Have you ever finished a book in a classroom while your pupils were trying to write down everything they could remember about Romantic literature? Until recently, I would have said no to this – admittedly very specific – question. Last week, however, I finished J.D. Salinger’s classic The Catcher in the Rye while I was at school. It turns out this was the best book I could possibly have read at that occasion. Want to know why? Read on!
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is about Holden Caulfield, an angry sixteen-year-old boy who has just been kicked out of his school. He doesn’t quite know what to do with himself and decides to go to New York to dance, get drunk, and meet some people. While we read about his adventures, we also come to realise that there’s more to him than meets the eye and there might be a reason he’s so terribly annoying.
Speaking of annoying teenagers: I had a classroom full of them in front of me at that moment. There’s that one girl who bites my head off when I so much as look at her. There’s that boy who’s always wearing the same sweat pants and who’s got a pretty awful taste in friends. There’s this pupil who has never said anything and who’s very skilled at avoiding eye contact. There’s one girl who’s always telling these little lies. And there’s a boy who is repeating this year and has clearly not realised yet that he needs to do something – anything – in order not to fail yet again. Now that they were quietly taking their test, I took my time to really observe them, without them noticing, of course. That’s why I had my novel with me.
I knew I would finish The Catcher in the Rye during this test. There were only a couple of pages remaining, and I was looking forward to reading the conclusion of this novel. I had read all about Holden in the days prior to this one; I knew that he mostly hates things. He hates his classmates, almost all the adults he meets, the movies, Shakespeare, and, most importantly, phonies. Only occasionally does he say he likes something, but then in such an exaggerated way that he claims these things ‘kill’ him. He’s a boy who finds it hard to like anything in life, and that, in turn, makes it hard to like him.
I had so many questions about Holden and why he keeps pushing everyone away, but since I had to keep looking up to make sure nobody was cheating, I realised that I could also apply these questions to my pupils. I usually only see what’s on the outside: hurt, anger, insecurity, and all those feelings that everyone who’s ever been a teenager should be well acquainted with. However, as with Holden, I knew there must be something more going on which they don’t show me. Nor do they have to, of course, but I hope they’ve got someone that they can talk to, someone who can help them.
Maybe they should turn to Holden. The meaning of the title The Catcher in the Rye is a misheard lyric to a poem which was originally written by the Scottish poet Robert Burns. Holden imagines that he’s out in a field of rye with many children running around, and he needs to prevent them from falling off a cliff, which, I think, represents adulthood. He’s trying to save them, and to keep them from growing up and turning into one of those hypocritical, phony adults.
Sometimes I think that’s my job as a teacher, too; I am there, in a field of rye, stretching my arms as wide as I can, but of course none of my pupils want to be caught, so instead I just stand there and watch them as they tumble off the cliff into, well, I don’t know where. I know I should just let them fall because, in the end, everything will be all right. The same is true of Holden, who broke my heart into a million pieces when he states, on the final page, that he had a breakdown and had to be hospitalised. Still, he says, he’s feeling a bit better and he’s planning to go back to school in September.
As I put down my book for the final time, I looked around my classroom and found I couldn’t stop smiling. I smiled at poor, sensitive Holden, I smiled at the boy in his sweat pants (he looked up and quickly returned to his test), I smiled at the angry girl (who shot me back a look of pure venom), I smiled at the girl who never makes eye contact (she didn’t this time, either), I smiled at the girl whom I always catch in a lie (she was cheating, I think), and I smiled at the unmotivated boy, who was one of the first to finish his test. He caught my eye, and the corners of his mouth curled upwards, only ever so slightly, and only for a fraction of a second.
These children. They kill me.
What did you think of The Catcher in the Rye? Did you hate Holden, or think he deserves your sympathy? What were you like when you were a teenager? Do you think we’re all a bit like Holden? How are we supposed to help children like him? Please let me know in the comments! Also, don’t forget to follow me for more bookish posts!
The Open Book 