by Rachel Stockton

Created on: January 05, 2011   Last Updated: January 06, 2011

Perhaps no other character appearing on the 20th century landscape has inspired such controversy, adoration, emulation and the combination thereof than Holden Caulfield, the angst filled teenager introduced to us by J.D. Salinger in his classic novel, Catcher in the Rye.

Through Caulfield, Salinger introduces a new kind of character – one who is at once protagonist and antagonist, hero and anti hero; a character we can all, at some point in our lives, identify with.

In describing his novel’s main character, Salinger once wrote that Caulfield was not only “too simple,” he was also “too complex” to conceptually characterize in a sentence or two.  How true this is.

Catcher takes place in December 1949; per the book’s opening chapter, readers learn that Caulfield has just been expelled from the Prep school he believes he’s been unfairly subjected to by his parents.  From this point, Caulfield takes readers on a journey that at times reads like a diary, sort of a stream of consciousness account of his life, at others a diatribe by someone emotionally compromised.  Because of this, one can never be quite sure if Caulfield’s perceptions regarding the world around him are actually accurate – but this is largely irrelevant.  The novel is not so much about concrete “accuracy,” but about the interpretation of life by a boy caught upon the precipice of adolescence, one who is more than a little reluctant to plunge head first into adulthood.

To Caulfield, to mature and become an adult is to lose the carefree innocence of childhood.  Although born to affluent parents, Caulfield spends a good deal of time scoffing at privilege and the elitism that comes with it.   “Phony” is how he comes to describe the hypocrisy of the establishment.

Although as a character Caulfield can be characterized as both virtuous and surly, negative and strangely optimistic, his specific worldview can only be described as black and white; in Caulfield’s world, grey does not exist, even though his own behavior, maturity level, and emotional balance are a combination of a conundrum of contradictions that make every one of us human. 

So reluctant is Caulfield to have any respect for those of a certain age and economic standing that he sees himself as a protector, a savior, if you will, of childhood and all that makes that short-lived stage of life magical.  Indeed, he construes himself, or rather wishes himself to be, someone standing amongst the rye, rescuing and scooping up children who are about to plummet over a cliff, one that will, in his mind, lead to the cynical, bottomless abyss he interprets adulthood to ultimately be.  As such, he would then become the quintessential catcher in the rye.

Caulfield's ultimate transition into adulthood is up to the reader's imagination;  however, given the honesty of his account of his difficult, adolescent journey, one can  wish that he matured, yet still retained his love of beauty and innocence.   Hopefully, the truth, indeed, set Caulfield free.

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