‘Don’t ever tell anybody anything – you start missing everybody’. Holden Vitamin Caulfield (16) speaks directly to you, the reader, in three word sentences, between Sunday and Wednesday just before Christmas, New York, 1945-46. His dress, his
aphorisms (short, wise sayings) –‘That killed me’, ‘She’s no slob’, his behaviour, his mythmaking combine seeking a reputation and fame in his own adolescent world. He sets out to get himself noticed. He was, briefly.
Three word aphorisms – “Are you grippy?” – become fleetingly, four words – “Are you a flit/lesbian?” Holden detests Pencey Prep., Agerstown, Pennsylvania, USA, his fourth school, it is full of phonies! Holden flunks history because he knew absolutely nothing. Holden goes through the turmoil of adolescence discussing Tybalt from Romeo and Juliet with a classmate’s mother on the midnight train to New York and a sordid ‘cocktail and prostitute’ night in a cheap hotel, prompted by his roommate, Ackley’s date, with his girlfriend (Jane Gallagher). Did he give her time? A dispute over the $5 fee (1945 prices) finds him beat up and on the floor.
Holden is tortured by the premature death of his brother Allie, he feels protective towards his sister Old Phoebe (10). Holden tries to connect with Old Sally Hayes and messes it up. He has Jane Gallagher on the brain. Did he give her time?
‘You know that song “If a
body catch a body comin’ through the rye” – Holden.
‘It’s “If a body meet a body coming through the rye”!’ a poem by Robert Burns – old Phoebe
Holden pictures these little kids playing some game in this big field of
rye and all, Holden, the only big person, must catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff. That is all he would do all day. Holden only
wants to be the
catcher in the rye.
Perhaps Holden wants to stop them reaching the pain of adulthood?
Holden draws on all of his contacts after midnight, including his former teacher Mr Antolini who tries to flit with him, whilst providing a couch to sleep on at short notice.
His sister, Old Phoebe meets Holden and wants to run away with him. Commonsense, so totally lacking, suddenly knocks on his door. He returns home with Old Phoebe, ‘Daddy will kill you’. Psychoanalysis, every Yank needs some, should have sorted him out for a return to school. The book was dedicated to his long suffering mother.
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