The New York Times published this article today. It included interesting observations about why today’s teens don’t relate to Holden Caulfield.
Alas, one of these observations provoked the high school debater in my head.
Barbara Feinberg, in an e-mail to The New York Times: “Holden is somewhat a victim of the current trend in applying ever more mechanistic approaches to understanding human behavior … Compared to the early 1950s, there is not as much room for the adolescent search, for intuition, for empathy, for the mystery of the unconscious and the deliverance made possible through talking to another person.”
Emphasis added. I think that today’s YA novels, many of which are masterpieces, are addressing that need better than Holden does. It’s not because Catcher in the Rye is something teens can no longer understand because they don’t understand whining, or feeling alone, or wanting to experience something new. It’s because the current generation has good literature to read that documents their struggles.
For instance, my top two authors of ‘08, as you may remember, were E. Lockhart and Laurie Halse Anderson. They’re both writers who address Big Complex Issues, write well, and … let’s be frank. We’ve got better heroes for our time than Holden Caulfield could be. Studying Holden is like studying our parents.
Now, I haven’t read Catcher in the Rye in about five years, but I don’t think the fact that it’s a bit pathetic to the modern observer makes it completely obsolete. Wes Anderson has a whole career in making films — good ones — that are all basically about variations on Holden Caulfield.
Right. So what do you think? Talk amongst yourselves. Oh, and while you’re reading that article, tell me who you think today’s Holdens are? We’re not really stuck with Harry Potter, are we? I’ve got some more interesting characters in mind.
I read “catcher in the rye” a few months ago, and I found it very boring…I found Holden really annoying and whiny, so I guess you can count me in on one of the teenagers who just doesn`t like the book.
I agree with there now being more interesting books that tackle Big Issues. I can`t come up with any suggestions for characters, but I do feel like a character has to be a lot less passive than what Holden is…
…for me to relate to and like him\her, I mean.
your post makes me feel so woefully old–when i was in jr high and high school i was so obsessed with catcher i figured out a way to write an essay on it every single year (lamest one: an exploration of the theme of falling, 1991). . . today’s holden? thats hard. he’s so grumpy and psycho–isnt everyone required to be sweet nowadays (im thinking of michael cera and every fictional variation of him)?
Lauren, sweetie, if you’re old then so am I. And, having gone to see Gloria Steinem speak a few weeks ago — she is looking better at 75 than I did at 18 — I think I’m going to take a feminist stance on aging and say that women in their late twenties or early thirties are just beginning their lives.
I read Catcher a few years ago and remembered liking it but barely connecting with Holden. What you’re saying totally makes sense: at that point, I had already read a lot of YA, so Holden’s situation wasn’t shockingly new literature for me, the way that it was for an older generation. I didn’t relate to Holden because I had other characters better suited for that job.
As for today’s Holdens… no one really sticks out as THE character that clicks with everyone. There are so many books out there that everyone can find something different that specifically relates to them.
I just finished reading Catcher in the Rye yesterday and I actually thought it was good. I find myself clicking with him in various ways (i.e. wondering about life, whether I can trust people or not, and plain old love). I think alot of students find the book boring in my class simply because they haven’t experienced death and such. Everyone goes through hard times and they are all different situations. So people may have empathy towards Holden, other people may have a sympathy, and others may not have any feelings towards it.
Lots of people say that he is just a complainer and all, but I think they tend to forget that he is writing in a journal of some type and ofcourse it is not going to leave all that out. I don’t see him complaining to much to other people other then his sister.
So I guess my answer to your question would be, no, the book is not very good for students to read because “nowadays” teens don’t experience the pressure from the parents as much as they used too, death itself, and “phonies”:). One more thing I would like to add is that it is much easier to talk to people, much easier to see someone for your problems, and much easier to get a job and go to school, less “class bias” where I live.