CLASSIC BOOK REVIEW: The Catcher in the Rye
Growing pains
By Linda Lin
The whole story is told in flashback. Holden Caulfield, a 16-year-old prep school student, has failed out of school again. He goes back to New York before scheduled and idles around the city instead of going home. There, he meets various people and experiences many things, and his mental condition becomes worse and worse. Finally, he breaks down, and the novel ends with him retelling the story in a mental hospital.
Holden is a typical adolescent undergoing an identity crisis; unfortunately, he is overwhelmed and defeated by his growing pains. Here, I categorize the growing pains that accounts for his mental collapse into four kinds.
The first is academic failure. Holden fails out of Pency, but it is not the first school that has kicked him out. The constant academic failure and the lack of recognition have, of course, destroyed his confidence. Moreover, academic performance is closely related to his relationship with his parents. Holden is from a wealthy family. His parents devote lots of money to his education. However, their expectation is beyond Holden's reach. His poor academic performance disappoints them again and again until at last he becomes afraid of even contacting them -- he idles around the city instead of going home, he dares not call Phoebe for fear of his mother picking up the phone, and he sneaks back home without letting his parents know. He has no courage to face his parents' inevitable wrath. Thus, academic failure is a key factor to his ultimate breakdown.
The second is sexual frustration, or rather failure in romantic relationships. Holden is a typical hormonal boy for he's always thinking about sex. However, though he has had romantic relationships with several girls, he is incapable of having sex with them -- he doesn't even have sex with the prostitute when she offers. His sex life stinks. Meanwhile, Jane is the girl Holden truly likes, thus he feels deeply hurt and betrayed when the "sexy bustard" Stradlater dates her, and he keeps imagining whether they will have sex. The relationship with the opposite sex plays an important role in one's growth. Dealing with it unsuccessfully will, of course, add to growing pains.
The third is interpersonal relationships. Though Holden has many friends and acquaintances, he cannot form meaningful and lasting friendships with them. He feels that no one understands him and everyone is a "phony". Therefore, he is constantly feeling lonely and helpless. Moreover, the most painful struggle is that part of him wants to connect with people on an adult level (by imitating them, like smoking, drinking alcohol, paying bills for strange ladies and calling a prostitute), while part of him wants to reject the phony adult world, and to retreat into his memories of childhood. In the end, the only solution he found was to run away and live as a deaf-mute who will not need to communicate with anyone. Of course, that cannot be realistic. Thus, Holden is trapped in a desperate struggle and feeling helpless because of his unsuccessful interpersonal relationships.
The forth is unstable moods. Holden is constantly possessed by unexplained depression and nervousness. Meanwhile, because of his excessive sensitivity and sentimentality, he is always surrounded by a sense of emptiness and loneliness. Thus his state of mind is unstable and it leads to his odd behaviors and isolation. He easily becomes impulsive or out of control. Thus people find it hard to communicate with him and it results in an unsuccessful relationship, and this will in turn add to his gloom and cause the instability of mind. In this way, Holden's life goes into a vicious cycle.
Till the end, Holden does not become really mature. He actually regresses back to a child-like state of mind, only feeling comfortable with Phoebe. He resents the phony adult world and wants to protect innocence. However, regarding everything in the adult world as phony is prejudicial, and escaping from reality cannot save him forever. Everyone has to face his growth and growing pains are the inevitable costs. Holden describes growing up as falling off the cliff, but one thing we should know -- it may be safe and comfortable to stay in the rye field on the cliff, but only when we have the courage to fall off the cliff can we learn to fly. And that is the day we really grow up.
By Linda Lin
The whole story is told in flashback. Holden Caulfield, a 16-year-old prep school student, has failed out of school again. He goes back to New York before scheduled and idles around the city instead of going home. There, he meets various people and experiences many things, and his mental condition becomes worse and worse. Finally, he breaks down, and the novel ends with him retelling the story in a mental hospital.
Holden is a typical adolescent undergoing an identity crisis; unfortunately, he is overwhelmed and defeated by his growing pains. Here, I categorize the growing pains that accounts for his mental collapse into four kinds.
The first is academic failure. Holden fails out of Pency, but it is not the first school that has kicked him out. The constant academic failure and the lack of recognition have, of course, destroyed his confidence. Moreover, academic performance is closely related to his relationship with his parents. Holden is from a wealthy family. His parents devote lots of money to his education. However, their expectation is beyond Holden's reach. His poor academic performance disappoints them again and again until at last he becomes afraid of even contacting them -- he idles around the city instead of going home, he dares not call Phoebe for fear of his mother picking up the phone, and he sneaks back home without letting his parents know. He has no courage to face his parents' inevitable wrath. Thus, academic failure is a key factor to his ultimate breakdown.
The second is sexual frustration, or rather failure in romantic relationships. Holden is a typical hormonal boy for he's always thinking about sex. However, though he has had romantic relationships with several girls, he is incapable of having sex with them -- he doesn't even have sex with the prostitute when she offers. His sex life stinks. Meanwhile, Jane is the girl Holden truly likes, thus he feels deeply hurt and betrayed when the "sexy bustard" Stradlater dates her, and he keeps imagining whether they will have sex. The relationship with the opposite sex plays an important role in one's growth. Dealing with it unsuccessfully will, of course, add to growing pains.
The third is interpersonal relationships. Though Holden has many friends and acquaintances, he cannot form meaningful and lasting friendships with them. He feels that no one understands him and everyone is a "phony". Therefore, he is constantly feeling lonely and helpless. Moreover, the most painful struggle is that part of him wants to connect with people on an adult level (by imitating them, like smoking, drinking alcohol, paying bills for strange ladies and calling a prostitute), while part of him wants to reject the phony adult world, and to retreat into his memories of childhood. In the end, the only solution he found was to run away and live as a deaf-mute who will not need to communicate with anyone. Of course, that cannot be realistic. Thus, Holden is trapped in a desperate struggle and feeling helpless because of his unsuccessful interpersonal relationships.
The forth is unstable moods. Holden is constantly possessed by unexplained depression and nervousness. Meanwhile, because of his excessive sensitivity and sentimentality, he is always surrounded by a sense of emptiness and loneliness. Thus his state of mind is unstable and it leads to his odd behaviors and isolation. He easily becomes impulsive or out of control. Thus people find it hard to communicate with him and it results in an unsuccessful relationship, and this will in turn add to his gloom and cause the instability of mind. In this way, Holden's life goes into a vicious cycle.
Till the end, Holden does not become really mature. He actually regresses back to a child-like state of mind, only feeling comfortable with Phoebe. He resents the phony adult world and wants to protect innocence. However, regarding everything in the adult world as phony is prejudicial, and escaping from reality cannot save him forever. Everyone has to face his growth and growing pains are the inevitable costs. Holden describes growing up as falling off the cliff, but one thing we should know -- it may be safe and comfortable to stay in the rye field on the cliff, but only when we have the courage to fall off the cliff can we learn to fly. And that is the day we really grow up.
1 Comments:
At 8:33 PM , Vagabondela said...
Good review. Now I shall read the book.
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