Holden Caulfield: A Rebel, a Phony, or Just a Kid?
Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
Picture this: I’m in my worn-down armchair. The smell of old books hangs in the air. I’m not one for re-reads, mind you. But my son was struggling through "The Catcher in the Rye" for school, and something got into me. Maybe it was the way he slumped low, brow furrowed, that same glazed look in his eyes I’d seen in the mirror back in high school.
"Hey, kid," I called out. "You stuck?"
He grunted, didn’t even look up.
"That Salinger book giving you trouble? Let me take a look."
He slid the book toward me, skepticism etched on his face.
"Dad, don’t even try. It’s weird. Holden’s, like, nuts or something."
I flipped through the dog-eared pages, and sure enough, there he was – Holden Caulfield. Achingly familiar, a ghost from my own teenage years.
Holden Caulfield: A Rebel, a Phony, or Just a Kid?
Holden gets kicked out of school (again). He wanders New York, chain-smoking, stewing in teenage angst, calling everyone he meets a phony. I saw myself in Holden, all those years ago. The anger crackling underneath the surface, the certainty that the whole world was fake…
