So I'd heard that The Catcher in the Rye is a US classic and both very beloved and very hated by people, so I KNEW I wanted to read whatever was so controversial.
Maybe I'm biased because I went into this "knowing" that the protagonist would be super annoying but kinda rightfully so, and I tried to read into that with a bit more care than I normally would (but truly, I suck at interpretation).
But now that I'm done, I have a pressing question: why is it that seemingly half of the people who read the book think that Holden is a whiny little bitch "just because he sucks at school", when literally every abuse and horrible thing that happened to him is EXPLICITLY written in the novel? I'd understand if it was all just hidden in the subtext and open to interpretation because again, I'm not too creative either to read too much between the lines. But it seems to me that people who hate Holden just skimmed the text. Of course he is annoying and a bit dumb sometimes, but if your best friend came to you telling you all of this happened to him, would you call him a whiny bitch if he ends up having a psychotic break or just goes off the rails, especially in that teen age?
Idk I'm just ranting here at this point because this novel seems to get so much attention for many a wrong reason when I just thought it was really pitiful to read and I felt so sorry for Holden even when he was acting like an ass.
by coolestdudette
16 Comments
I think feeling empathy for Holden comes with age. He’s just a kid at the end of the day
I personaly am a Holden Caulfield apologist until the day that I die, but having said that, trauma doesen’t make you less of a whiny bitch. It perhaps justifies why he’s like that, but people are still more then allowed to feel annoyed by his words and actions.
A lot of people view him as privileged and of money, so he will never be as sympathetic as a character that was poor that went through similar trials and tribulations. I don’t agree with this take, but it’s just something I’ve seen in critiques of the novel. Readers call him a spoiled rich kid.
Despite his privileged background, he actually goes through a lot! Death of a brother at a younger age, witnessing a suicide, and he alludes to sexual abuse in his past.
On top of this he has some sort of undiagnosed mental health condition, possibly bipolar disorder, or simply an acute psychotic episode.
We also are presented with a completely unfiltered view of his every thought and opinion and if we experienced this with most teenagers, it would be pretty unsufferable.
I don’t know how true this rings for others, but I have often found *Catcher in the Rye* to be a good gauge for patience and empathy (and reading comprehension skills). If you end up hating Holden Caulfield, I think it’s because you A) don’t have the patience for him, B) don’t have the capacity to empathize with him, or C) don’t have the reading skills to realize who he actually is beneath his unreliable narration.
There’s also a subset of people who love Holden Caulfield because they see so much of themselves in him. I don’t think too much of this when they’re a teen themselves, but if they’re an adult and still hold that view, I tend to think it’s a sign of immaturity.
In short, I have found that people’s reactions to *Catcher in the Rye* actually show a lot about their personality. People who hate Holden Caulfield probably have no business working with teenagers.
Holden Caulfield thinks you’re a phony gang rides at dawn ✊🏻
I think people miss a lot of nuance. I think in this up vote environment, people try to find original or profound takes on otherwise reader accepted outcomes.
Like Holden is a whiner, but like, that’s not all? He’s complicated. So much internet denouement is just trying to generate faux engagement. Which is a totally Holden like thing to say.
I never got the hate. I read it for the first when I was like…27?
I was all prepared to see what the divisiveness was about. And my husband saw it and was like, “oooh that’s the book the psychos like.” And I was like ok what is this…a pre-American Psycho?
But not even. I got the sense that Holden was a neurodivergent kid who didn’t fit in, could not understand how to fit in, or understand anyone’s motivations for anything. He liked and was fixated on the catcher in the rye game because it was very simple with clearly defined rules and a goal and so one of the rare times he felt comfortable and “with it.” Did he make terrible decisions? Yes. Was he rude and problematic at times? Yes. But not a serial killer…I didn’t even get edge lord energy from him. More like…Napoleon Dynamite.
Interesting book. Not my fav. Certainly thought provoking. I truly don’t understand why it’s so controversial.
The book read extremely differently to me at age 30 than it did at age 15.
And when I considered that Salinger was in his early 30’s when he wrote it, it made more sense to me.
i read the book when i was holden’s age and frankly just had enough of my own trauma and issues to deal with to want to deal with reading a character who, like me, just kind of wanted to die tbh
i think if i read it again at my current age id feel COMPLETELY different about the book and him
its helpful i think with a lot of opinions you see about classics that a very large portion of people (at least in the US) were made to read them as kids in school so theyre already kind of going into it with some resentment in a lot of cases
You know what? I haven’t read this book since I was 17, and I could not empathize with a whiny rich boy, but maybe I give this another shot.
He is portrayed as being full of shit and lying about everything, and that superficial reading often colors his character. However, even in the brief glimpses of his family we see, there is clearly some trauma there. I agree with everyone who thinks that that understanding comes with time, and necessitates a reread for sure.
I think reading Franny and Zooey, as well as all the Glass family works (still waiting on that anthology), really put that hidden trauma perspective into view for me. The Glass family is shattered, if you will, and we get to see it because we spend time with each child. Holden is one person trying to tell the story of his whole family in comparison.
YES THANK YOU
People hate him for two reasons. They have no empathy or he reminds them of themselves.
I always love how some people dismiss him as a rich kid – as if his parents having money is supposed to offset their obvious neglect. He’s a kid. His parents are nowhere to be seen. There’s no one looking for him. He’s lonely and afraid growing up.
You have to be pretty materialistic to think that having money offsets all that.
I felt very sorry for Holden, but I read it as an adult, so maybe that affected how I perceived him?
The catcher in the rye is one of my favorite books of all time. I understand why people hate Holden because he is a whiny annoying kid but honestly he’s so relatable as a teenager. I was a depressed kid in high school with not so great parents and I had never felt so seen. I think I love the book because I read it as a teen – as an adult I’d be like god this kid is so annoying but as a teen I’m like yeah he’s kind of annoying but also SO REAL. I need to read it again because it’s been a while but I loved it. It’s one of the only books that was required at school that I actually read.