Has ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ lost its importance?

In high schools all over America, J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is a staple of course reading for many English lit classes. Along with those other American classics like The Great Gatsby, Of Mice and Men, and The Old Man and the Sea, The Catcher in the Rye is among that prestigious company of books that nearly every teenager inevitably ends up having to buy cliff notes to write an essay on.

As an alumnus of the Los Angeles Unified School District, I can vividly recall reading the tale of Holden and his down and out weekend in New York City for a tenth grade English class. It was a tale, we were taught, that articulated the disaffected adolescent angst that preyed upon us all. It was, the classic reading goes, the definitive story of the departure from childhood and the abrupt entry into the weird and disillusioning world of adults.    

However, after all these years what I remember most vividly about Catcher in the Rye is how much I disliked the book, and Holden in particular! My enthusiasm for Mr. Holden Caulfield wasn’t exactly helped by the fact that a few  people in my dorms gave me the nickname ‘Holden’ when I showed up as a freshman at UC Santa Cruz with dyed black hair, tattered jeans and a misfits t-shirt. Presumably this was on account of our common air of disaffected-ness. Luckily the name didn’t stick.   

In the last few weeks the Catcher in the Rye sequel story that has been doing the rounds in the book news has got me thinking a lot about my dislike of the book that everyone else seems to love.  In the latest twist, last week a federal judge temporarily barred the US publication of the work by the Swedish novelist, who calls himself J.D. California, thus depriving US readers of the adventures of an elderly Holden and a drug addled Phoebe. Unless, of course, they turn to piracy to secure a digital copy of the book – a Holdenesque gesture perhaps?  

But this isn’t the story that motivated me to write a blog about Catcher in the Rye. Rather, it is this recent article in the New York Times that chronicles the gradual rejection of Holden by High School students. According to interviews with teens and teachers, today’s generation of young people are finding it increasingly difficult to relate to Holden’s angsty dithering. Finally, some people who agree with me! According to the article,

“Teachers say young readers just don’t like Holden as much as they used to. What once seemed like courageous truth-telling now strikes many of them as “weird,” “whiny” and “immature.””

It seems that many of today’s kids “do not have much sympathy for alienated antiheroes” and “can’t really feel bad for this rich kid with a weekend free in New York City.” One student told the NY Times reporter, “we all hated Holden in my class”.

The article takes the view that these shifting attitudes can be explained by transforming cultural values and social contexts — and I am tempted to agree. The alienated perspective of Holden is much less appealing — let alone relevant — to students growing up in today’s world than it was to the generation of the 60s.

So, has The Catcher in the Rye expired as a meaningful book in our culture? Can a book expire as easily as a carton of milk? Whereas books by Fitzgerald and Hemingway continue to resonate with readers around the globe, perhaps J.D. Salinger’s iconic book is fading in importance because it was tied so closely to a time and a place where people expressed attitudes and held beliefs that don’t really exist in a relevant way anymore. It is perhaps, set in a world that has disappeared.