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holdin me tight...

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I want to tell you about this kid

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I met one time his name was Holden Caulfield and apparently he was the star [Holden standing in a street]

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of some book calledCatcher in the Rye by JD Salinger in a nutshell the story goes

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like so Holden's being kicked out of his fancy-schmancy prep school cuz he's [Teacher orders Holden out of the classroom]

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failing all his classes except English instead of going home he heads to the

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Big Apple for a few days of trying to drink, failing since he's underage

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trying to get into it with someone and failing since he's not experienced when [Person punches Holden in the face]

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it comes to sex trying not to fall in with what he calls phonies Holden's word

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for people he finds to be snobby or fake or try and act more mature and grownup

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than they really are and failing in that too also essentially

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all grown-ups are phonies and that's just a fact [Holden standing in a line with people]

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according to Holden in fact the only people who Holden doesn't think are

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phonies are his sister Phoebe aka the greatest human being on earth and his

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brother Allie who sadly got leukemia and died so really there's only one non

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phony left and it's Holden's kid sister after striking out in the sex, drinking,

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and making friends departments in NYC Holden goes to hang out with Phoebe who [Phoebe and Holden hanging out at a fairground]

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convinces him not to run away from home at the end of the story we find out

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Holden's now in treatment for some sort of breakdown that might or might not

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have had to do with sex or being molested when he was a young boy by a

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former teacher or both I'm not trying to be intentionally vague here it's just [Woman discussing holden's life]

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the way the story goes and that's pretty much it this book was published in 1951

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and caused major waves on the literary scene seems that people in the 50s

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weren't too cool with a foul-mouthed teenager drop out running around New [Man reading Catcher in the Rye book]

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York City by himself trying to get drunk and lucky

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the book was banned from many libraries and schools still here we are some 60

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plus years later still talking about this book

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why? largely it's because of Holden Caulfield he's one of the most

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talked-about characters in literary history which if you asked him would

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likely place him square into that phony category that he loves to put others [Holden holding a phony checklist]

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into so why do we love talking about and examining the fictional life of young

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Mr. Caulfield there are a number of reasons one of them is because of the

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way Holden talks it's so distinctive and yet still relatable that advanced

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literature students have written entire doctoral dissertations on the subject

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Salinger chose to write Catcher using first-person narration so we see [First person narrator definition appears]

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everything in the world through Holden's phony hatin eyes and mouth because of

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this we have to remember that holdings an unreliable narrator we're only

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getting this story from one perspective so we have to question everything we're

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told consider this passage from chapter 2 when Holden's actually reflecting on

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the way he speaks and looks.....[mumbling]

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right here we get a glimpse of how Holden talks and

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thinks about things can we believe him? maybe maybe not [Woman looking at Holden through bincoulars]

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he's actually fairly self-aware on some levels like identifying his own speech

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patterns and how it's weird that a teenager has gray hair but in other ways

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Holden can't be trusted and is a hopelessly clueless most notably [Holden walking in the rain]

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Holden's lost when it comes to women and sex we get the gist of his awkwardness

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early in the book when Holden's roommate, Stradlater takes out a girl

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who Holden's had a crush on for ages after the date Holden can't stop

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thinking about it...[mumbles]

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The way Holden obsesses over the date might indicate that he's [Holden obsessing in his bedroom]

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grossed out by Stradlater snows the girls he's out with but it's also an

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indication of how very uncomfortable the whole idea of sex makes him later in the

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story when Holden's in New York he tries to hook up with a prostitute and it [Holden approaches prostitute on street]

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doesn't go so well...... we already know the situation is headed for a disaster and

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it is..... it's clear that there will be no sexy time for Holden it's too sad and

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it's clear that there will be no sexy time for Holden it's too sad and

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dramatic he's got a load of respect for women [Holden hiding under bed sheets]

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but he's also sort of terrified by them which probably isn't unlike a lot of

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teenage boys just saying Holden Caulfield is relatable to teens whether

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we want to admit it or not he's moody sullen and uncertain about the future

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and what to do with his life these are universal themes or big ideas that

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pretty much anyone can relate to at least on some level don't get me wrong I

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love teenagers but when you're in high school things aren't so easy as I'm sure

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you know there are classes and teachers to deal with, pimples, weird hair growth making

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things difficult and don't even get me started on how tough teenage crushes can [Teenagers with hands over their faces]

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be not only does Holden embody all of these tricky teenage troubles he's very

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candid about discussing them which brings me to another reason why we just

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love talking about Holden Caulfield there's something in the way he talks [Woman draws love heart on Holden's face]

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the whole tone of Catcher is set by Holden since he's the one telling the

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story to the audience remember that whole and reliable

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narrator thing Salinger created Holden's speech to make him sound a certain way

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like an untrustworthy confused yet sort of self-aware teenage boy he uses a load

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of slang and colloquialisms to make Holden sound this way like in chapter 10

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when he's struggling to make conversation with the woman he's dancing

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with..... it's immaterial to me she said hey how old are you anyhow? that annoyed

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me for some reason oh Christ don't spoil it

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I said I'm 12 for Christ's sake I'm big for my age

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Holden admits he has a foul mouth at times and this is an example, and like

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most teenagers he wants to appear older than he really is even though this sort

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of thinking makes him phony by his own definition...Ah, Holden so much contradiction

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so little boy the conversation snippet we just saw demonstrates another [Woman and man driving in car]

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relatable facet of Holden Caulfield his obsession with innocence and youth as I

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told you earlier Holden's younger siblings Phoebe and Allie are the only

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ones he doesn't consider to be phonies and the peculiar title of this book [Man reading book by the fire]

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Catcher in the Rye actually has to do with the theme of youth as well

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Holden over here is a little boy singing if a body catch body coming through the

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rye, which makes him happy for a minute because he loves little kids so much and [Holden carrying a young boy]

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he decides that the song is all about children running carefree in a field of

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rye sounds lovely later Phoebe tells Holden that this is a

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line from the poem that actually goes if a body meet a body and the poem isn't

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about little kids at all it's essentially asking the reader to

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consider the question of whether or not casual sex is cool and should be

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forbidden hmm see any connections to Holden and his struggles with his own [Holden using rope to grapple sexuality]

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sexuality here he can't get into casual sex because it makes him feel icky and

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he can't get crumbly his word for sexual with a lady that he respects it's a

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catch-22 and one of the many reasons that Holden Caufield love him or hate

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him is a super interesting character and that's Holden's story I don't know what

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he might be up to these days since he actually did really well in English [English Essay lands on Holden's desk marked A+]

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class perhaps he decided to write books or maybe he finally found true love in

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this day and age he could hide behind his cell phone and swipe away without

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ever having to meet a single phony in real life [Woman on her phone while man sleeps]

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