Blog 46

Ah, finally a question that I can answer! Why do we still read this book? What is so timeless about its message and characters? What can we learn from reading this novel?

The message or theme in the book, the Catcher in the Rye, is quite simple. It is all about growing up. The main character, Holden Caulfield, is a sixteen year old boy who is going down the wrong path in life. He has just recently been expelled from his fourth school. He is coming to a point in his life where he will be faced with some difficult times. These difficult time are actually what the theme in the book is. The theme is the difficulty of growing up, the pain it brings, and the decisions you have to make when you come to this point.

This is such a timeless message because literally every single person no matter what time period, in what country, what age, what sex, what ethnicity, every person comes to a point in their life when they face what Holden has to face, when they come to the point where they have to make the decision to grow up. People definitley deal with it differently depending on their maturity level. Some people face growing up with open arms and do not even have a second thought about what to do, as where others, like Holden Caulfield, try to prolong growing up and taking anything seriously.

Holden actually does some adult things, like drinking. They serve him so many drinks that he gets absolutely drunk (Salinger 149). It is not good for a person to do such grown up things if their maturity level does not match their actions. It is also odd that a boy this young is drinking and staying at hotels all alone. He also talks about other adult things such as sex. Holden is obviously too young to be doing any of these things especially when he is not grown up at all and has the maturity level of someone much much younger than 16.

Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown and, 1991. Print.