Point of peace blog

What an awful book. Written in 1951, this book originally sparked great controversy with its mature themes focusing on the teenage angst, loneliness and rebellion of the protagonist Holden Caulfield. I guess its like a really bad version of James Dean’s classic Rebel Without a Cause. Caulfield is the archetype of an underachiever. Today kids are reading about the latest sluggard – Greg Heffley from The Diary of a Wimpy Kid. The characters Greg and Holden have a lot in common.

Catcher in the Rye follows the life of Holden Caulfield for a few days after being expelled from Pencey prep school as he returns home to New York City and contemplates life. Although, Caulfield does little contemplation and spends most of his time whining and complaining about everyone and everything. He sees the negative in everything (except his little sister) and makes one bad and offensive decision after another for almost 300 pages of misery. The only value I can find in reading this book today is to use Holden Caulfield as an example of what NOT to be – lazy, negative, and uninspired. Unfortunately the latest version of Holden Caulfield appears to be as popular with readers today as Catcher in the Rye was fifty years ago. When are we going to wake up and stop celebrating negative characters like Holden and Greg?
History of the Americas

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