What to Do With Holden Caufield
Is the game of life fundamentally rigged in favor of the powerful? Although this question isn’t front and center in J.D. Salinger’s 1950s famous novel Catcher in the Rye, it is in the background. In the novel, Holden Caufield, a disaffected teen, purposefully sabotages his future by flunking out of his wealthy prep school. For the bulk of the novel, he finds himself wandering the streets of New York City, scared to go home and face his upper crust Manhattan parents. Though Holden’s understanding is limited, he has a dawning sense that there is something not quite right about the world he has inherited, a world in which there are clear winners and losers in life before the game even starts. Holden’s critical perspective feels as an important as it ever did. Today’s teens are often told if they work hard and “follow their bliss,” all their dreams will come true. Holden suggests the equation is not so simple. Though this message might resonate with today’s teens, perhaps Holden is not the ideal messenger for today’s youth.
Throughout the novel, one of Holden’s main criticisms of society is that the “game of life” is rigged in favor of the powerful. This perspective surfaces early on in the novel when Holden goes to visit his history teacher, “Old Spencer,” who instructs him that “Life is a game one plays according to the rules.” In his mind, Holden replies, “Game, my ass. Some game. If you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then it’s a game, all right – I’ll admit that. But if you get on the other side, where there aren’t any hot-shots, then what’s a game about it? Nothing. No game”(8). In other words, for those who are born into this world with gifts they did not earn, the rules of life work in their favor. Take for example, Stradlater, Holden’s roommate. Endowed with both money (like Holden, he has fancy suitcases) and good looks, Stradlater easily exploits those around him, borrowing Holden’s coat, bullying women into sexual activities, and convincing Holden to write his composition for him. Yet he also goes after Holden for smoking in his room: “You may be getting the hell out of here, but I have to stick around long enough to graduate” (42). Stradlater knows exactly how to play with the rules to get what he wants. Life is a game for him. Not so for Ackley, Holden’s suitemate, who is Catholic, pimply, without privilege, and unattractive. He would clearly love to be a Stradlater, whom he always “keep[s] tabs on” though he “hate[s] his guts” (23), but life is no game for him. Of course, even Ackley has a brighter future than some of the folks Holden encounters in New York City, like the young but already hardened prostitute Sunny.
Holden’s view of this unlevel playing field seems as current as ever. Consider the recent college admissions scandal in which the Justice Department indicted fifty members of the wealthy elite who engaged in cheating and bribery to get their kids into the Ivy League. I’m sure that Stradlater would happily commit such sins to get a son of his into Yale when the time came. And even without cheating, the Stradlaters of the world have a leg up on the ladder to success. Today, like in Holden’s time, kids like Stradlater have so much tilted in their favor already. They have parents who can easily pay for college, a diploma from an elite prep school, elite connections, and probably even legacy admission into the Ivies. In fact, wealth and educational outcomes are highly correlated (Fang). Holden’s criticism remains spot on, but do teens these days have an interest in hearing a white upper-class boy with all the advantages realize these inequalities and feel guilty about them? They would perhaps much rather hear this story from those against whom the game is actually rigged. Take for example, Angie Thomas’s novel (also a recent movie), The Hate You Give, in which an African American teenager, Starr, is confronted with the police shooting of her cousin and makes a series of heroic decisions to bring about some justice and mobilize a community. She also solidly straddles the worlds of privilege and struggle, living in the inner city but attending a mostly white suburban school. Holden, on the other hand, merely visits a seedy hotel on the Lower West Side of Manhattan.
Holden’s response to the unlevel playing field is also disappointing. He’d like to protect innocent Phoebe from it and he’d like to escape society all together – to the woods of Vermont or to a ranch out West. Ultimately, however, he decides to return to school and maybe possibly “apply [him]self in the fall” (213). Many teens at the time found Holden a hero for speaking his truth, but teens today might be more inspired by action. They might look to Greta Thurnberg, the sixteen-year-old Swedish climate activist who has inspired global youth-led school strikes; or Stoneman Douglas students who, in the wake of a school shooting, created the largest youth march since the Vietnam War (Lopez). Maybe Holden will end of “liv[ing] humbly for a cause”(188) as Mr. Antolini advises, but what cause exactly? It is not exactly clear at the end and rather uninspiring.
Novels don’t need to be inspiring, of course, to be great. What made Catcher thrilling to teens at the time of its publication, however, was his authentic and honest assessment of the phony and corrupt world around him. Just hearing someone who sounded like them speaking truth to power was inspiring. There are many such voices now, though, and they are not just in the pages of young adult novels. Today’s young people can use social media to directly call out phony and corrupt adults. Teens who look out into the world distressed over injustice can find real life role models who take action like Greta Thurnberg as well as fictional ones like Starr. I respect Catcher in the Rye as a literary work, but Holden’s rebellion seems a bit dated and kind of limited. English teachers, maybe it’s time to shelve this book.
Works cited:
Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Little, Brown and Company, 1991.
Lopez. “It's Official: March for Our Lives Was One of the Biggest Youth Protests since the Vietnam War.” Vox, 26 Mar. 2018, www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/3/26/17160646/march-for-our-lives-crowd-size-count.
Fang, Chichun. “‘Growing Wealth Gaps in Education.’” Blog for Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, www.src.isr.umich.edu/blog/growing-wealth-gaps-in-education/.
