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Salinger’s Holden Caulfield transformed my life

My all-time favorite author changed my life in a number of ways. Here are seven aspects of those changes. What was this amazing artifact from the 1950s that still lives on in the minds of many literary fans and other sentient souls? It is THE CATCHER IN RYE, by JD Salinger, an extraordinary book. I’ll reveal how Salinger’s sensational novel spoke to me from the bottom up, as in 7 to 1:

7. On the cover of the novel that I initially read in pocket form had what seemed like an impossible promise written by the publishers. It seemed like pure hyperbole, but it would be true or false to me as a teenage reader: “This unusual book may surprise you, make you laugh, and break your heart, but you will never forget it.”

6. A book that surprises you with some of its words does not necessarily make it a “bad” book. The novel was banned in certain areas of the country for words like “trash”, etc. Second, Salinger also dealt with adolescent sexuality. Nonetheless, he wrote about the way teens talked and the issues that mattered to them.

5. Holden Caulfield, a sixteen-year-old who wanders through New York City, is the protagonist who lies, drinks, and does not do well in school. He often calls people “phonies” because they don’t live up to his standards. But we’re not sure what Holden’s standards are as we travel through his inner world. He seems very confused, in conflict and angry with life itself, but how is it possible? Upgrade to?

4. Why do teens like Holden so much if he seems to lack moral stamina? Should I be more loving and responsible? Who, as a teenager, did not break the rules and rebel to some degree? Who didn’t sometimes do exactly what our parents didn’t want us to do? Sometimes whose moods didn’t swing wildly from side to side? Whose teenage journey didn’t mirror Holden’s somehow in terms of rebellion? For more than six decades, Holden has been a troubled teenager that most teens come to empathize with and understand, especially when they turn the last page.

3. Why do we probably wish Holden an easy route to adulthood as he travels through New York City? In the hands of JD Salinger, we are immensely sympathetic to his challenges of coming of age. We are constantly supporting this tall, slim young man with a big heart. He worries about where ducks go in Central Park during the winter. He is obsessed with his little sister Phoebe, and puts her on a mental pedestal, not wanting anything bad to happen to her. He hates saying “bye”. He’s nervous about beginnings and endings. It deals better with the “means” of life.

2. Once you decide to use your sensibilities for the betterment of yourself and others, Holden will make the world a better place. Holden needs to save his pink glasses for the kids and his dream of catching the kids in a field of rye, if they fall from on high. You need to put your adult glasses on and see that there is good in the worst adults and bad in the best of us. Becoming an adult is not simply seeing the world in black and white. It is an ocean colored in shades of gray. I can imagine Holden having financial success as an adult, and then in his later years building Non-Phonies State University. (LOL?)

1. Drum roll, please: I didn’t like reading until I met Holden. Dick, sally Y Jane weren’t my friends, but I had to read them in elementary school. I didn’t even like Spot the dog. I didn’t like the words that spilled under his starched illustrations. I struggled to read well in school. (I had invisible friends who were better than me.) He could memorize the words in the story, but he couldn’t read them word for word. The most prominent technique of teaching reading at that time was “see and see strategy.” It didn’t work out well for me, a bump in my educational journey the size of Mount Everest.

What did GUARDIAN AMONG THE RYE do it for me? It made me an avid reader. I wanted to devour everything Salinger wrote, and then other authors like Salinger. I devoured all kinds of books. That classic transformed me as a reader and a student. If that hadn’t happened, I would never have graduated from university, I would never have become a teacher and then a children’s poet. And I owe it all to Holden Caulfield. Woof! The editors were right: I never forgot that book! Today I have some of the dialogue in my head like:

“… I keep imagining this big field of rye and all that. Thousands of little kids, and there’s nobody around, nobody big, I mean, except me. And I’m standing on the edge of a crazy cliff. What I have to do I have to catch everyone if they start falling off the cliff, I mean, if they’re running and not looking where they are going, I have to get out of somewhere and catch them. That’s all I want. I would do all day. I would be the rye catcher and all that. I know it’s crazy … “

I know it’s crazy, but I became a catcher of kids in the classroom. I was particularly good at comforting and inspiring lost souls not to hate school and discovering their hidden talents. I did it for thirty-three years. Thanks, Holden.

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