many of the chapters are indeed small short stories that have been put in
sequence to form a novel, and even as a whole the novel is quite short, not
even 200 pages. ‘Episodes in the life of Holden Caulfield’ could have been the
title if only the events did not take place immediately one after the other, as
they seem to do now.
When the novel opens, Caulfield is in a place ‘where he has to take it easy,’
and he is supposed to tell his life story, though ‘I am not going to tell you my
whole goddam autobiography or anything.’ Just so that you know; Holden is
superior to even the readers of his story. He hates ‘phonies’ and all. Can’t
stand them. He is a prime example of a boy with teenage angst, telling us his
story, getting a glimpse of what a kid in that state really thinks. In his own
words. The result is both magical and shocking.
Holden got kicked out of Pencey, a fancy school that was his umpteenth, since
he never seems to last very long at any school. Holden does not think that he is
the problem, though, and if you read the story from his perspective you might
even agree. This world is full of phonies. Don’t be fooled by them.
He hates the idea of going back to his parental home before the end of term,
which is a couple of days away, and thus tries to get on these couple of days
with the dough he has, sleeping in a seedy hotel, meeting people along the
way, being robbed by some hooker he did not even have sex with. He decides
to visit his kid sister ‘old Phoebe’ at night; she is one of the few people he gets
along with really well. If it was not clear up to that point: Holden is the teenager
that does not want to grow up, the ultimate Peter Pan, and his smaller sister
has remained innocent yet, at least in his eyes, and can do no wrong. When
she judges him, he accepts her judgement as rapidly as he rejects any
reproach from any sort of adult life-form. Adults are phonies and fakes; they
say one thing and do another.
When he has seen his kid sister, he still has one night before him; one night
before he can return home. He ‘gives’ and old teacher of him ‘a buzz’ and even
though it is in the middle of the night, the teacher, Mr Antolini does not mind
having Holden over. Mr Antolini, after having heard about his Pencey disaster,
counsel him, and Holden, though sleepy, sort of listens and knows the man is
right. Finally an adult that seems Holden seems to approve of, until, in the
middle of the night, he is woken by this sage teacher, who seems to be fondling
him. Does this prove Holden’s theory that all adults say one thing and do
another, or is he imagining things because he has started to realise that his
theory is perhaps not applicable for all adults and he would hate to admit that
to himself?
Holden makes for an intriguing character, and because he is the narrator of
his own story, and uses his own slang, wordings and logic, we feel a sympathy
for him that would not have been there had the story been told from another
point of view. Growing up, and more particularly growing out of childhood into
adulthood is something we all have experienced, and this short novel really
drives home the point that the world of adults can be quite a shock for
teenagers, if they start analysing it.
The title is especially significant, as it what Holden would aspire to be 'when he
grows up'; later on he notes that he would like to take off and go and live
somewhere in a cabin on the edge of the forest and pretend to be a deaf-mute
so that he would not have to have any useless conversations with anyone. He
would just do his work and get life over with, not stopping every three seconds
to engage in some conversation that has no use whatsoever.
Holden makes you think, and then makes you realise, that the world of grown-
ups is not an easy thing for children to readily accept. Not even very cynical
children.
