Bleak Lighthouses

Tutorial: How to be phony! 

I was sixteen years old the first time I read Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye. My teacher at that time, told us it was a book many teenagers could relate to, since it represented a boy who was about our age.

 The truth is, I read the book, but I barely remember how I felt or what I thought about it. I just remember to think “I did not like the book, because this boy hates everything and everyone”.

I believe that, maybe, the teacher was trying to send us a message, an S.O.S call; and he was trying to tell us “look around, look at you. Is this person you are becoming into the person you really want to be?” However, I must acknowledge I definitely did not get any message.

Now, almost ten years from that, meeting Holden Caulfield turned out to be a fantastic introspective experience, since the book takes us into a deep journey of self-understanding made by the protagonist. The way the story is told, in first person, allowed me to believe that it was me performing the book. I even laughed when I read comments in which I agreed with the protagonist. As himself said, books must be funny once in a while. Although the protagonist seemed to be constantly irritated (by everything), he narrated the scenes in an ironic and sarcastic way that ended up being funny.

Holden’s perspective of the world agrees with the way he expresses about it. His vocabulary is simple and not elaborated because he does not see anything elaborated around him. Nothing inspires or stimulates him, so his speech is as simple as the world he sees around him.

The ways in which he builds relationships with people also represent a lack of passion. It seems like he has lost all kind of feelings and emotions, so he can only have superficial relationships. This superficiality is not only related to people, but also to himself. He is not concerned about his future, he seems to have no ambition. At least not the kind of ambition his parents and teachers wish he had.

I believe that Holden’s conflict is not just world he lives in, he also hated himself for being part of it. He felt uncomfortable in a selfish and phony world. But, at the same time, if the world would not be as it is, he would not have had the opportunity to be himself, to criticize. So he finds himself in a struggle with his emotions (or lack of them) and his desire of criticizing the society.

In the end, he realizes that the enemy is not just the society, but also himself. And, this constant conflict in his mind led him to a constant contradiction.

I would like to emphasize in the fact that Caulfield admitted that he hated movies because he considered that they were represented by phony actors. But not only the actors, he hated the act of going to the movies, waiting in a line to buy the tickets and seats. I believe that he thought that films do not allow people to think, to imagine, to criticize. I guess that is the reason why the author never sold the rights of the book to make a movie.You just to see the film and they show you everything, you do not need to imagine the landscapes, the faces of the characters, not even their voices. Probably, that is the reason why he preferred books. Because that was challenging for his mind, and though he may say he was a moron, deep inside he knew he was smarter than all the fake people around him. However, he would not admit this. As himself said, as long as you say you are good at something, you stop being good at it.

To sum up, I can say I realized that the author (in 1951!) is warning us that we live in a world that tries to unify us. Now I got the message my teacher wanted me to get, almost ten years later.

Some people like Holden rebel against what has been imposed and aims to be different, to be transcendent and important. So, as long as you can, question, criticize and argue everything.

I would like to leave you with a song that came to my mind while reading the book. I would say it is a contemporary anthem for those who constantly face themselves with the same contradictions as Holden  along the book. In the video the band is attacked by a group of men who wear suits that are similar to the ones used by our national police to suppress demonstrators at public marches.

The pretenders. Foo Fighters.

The boys in the video confront their repressors, although with fear, just as many youngsters (and others not so young) confront their own contradictions about life, love, ambition, money, relationships, school, family, etc.

Regards,

Valentina

.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBjQ9tuuTJQ