Catcher In The Rye

It all made sense when I watched the season 14 episode 2 of South Park: The Tale of Scrotie Mcboogerballs. I can’t even explain what South Park means to me and Vanilla but let me tell you this, it was AHA moment.

This book, let me tell you about this book. It started with me searching for something to read. I usually go to Bol.com that’s a online bookstore like Amazon and I go through all the booklists and also what bol.com recommends me to read. When to my surprise I stumbled upon on this little orange illustrated book. With the title : Catcher In The Rye. I thought that I have seen or heard about this book somewhere but it never caught my attention. The book is considered a classic and I love reading classics, so I bought the book. Eventually it just lay on my bookshelf.  I Did not read it, even forgot that I had the book. But time had passed and there were new leaves on the trees and I had nothing to read anymore. I decided to go through my bookcase and bookshelf’s and found this orange illustrated book again. “hmm” I said to myself. The book wasn’t really thick so I thought why not read it.

After reading a couple of pages it did not really awoke a big interest to read more. So eventually I lay down the book and forgot about it.

My cousin and I went to this half pipe were I was waiting on my friend to hang out. And while my cousin was skating and entertaining himself  I on the other hand was sitting on a bench. And while waiting I saw two familiar faces coming my way. With one of them greeting me “faka, Tais” It was Frances with Alexander,  I used to go to high school with them. I was like “Hi guys, long no see.”  “How’re you guys doing?”. We broke upon a conversation and I was surprisingly enjoying it, not because I did not like them or anything but just because back at school I didn’t really hang out with them. But looking back it was one of the most surprisingly pleasant conversations about books I ever had.

Frances went on skating with my cousin and I was talking books with Alexander. We went on talking about my favorite Russian literature writers Tolstoy and  Dostoyevsky. I think just then I realized what judging a book by its cover was. Anyways he was telling me about this classic book that he had read about some teen that was hating pretty much everything and everyone and he basically wrote a book about nothing. And how it was the first book written by a teen. He said “it’s called Catcher in the rye, do you know it?” I was like “hmmm… yeah it rings a bell.”   He went on about it a little more and then we started to talk about other books..

Later in that year I realized that I hadn’t read anything of lately. I figured then that reading a book had to be a must in my daily life. I started reading in the subway which I ride almost every day. Upon choosing the next book that I was going to read I realized that I had a book that I started reading but never finished. “Here we are again” I said to myself. I picked up the Catcher In The Rye and started reading it.

And this time I finished it. First of all firsts I have to say. This book made me SOOO DEPRESSED. No kidding, in some way it influenced me and I started to look at people in a negative way. Like most people where phonies. When I was reading the book I was trying to figure out what the point was and what this book was about. Because all I read was about how he was kicked out of school for bad grades and how she spend a couples of days in New York and how he experienced it and felt about the people. I guess this book is about the complex issues that you can have as a teen in identity, connecting with people, belonging and alienation.

But at the time I couldn’t figure out why it influenced me so much..  maybe because I have my own demons to fight or something.

Anyways I was watching Southpark and it was about the book Catcher In The Rye. And they mentioned that the man who murdered John Lennon was inspired by this book to kill John Lennon. That was my AHA moment. I remember watching Chapter 27 and remember that the murderer did it because of a book and that the book was his statement in some kind of twisted way. I was like OMG was that that book. Later on I also read that a copy of the book was found in the hotel room of John Hinckley the man who assassinated president Reagan 4 months after John Lennon’s death. No wonder that this book made me feel depressed when I was reading it.

But I guess in so eagerly finding the meaning of this book I missed what the character Holden was telling us. How he admires in children the attributes that he struggles to find in adults for example innocence, kindness and generosity. I guess falling off the cliff would be a step in to the adult world that he so strongly criticizes.

Quote:

“Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around — nobody big, I mean — except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff — I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be. I know it's crazy.”

-          Catcher In The Rye

Well if you have read through this post than my friend I thank you for your time. I was just so eager to tell you my thoughts about this book. I am curious do you like reading?

And have you read the Cather In The Rye? If so what are your thoughts about this book?

Love,

Chocolate