Is the game of life fundamentally rigged in favor of the powerful? Although this question isn’t front and center in J.D. Salinger’s 1950s famous novel Catcher in the Rye, it is in the background. In the novel, Holden Caufield, a disaffected teen, purposefully sabotages his future by flunking out of his wealthy prep school. For the bulk of the novel, he finds himself wandering the streets of New York City, scared to go home and face his upper crust Manhattan parents. Though Holden’s understanding is limited, he has a dawning sense that there is something not quite right about the world he has inherited, a world in which there are clear winners and losers in life before the game even starts. Holden’s critical perspective feels as an important as it ever did. Today’s teens are often told if they work hard and “follow their bliss,” all their dreams will come true. Holden suggests the equation is not so simple. Though this message might resonate with today’s teens, perhaps Holden is not the ideal messenger for today’s youth.
Throughout the novel, one of Holden’s main criticisms of society is that the “game of life” is rigged in favor of the powerful. This perspective surfaces early on in the novel when Holden goes to visit his history teacher, “Old Spencer,” who instructs him that “Life is a game one plays according to the rules.” In his mind, Holden replies, “Game, my ass. Some game. If you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then it’s a game, all right – I’ll admit that. But if you get on the other side, where there aren’t any hot-shots, then what’s a game about it? Nothing. No game”(8). In other words, for those who are born into this world with gifts they did not earn, the rules of life work in their favor. Take for example, Stradlater, Holden’s roommate. Endowed with both money (like Holden, he has fancy suitcases) and good looks, Stradlater easily exploits those around him, borrowing Holden’s coat, bullying women into sexual activities, and convincing Holden to write his composition for him. Yet he also goes after Holden for smoking in his room: “You may be getting the hell out of here, but I have to stick around long enough to graduate” (42). Stradlater knows exactly how to play with the rules to get what he wants. Life is a game for him. Not so for Ackley, Holden’s suitemate, who is Catholic, pimply, without privilege, and unattractive. He would clearly love to be a Stradlater, whom he always “keep[s] tabs on” though he “hate[s] his guts” (23), but life is no game for him. Of course, even Ackley has a brighter future than some of the folks Holden encounters in New York City, like the young but already hardened prostitute Sunny.
Holden’s view of this unlevel playing field seems as current as ever. Consider the recent college admissions scandal in which the Justice Department indicted fifty members of the wealthy elite who engaged in cheating and bribery to get their kids into the Ivy League. I’m sure that Stradlater would happily commit such sins to get a son of his into Yale when the time came. And even without cheating, the Stradlaters of the world have a leg up on the ladder to success. Today, like in Holden’s time, kids like Stradlater have so much tilted in their favor already. They have parents who can easily pay for college, a diploma from an elite prep school, elite connections, and probably even legacy admission into the Ivies. In fact, wealth and educational outcomes are highly correlated (Fang). Holden’s criticism remains spot on, but do teens these days have an interest in hearing a white upper-class boy with all the advantages realize these inequalities and feel guilty about them? They would perhaps much rather hear this story from those against whom the game is actually rigged. Take for example, Angie Thomas’s novel (also a recent movie), The Hate You Give, in which an African American teenager, Starr, is confronted with the police shooting of her cousin and makes a series of heroic decisions to bring about some justice and mobilize a community. She also solidly straddles the worlds of privilege and struggle, living in the inner city but attending a mostly white suburban school. Holden, on the other hand, merely visits a seedy hotel on the Lower West Side of Manhattan.
Holden’s response to the unlevel playing field is also disappointing. He’d like to protect innocent Phoebe from it and he’d like to escape society all together – to the woods of Vermont or to a ranch out West. Ultimately, however, he decides to return to school and maybe possibly “apply [him]self in the fall” (213). Many teens at the time found Holden a hero for speaking his truth, but teens today might be more inspired by action. They might look to Greta Thurnberg, the sixteen-year-old Swedish climate activist who has inspired global youth-led school strikes; or Stoneman Douglas students who, in the wake of a school shooting, created the largest youth march since the Vietnam War (Lopez). Maybe Holden will end of “liv[ing] humbly for a cause”(188) as Mr. Antolini advises, but what cause exactly? It is not exactly clear at the end and rather uninspiring.
Novels don’t need to be inspiring, of course, to be great. What made Catcher thrilling to teens at the time of its publication, however, was his authentic and honest assessment of the phony and corrupt world around him. Just hearing someone who sounded like them speaking truth to power was inspiring. There are many such voices now, though, and they are not just in the pages of young adult novels. Today’s young people can use social media to directly call out phony and corrupt adults. Teens who look out into the world distressed over injustice can find real life role models who take action like Greta Thurnberg as well as fictional ones like Starr. I respect Catcher in the Rye as a literary work, but Holden’s rebellion seems a bit dated and kind of limited. English teachers, maybe it’s time to shelve this book.
Works cited:
Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Little, Brown and Company, 1991.
Lopez. “It's Official: March for Our Lives Was One of the Biggest Youth Protests since the Vietnam War.” Vox, 26 Mar. 2018, www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/3/26/17160646/march-for-our-lives-crowd-size-count.
Fang, Chichun. “‘Growing Wealth Gaps in Education.’” Blog for Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, www.src.isr.umich.edu/blog/growing-wealth-gaps-in-education/.