The Catcher in the Rye

Tonight there were seven of us present at the meeting to discuss our thoughts of “The Catcher in the Rye”.

With an average rating of 5/10, it wasn’t particularly a novel that anyone would include in their favourite reading lists!

I personally was slightly shocked at this, as I found that I quite liked the story and liked the character of Holden, yet I seemed to be the only person who thought this!

Much of the discussion related to Holden’s thoughts and perceptions that he expressed relating to others (primarily adults) – often referring to them as “phony”. We queried whether this was his genuine opinion of others, or whether it was a reflection of his deteriorating mental state as it became more common as the book progressed. The general thoughts of the group were that he held this view of adults, especially when he was observing the interactions between men and women – perhaps to represent the difficulties that he was experiencing as a teenager coming to terms with adulthood. Dismissing people as being “phony” revoked the need for him to explore or contemplate this further.

Holden seeks to maintain the idea that children are innocent throughout the book, however this begs the question as to why he doesn’t seem to worry as much about his own? We established that this was just one of many contradictions that Salinger has included.

Something that cannot be ignored is the title that Salinger has chosen – taken from Robert Burns’ poem “Comin’ Thro’ the Rye”. It is of great significance that Holden gets the poem wrong, and that around the beginning of the novel, he hears a child singing this poem, which cheers him up. Holden believes the poem is about childhood innocence, even stating that he would like to be the “catcher” – until he is told by his sister Phoebe that it is not about childhood innocence at all – it is quite the contrary. Whilst potentially representing Holden’s innocence, it could also show his ignorance.

The book ends with, “Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.”. When I was researching discussion topics, this ending seemed poignant. People seemed undecided as to whether this was meant to be interpreted in a positive or negative light.

The Catcher in the Rye certainly provided the group with many discussion points – there were more than I have included but I thought I would highlight just a few! Unfortunately, this was not loved by many, only averaging 5/10, and the general consensus was that it is an overrated novel. Despite this, people are still glad that they have read it (and in many cases, re-read it since they were a child!).

We also picked out the books that we will be reading for the next few months. I have updated the section on this page which details the books that we will be reading for the next six months.

See you all on 25/11/2014 to discuss “Nights at the Circus”.

Rachael 🙂