The Catcher in the Rye

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses suicide and anti-gay prejudice, and it uses stigmatizing terms about mental illness which are reproduced only in quotations.

“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.”

The opening passage of the book is an important tone-setter: it embodies the voice of Holden, particularly the way he uses cynicism as a defense mechanism. Even when it comes to the narrative of the book, Holden is suspicious of what society dictates should happen.

“People always think something’s all true. I don’t give a damn, except that I get bored sometimes when people tell me to act my age. Sometimes I act a lot older than I am—I really do—but people never notice it. People never notice anything.”

One of the central conflicts of the book is rooted in Holden’s perception that the people around him don’t see him. He is a deeply wounded character, coping with his brother’s death and witnessing a suicide, but he also is unable to open up to the people around him, in part because he feels burdened by their expectations. His view represents the isolation and disillusionment of contemporary adolescents.

“One of the biggest reasons I left Elkton Hills was because I was surrounded by phonies. That’s all. They were coming in the goddam window.”

Holden has a complicated relationship with the idea of authenticity: on the one hand, he disdains the people around him who he sees as phony, but on the other, he readily tells lies himself. The difference, to Holden, is that he is not interested in the social striving that occupies most of his peers’ minds. This will also be revealed to not be the only reason Holden left Elkton Hills, as that’s where he witnessed the suicide of a classmate.