J.D. Salinger: How Holden Was Heard
In its obituary for J.D. Salinger, Time magazine deemed the author “a biographer’s nightmare” (Lacayo). This was not hyperbole—Salinger was a recluse who rarely gave interviews or made public appearances. He banned his photo from appearing on dust jackets of his books and deemed publication a “terrible invasion of [his] privacy” (Lacayo). After his most famous work, The Catcher in the Rye (1951), gained national attention, the literary world scrambled for details on Salinger—details that Salinger refused to provide. The scant biographical information available, though, shows many parallels between Salinger and Holden Caulfield, the main character of Catcher. Holden is a mirror of Salinger, reflecting both the author’s life and his unique outlook on it.
Jerome David Salinger was born on New Year’s Day in 1919. Like the Caulfields, the Salingers were a wealthy family living in New York City. He also shared Holden’s feckless attitude toward education: he “flunked out of several prep schools” before finally graduating from Valley Forge Military Academy in 1936 (Telgen117). Valley Forge would later serve as a model for Holden’s “phony”-filled school, Pencey Prep. After Valley Forge, he attended three different colleges but received degrees from none (ProQuest).
From 1942 to 1946, Salinger served in the Army after being drafted. He was a member of the Fourth Infantry Division and participated in the Normandy invasion and the Battle of the Bulge. War took its toll on Salinger, though—Charles McGrath of the New York Times writes that “in 1945, [Salinger] was hospitalized for ‘battle fatigue’—often a euphemism for a breakdown.” At the end of Catcher, it’s revealed that Holden is in a mental hospital, presumably after a breakdown. While Holden’s breakdown was not caused by war, Salinger was certainly thinking of his own hospitalization when writing about Holden’s.
Holden also shares Salinger’s introverted personality. In Catcher, Holden considers working at a filling station and pretending he’s a deaf-mute. That way, “[he’d] be through with having conversations for the rest of [his] life” (Salinger 198). He thinks about building a cabin in the foods, marrying a deaf-mute girl, and hiding their children away. This fantasy is similar to how Salinger lived—in an isolated home in New Hampshire, shielded from the world.
But Holden is not the only component of Catcher. Withthat novel, Salinger was not just telling the story of Holden—he was telling the story of Holden’s generation. The Catcher in the Rye was published in 1953, when the US was consumed by the post-WWII economic boom. Consumerism was at an all-time high as people were encouraged to buy the nicest houses and the newest cars. Conformity and traditional values were stressed.
From this monochromatic landscape came Holden Caulfield, a character who saw through America’s veneer of perfection. One example of this is Holden’s opinion of Pencey Prep: “It’s full of phonies, and all you do is study so you can learn enough to be smart enough to be able to buy a goddam Cadillac some day” (Salinger 131).
His disaffection with society, though, was not welcome—as demonstrated in Catcher. Holden desperately wants someone to hear him, to listen to him, to understand his concerns. Yet nobody does. As Novels for Students explains, “People did not want to hear from the Holden Caulfields and J.D. Salingers of the era. They were in a state of blissful denial” (Telgen 125).
Their outlook on life is the major parallel between Holden and Salinger. Their biographies share details, but in the end, the similarities are in their personalities. Both were, in the words of Novels for Students, “withdrawn from society enough to see it from a different perspective” (Telgen125). By creating Holden—a character much like himself—Salinger created a vehicle for his message: that the perfect American society was really a breeding ground for “phonies.”
But unlike Holden, Salinger was heard—and the things he said changed society. Even though he died in 2009, and even though Catcher was published nearly sixty years ago, Salinger’s words still resonate with readers. Salinger may not have liked the public eye, but his—and Holden’s—words will continue to keep him in the spotlight.
Works Cited
Lacayo, Richard. “Escape Artist: A New Biography of J.D. Salinger.” Time. 21 Feb 2011. Web.
