Canon notes that when Salinger's Catcher in the Rye was being reviewed - reviewers were hesitant to place the novel in one specific genre. The book was noted as funny or sad or comedy or tragicomedy or satire. If anything, the book was just placed in a class of Twain or Hemmingway rather than being something of its own. If anything, this is a perfect description of Holden Caulfield. He just doesn't quite fit anywhere even though he's been bred to fit perfectly to live in a certain manner. If you did try to put Catcher into some category that it truly isn't - Holden would flat out call it phony.
In Canon it is quoted that "Holden becomes more and more a case history of us all." Frankly, I couldn't agree more. I don't think that I belong in just one genre - and Holden certainly doesn't. His beliefs vary from extreme to extreme... with the most consistent part being that he sticks to his guns. I think that while Holden is just perceived as young, wild, and rash he understands more of the world than I did at 17. Unfortunately, there is a lot of phony out there whether we like it or not. And while Holden lets phony drive him mad and infuriate him - I almost want to say "more power to him" while the rest of us just put up with it or fall into it. Holden was written into an interesting time period - a time where there was in fact a lot of phony and deceit and fear filled the lives of many. I don't think that Holden would be so thrilled with the 21st century either. He would most likely assess that all of the technology with which we surround ourselves is phony and that we're shutting ourselves off to something real. Holden's ultimate desire to rid himself of all things phony inevitably continued to drive him crazy but he raises an interesting question - why settle? If there's something better (or at least hopefully) out there why not try to pursue it?
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