from Slate:
Re-reading The Catcher in The Rye recently, I was struck not only by the degree to which I no longer like Holden Caulfield, but also how open the book leaves the very salient question of Holden's sanity. Is he a prophet of authenticity, or merely a confused or perhaps mentally ill boy? Holden is constantly told to shush, to speak more quietly, to please calm down. Salinger signals us, repeatedly, that his anti-hero is loud, inappropriate, excitable, and finally, genuinely strange.
In my lifetime, Holden Caulfield has evolved from a troubled misfit into a secular saint and finally into a spoiled brat. The central turning point in Holden's biography as a fictional character, I believe, came on Dec. 8, 1980. After piercing John Lennon's aorta with a Charter Arms .38 revolver, Mark David Chapman pulled out his copy of Catcher in the Rye, and, waiting for the police to arrive, sat down on the curb and began to read.
His characters look at the world, at the implacable surface of post-war affluence, and cannot believe no body else sees the cracks veining slowly through it. What will pierce the surface of things? Jesus? The Bodhisatva? Psychosis? He never said.
Posts
Tocarte
1 day ago
