Mark Barton 12TT 8TH September 2003
Catcher In The Rye
When the Catcher In The Rye was first published it became steeped in an overwhelming amount of controversy and was consequently banned in America after it's first publication. John Lennon's assassin, Mark Chapman, asked the former Beatle to sign a copy of the book earlier in the morning of the day that he murdered Lennon. Police found the book in his possession upon apprehending the psychologically disturbed Chapman. However, the book itself contains nothing that could be associated with leading Chapman to act as he did, it could have been any book that he was reading the day he decided to kill John Lennon, and as a result of the fact that it was The Catcher in the Rye, a book describing a nervous breakdown, the media picked up on the “connection”. This gave the book even more intrigue, as in the world we live in, any bad news is good news, and unfortunately The Catcher In The Rye was associated with this bad news, and was unfortunately banned, but re-released seven years after the incident in 1958.
The book describes the story of Holden Caulfield, a teenager growing up in 1950s New York, who has been expelled from his “prep” school for poor achievement once again. Holden has been expelled from many schools previously as a result of his poor achievement, which is a possible reason for his decision to turn against the world as it had done to him. In an attempt to deal with this he leaves school four days prior to the end of term, and goes to New York to 'take a vacation' before returning to his parents' inevitable displeasure at his expulsion! Narrated as a monologue, the book describes Holden's thoughts and activities over these few days, during which he describes a developing nervous breakdown, which he does not recognise himself, bought about by his feelings of unexplained depression, impulsive spending and generally odd behaviour, before his downfall the lowest point of the novel, when Holden’s feelings of mis-direction overwhelm him into a state of nerves so high he collapses. However, during his battle with himself, life continues on around Holden as it always had, with the majority of people ignoring the 'madman stuff' that is happening to him - until his ‘madman stuff’ takes Holden right off the rails of the American’s social expectations, and therefore his breakdown is noticed.
