The Post War's Affect On The Teenage Mind

I think that I have some sort of mental block with the phrase "classic novels". Reading deeper is something I cannot do with books labeled "classic". I have always had this weird trouble with classic books. Like in the fourth grade, when I picked up The Hobbit. It was slow at first and I thought, 'it must get better, it must! Its a classic after all.' I ended up reading it, just to say I read it. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed it but it was hard for me to enjoy it. But reading The Catcher In The Rye is nothing like that at all. I wasn't slaving away, forcing myself to read a dusty, boring old book. I found The Catcher In The Rye (by J.D.Salinger) to be like a movie in my hands and on paper. The setting, year 1945 in New York, is like a crisp black and white movie where everyone said words like "grand" and "swell". But the story is being narrated by a teenage boy, who's mind wanders and rants. Soon, I came to realize that Holden Caulfield is a social outcast(who is looked up to by some very famous serial killers... but that's another blog post).

"Everybody was on their way to the movies-The Paramount or The Astor or The Strand or The Capitol or one of those crazy places. Everybody was all dressed up, because it was Sunday, and that makes it worse. But the worst part was that you could tell that they all wanted to go to the movies. I couldn't stand looking at them."



That is a snippet (pg.150) of one of Holden's thoughts. This quote describes his world. He sees a world of religious, media-obsessed uniform families. He is so impacted by his surroundings. America at this time was just finishing with the war, and the general public was afraid of change. So there and then the American dream became unofficially defined as a white picket fence family. Typically a family of four; a housewife/mother figure, a successful working father, a daughter and a son. This family probably owns a house (with a white picket fence) and goes to church on Sunday. It seems that living in this world has affected his thinking patterns. I wondered would Holden be such an outcast if he lived in a less formatted world?

Holden often refers to "everybody", which makes me think that he feels like the media is forcing him to act and think a certain way. So he acts against it. There is a defined line between Holden and the world around him. And in his mind, you are either a part of "everybody" or you are Holden.

I think that no one is what they seem and everybody thinks differently then expected. And everyone changes depending on who is with you at a specific moment in time. So he probably would be slightly different if he lived in this less formatted world. He would probably be less alone. But no matter what, I think that Holden is destined to be an outcast.

Growing up is all about having your emotions distraught. It is about the uncertainty of finding yourself. And Holden finds himself not being what is expected of him, and has a hard time living up to expectations. He feels alone, which is a common feeling during the coming of age period of life. Holden is such a real person, and I totally love him.