A book about yourself

            The Catcher in the Rye is one of those novels that, despite having been written 50 years ago, the truth and the message at the book's core is as relevant today as it was 50 years ago. Furthermore, we could say that this book is as alive as we are, because it grows, it adapts, it changes. Each time we read JD Salinger's novel, we read a different version: The words are the same, the wording is the same, the little amount of action is still the same, our protagonist is still the same, and yet, it feels as a completely different experience.

            But, why is it so? Why does the book changes so much? I believe that the topic of the book, and some literary magic, make it change through the years and the readings. What is the book about, then? The book is, and I am not kidding, about change. Yes, about change. A change of lifestyle, a change in physiology, and a change of identity, the book tackles the change of Holden Caulfield, as he moves from childhood to adulthood.

            Holden Caulfield starts the novel as a kid, who has been recently expelled from his school for performing poorly in his tests, and must now return to his home. This first scene in the book is in itself a huge change for Holden, and in a way, it means a great change in us too. He has been expelled from high school, the place where he has lived the last four years of his life, what means he will have to face the world he lives in, not as a student anymore, but as dropout, or, if we go deeper into the allegory, as an adult. While taking the train to New York, he decides he will not go directly to his house, but that he would stay in a hotel in New York.

            There at the hotel, that works as a midway stop in the trip from childhood to adulthood, that Holden himself delays by not going home, he faces many questions, about his body, about society, about life, and some answers that make him wish he could stop time, and stay forever frozen, like the artefacts in the museum he later visits, or to quit society, and go live in the west, apart from all the fake people and their fake lifestyle.

            In the end, Holden accepts the fact that time won't stop for him, and ends up warning us that, when you start telling a story, you start missing those people who shared it with you.

            Back to our question, why is it that this book changes with us? And now I can give a less vague answer: This book changes because the things that Holden lived, that Holden did, and all the realizations he came to, they are all related to us in some ways, or, to put it in other words, we all find ourselves in those situations at some points in our lives.

            The characters and the situations in the book are situations and character that we face in our lives, archetypes that transcend time, and that everyone can relate to. We all question our sexuality, our ideals, we all want at some point stop time, get off of this thing call life. We are all at some point thrown into adulthood, just as Holden was kicked off his school: We all feel what he felt, because that's how we build our identities, and the book, above all, deals with how identity changes, how it evolves.

            And that's the thing with identity, we can revisit who we are and how we came to be, and analyse what we did or didn't with other eyes, from different places, just as we analyse Holden's actions with different eyes each time we read the novel. That is why each reading of the book becomes a unique experience, because we ourselves change over time, and we can take what is written on the book and adapt it to the situation we are living, to the time we are living, to the experiences that we've had.

            In the end, The Catcher in the Rye changes because we change, which makes the book as immortal as it is, as relevant as it is, and as good as it is: A book that is a alive as a human being, and that will live to change the lives of thousands of human beings, helping them to find answers to the problem that identity brings on all of us.

            Before ending this post, I would like to say something that I had no time to tell here, but it is worth thinking it over: When you read this book, you are not only reading the book, you are reading yourself.