I’m a Catcher In The Rye Apologist

It's not a question of being profound or better than the phonies. It's just asking you to have some empathy

I’ve been asking my friends about their favorite books from their school days and reading them for the first time. I just finished Catcher In The Rye and I owe the book’s fans an apology.

Not only do I love it, but the memes about what’s “wrong” with the book are the parts I find the most compelling. The main thing folks take issue with is Holden himself. Before I began I wholly expected Holden to be an insufferable, pretentious, and hypocritical phony because that is what I had heard. But it wasn’t what I found.

I really love Holden’s characterization. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a character go through a manic episode and breakdown in a way that feels so natural and unforced. I also enjoy watching the story subtly get wrapped around his worldview. Seeing Holden strike out with some girls from Seattle, then decide he really didn’t like them anyway and was doing them a favor by hitting on them has to be one of my favorite examples of unreliable narration in recent memory. When he first meets them, they’re alluring and practically exotic older women from the opposing coast. But once it becomes clear they aren’t interested, they morph into dumpy and brash tourists. One begins to wonder why Holden even bothered.

I do admit that Holden can be annoying at times. Not only is this clearly intentional, I think it’s undoubtedly a good thing. Holden is still a kid and is struggling to articulate and control complicated feelings. That’s what makes the inciting moments with Stradlater work for me. Not because Holden is on some “nice guys finish last” rant, but because it’s something we’ve all been through when we were young.

Holden feels possessive over someone he has no right to be. And he knows this so he tries to rationalize it away, to aim it in a direction that makes sense. Holden never dated Jane and certainly isn’t dating her now. But that doesn’t do anything to stop the pang in his chest when he learns Stradlater will be going out with her. He decides that his feelings stem from genuine concern. He says Stradlater doesn’t care about her as a person. Even if he notices that she keeps her kings close to her chest when playing checkers, he won’t care. He just sees her as a thing to be used up. Maybe Holden is even right. But that’s not the point. The point is that Holden feels guilty for feeling this way at all. So much so that he can’t really tell if his feelings are rooted in concern for Jane, or if that’s just an excuse that gives him permission to feel. Every time we see a contradiction in Holden it isn’t a flaw with the book. It’s just a look at a young man for what all young men really are.

It’s so hard not to empathize with Holden. He’s dealing with a lot. Holden has lost his younger brother, lost his older brother in a different way, and may be reeling from sexual abuse, all without any emotional support. Holden does seem to lash out at everyone and be completely detached. But I’ve felt the desire to cut and run over a lot less.

For that reason, I find it difficult to understand the perspective of those who criticize this book. It seems like the people who find Holden self-absorbed and phony miss all the important subtext and underlying humanity. It’s like a weird circular game of pots calling kettles black.

If you were sitting in junior year English class thinking Holden was a hypocrite and the real phony, I bet you had a whole lot more in common with him than you’d like to admit. If you went back to the book today, I hope you’d see a mirror. Even if you can’t relate to being an angsty teen like Holden anymore. I just don’t see how you can’t feel for him. I can’t help but see Catcher as anything other than a compelling depiction of a scared kid and a cathartic read.