by Jerry Curtis

Created on: December 16, 2008   Last Updated: March 25, 2010

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger was written in a simpler age (1946) and is narrated by an adolescent boy (Holden Caulfield), who has great difficulty coping with the relatively uncomplicated, affluent world he meanders through. The title is from Robert Burns' classic poem/song of the same name, and, like most of Holden's dysfunctional attitudes and relations with other characters in the book, is based on his misinterpretation of the meaning of Burns work. Burns poem is really about the free and shameless encounter of two lovers in a field of rye; Holden adapts the meaning to his own daydreams about being able to rescue children by "catching" them before they dance over a cliff.

Holden's relationships with younger children are actually the only interactions that seem to work for him. Unfortunately, for the sake of Holden's mental health, the best and most cherished child in his lexicon of relationships that work is his younger brother, Allie, who died of leukemia. Much of Holden's drifting and underachievement appears to be related to his unresolved grief over the loss of his little brother. Everyone else Holden comes into contact with throughout the book is either the subject of Holden's disdain or fakery as he seems to try on adulthood like an ill fitting suit. (He tells a schoolmate's mother he meets on a train that his name is Rudolf Schmidt; he tells a group of women he meets in a nightclub that his name is Jim Steele.)

Holden's disdain and low regard for his peers and most of the adults he encounters set an almost tediously predictable theme. If Holden is not criticizing someone, he is feeling sorry for them or (in the case of the nuns he meets in train station) trying to behave like a mature, sophisticated adult or big shot. In two cases, Holden steps over the line after he taunts his older roommate, Stradlater and ends up with bloody nose. Later in New York Holden is roughed up by a hotel bellhop/pimp. Both incidents are over Holden's insecurity with women.
Stradlater had dated Holden's childhood "sweetheart," and Holden was jealous and worried that Stradlater had "given her the time."

The hotel incident was likewise about a woman, except it was a dispute over how much he owed a prostitute. Holden never actually consummated the deal with the hooker, preferring instead to try to have an adult conversation. The conversation deteriorates into a dispute over an extra five dollars, which the outraged teenager refuses to pay. (The bellhop pimp had said

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