McGrath, Charles. “J.D. Salinger, Literary Recluse, Dies at 91.” The New York Times. 28 Jan 2010. Web.
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little Brown, 1951. Print.
“Salinger, J.D.” Proquest Biographies. Proquest, 2006. Web. 15 Apr 2012.
Telgen, Diane, ed. Novels for Students: Volume One. Detroit: Gale, 1997. Print.
Jerome David Salinger was born on New Year’s Day in 1919. Like the Caulfields, the Salingers were a wealthy family living in New York City. He also shared Holden’s feckless attitude toward education: he “flunked out of several prep schools” before finally graduating from Valley Forge Military Academy in 1936 (Telgen117). Valley Forge would later serve as a model for Holden’s “phony”-filled school, Pencey Prep. After Valley Forge, he attended three different colleges but received degrees from none (ProQuest).
From 1942 to 1946, Salinger served in the Army after being drafted. He was a member of the Fourth Infantry Division and participated in the Normandy invasion and the Battle of the Bulge. War took its toll on Salinger, though—Charles McGrath of the New York Times writes that “in 1945, [Salinger] was hospitalized for ‘battle fatigue’—often a euphemism for a breakdown.” At the end of Catcher, it’s revealed that Holden is in a mental hospital, presumably after a breakdown. While Holden’s breakdown was not caused by war, Salinger was certainly thinking of his own hospitalization when writing about Holden’s.
Holden also shares Salinger’s introverted personality. In Catcher, Holden considers working at a filling station and pretending he’s a deaf-mute. That way, “[he’d] be through with having conversations for the rest of [his] life” (Salinger 198). He thinks about building a cabin in the foods, marrying a deaf-mute girl, and hiding their children away. This fantasy is similar to how Salinger lived—in an isolated home in New Hampshire, shielded from the world.
But Holden is not the only component of Catcher. Withthat novel, Salinger was not just telling the story of Holden—he was telling the story of Holden’s generation. The Catcher in the Rye was published in 1953, when the US was consumed by the post-WWII economic boom. Consumerism was at an all-time high as people were encouraged to buy the nicest houses and the newest cars. Conformity and traditional values were stressed.
From this monochromatic landscape came Holden Caulfield, a character who saw through America’s veneer of perfection. One example of this is Holden’s opinion of Pencey Prep: “It’s full of phonies, and all you do is study so you can learn enough to be smart enough to be able to buy a goddam Cadillac some day” (Salinger 131).
His disaffection with society, though, was not welcome—as demonstrated in Catcher. Holden desperately wants someone to hear him, to listen to him, to understand his concerns. Yet nobody does. As Novels for Students explains, “People did not want to hear from the Holden Caulfields and J.D. Salingers of the era. They were in a state of blissful denial” (Telgen 125).
Their outlook on life is the major parallel between Holden and Salinger. Their biographies share details, but in the end, the similarities are in their personalities. Both were, in the words of Novels for Students, “withdrawn from society enough to see it from a different perspective” (Telgen125). By creating Holden—a character much like himself—Salinger created a vehicle for his message: that the perfect American society was really a breeding ground for “phonies.”
But unlike Holden, Salinger was heard—and the things he said changed society. Even though he died in 2009, and even though Catcher was published nearly sixty years ago, Salinger’s words still resonate with readers. Salinger may not have liked the public eye, but his—and Holden’s—words will continue to keep him in the spotlight.
Works Cited
Lacayo, Richard. “Escape Artist: A New Biography of J.D. Salinger.” Time. 21 Feb 2011. Web.
McGrath, Charles. “J.D. Salinger, Literary Recluse, Dies at 91.” The New York Times. 28 Jan 2010. Web.
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little Brown, 1951. Print.
“Salinger, J.D.” Proquest Biographies. Proquest, 2006. Web. 15 Apr 2012.
Telgen, Diane, ed. Novels for Students: Volume One. Detroit: Gale, 1997. Print.