usual, stupid, thick-skinned. Holden has a lot of twos, he does not do well in almost all subjects. But in English he is one of the best. A friend at the hostel asks him to write an essay. And he writes about what is most precious to him – about the baseball glove of his deceased brother,
How much attention and love in his memories of his brother! But the customer did not understand the work at all, and also accused Colin Holder of wrong understanding of the topic. It seems that the hero of the story irritates absolutely everything: a stupid school, a tired hostel, all this “lime tree”. But before leaving, he goes to visit his beloved teacher. From his thoughts about the teacher and his wife, we understand what a delicate, sensitive soul. Colfeld feels sorry for the fact that they are so old, he acutely feels their infirmity and irretrievably gone years.
It seems that this is a typical “difficult” teenager, all denying, mocking everything. He can not master the school curriculum, he can not find a common language with peers, not to mention adults. He wants to escape from all this “lime tree”. But where does he strive? This is the peculiarity of the image of the protagonist.
His dream is beautiful: he wants to “live by the stream,” to do everything with his own hands, even to bring up his children only in his own way, and not “as expected.” Holden Caulfield very much loves his little sister Phoebe, with whom he has a wonderful relationship. He dreams of saving children playing “over the precipice in the rye”. Let them rejoice, do not think about danger, let them be completely carefree. After all, there is a person nearby who loves them very much. He will save them in a difficult moment. A noble goal, like the noble protagonist. How I understand it! Indeed, it often seems that the whole world is against you, and you are alone, stupid and defenseless, and even not with you. In this world, the malevolent and ridiculous world of teenagers, the most ridiculous you seem to yourself. Salinger is so close to us, young, that he does not forget his childhood.
And let Holden Colfield’s dream be unrealizable, and he himself does not know how to adapt to this life, she is beautiful.
The book of D. Salinger “The Catcher in the Rye” helps to understand everything: a rugged impudent teenager is not a threat to the adult world, it is only a protective reaction to one’s own imperfection, to the imperfection of the surrounding world. And inside we are beautiful and fluffy.
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