The passage of adolescence has served as the central theme for many novels, but J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, long a staple in academic lesson plans, has captured the spirit of this stage of life in hyper-sensitive form, dramatizing Holden Caulfield’s vulgar language and melodramatic reactions. Written as the autobiographical account of a fictional teenage prep school student Holden Caulfield, The Catcher in the Rye deals with material that is socially scandalous for the times (Gwynn, 1958).
As an emotional, intelligent, inquisitive, and painfully sensitive young man, Holden puts his inner world to the test through the sexual mores of his peers and elders, the teachings of his education, and his own emerging sense of self. Throughout the years, the language of the story has startled some readers. Salinger’s control of Holden’s easy, conversational manner makes the introduction of these larger themes appear natural and believable. (Bloom, 1990). At the time of the novel through today, Holden’s speech rings true to the colloquial speech of teenagers.
Holden, according to many reviews in the Chicago Tribune, the New Yorker, and the New York Times, accurately captures the informal speech of an average intelligent, educated, northeastern American adolescent (Costello, 1990). Such speech includes both simple description and cursing. For example, Holden says, “They’re nice and all”, as well as “I’m not going to tell you my whole goddam autobiography or anything. ” In the first instance, he uses the term “nice” which oversimplifies his parents’ character, implying he does not wish to disrespect them, yet at the same time he does not praise them. At best he deems them as “nice and all.
Holden further cuts short his description, but in a more curt manner, when he states he will not tell his “whole goddam autobiography or anything. ” From the start the reader picks up Holden’s hostility and unwillingness to share his views strictly by his use of language (Salzman, 1991). From the last two examples, another colloquialism can be seen. Holden has a habit of ending his descriptions with tag phrases such as “and all” or “or anything. ” (Salzman, 1991). Not only does Holden speak like this in the beginning of the novel, but throughout the book, making this pattern a part of his character.
One could imagine Holden frequently ending his sentences with “and all,” realizing it is a character trait since not all teenagers used that phrase. So the “and all” tag to Holden’s speech served to make his speech authentic and individual. (Salzman, 1991). Salinger intentionally used such speech patterns to help individualize Holden, yet to also make him a believable teenager of the early 1950’s. Another example of how Holden’s speech helped define his character is how he constantly had to confirm any affirmation he made, as if even he did not quite believe himself.
Such reconfirmations include phrases such as “…if you want to know the truth,” or “…it really does. ” Holden says the first phrase several times. “I have no wind, if you want to know the truth,” “I’m pacifist, if you want to know the truth,” and a variation: “She had a lot of sex appeal, too, if you really want to know. ” In each of the above instances, Holden makes a statement then feels compelled to clarify that is he is not making it up but is, in fact, telling the truth. These mannerisms may point to several aspects of his character.
For example, Holden is on the verge of failing out of preparatory school and fears telling his parents. Because he did not do well in school, Holden may have felt as though no one ever took him seriously and realized his actions left him with no solid academic standing. Since Holden is essentially a failure at school with no serious friendships, he attempts to solidify some communication in asking for approval by stating “if you want to know the truth. ” Holden wants people to believe him so he speeks to seek approval (Costello, 1990).
Again, Salinger creates this speech pattern as believable for a common teenager, yet it also seems to belong individually to Holden. The Catcher in the Rye gained much of its notoriety for the language used in it, particularly the crude words (Gwynn, 1958). Like most colloquial uses of body parts, accidents of birth, or religious connotations, Holden does not strictly make use of words in reference to their original meaning. The word “hell” is a staple of Holden’s vocabulary, and he uses it often with both positive and negative connotations.
In one instance, he tells us he had a “helluva time,” when he and Phoebe sneaked away and had a good time shopping for shoes downtown. Other statements include “pretty as hell,” “playful as hell,” or “hot as hell. ” Holden’s perception that situations were anything but normal in some relation to the extremes of the usage of “hell” is applied to both positive and negative situations. In each use of the word, Holden uses “hell” as a way to expresses the confusion of adolescence and his own regular use of it illustrates his own extreme sensitivity as a character (Gwynn, 1958).
As Holden’s experiences change, so does his use of crude language. When he is caught up in his own antics and is enraged, “sonuvabitch” and “bastard” frequently find their way into his vocabulary. However, when he addresses the reader as a narrator, Holden rarely, if ever, slips into his habitual use of swearing (Costello, 1990). “Sonuvabitch” is reserved for his extreme anger, as when he kept calling Stradlater a “moron sonuvabitch” for the boy’s ostensibly offensive treatment of Jane Gallagher.
Again, Holden’s sporadic use of “sonuvabitch” in his angriest moments alerts the reader to the serious quality of his anger. Salinger carefully crafted such speech patterns to help us identify Holden’s character without lengthy descriptions of such. Here, the offending words lets the reader know when Holden is most angry and the types of situations that make him so, thereby offering further insight into his character, often through the use of a single word.
Holden’s regular use of curse words to describe his view of any given situation leaves the impression his vocabulary is limited, as observed in one much younger than himself. However, Holden recognizes that he has a limited vocabulary and uncomprehendingly identifies it himself (Salzman, 1991). He makes use of cursing in an effort to add emphasis to his otherwise simplistic verbiage. For example, Holden says “That guy Morrow was about as sensitive as a goddam toilet seat” (Salinger, 1951). The best reference Holden could think of was “toilet seat,” a simple item readily grasped by even young children.
To give this simile more emphasis, Holden, as usual, tosses in a curse word. Holden makes another toilet-like reference when he says “He started handling my paper like it was a turd or something,” (Salinger, 1951) when referring to his teacher’s expressions and body language while picking up some written work Holden had done. “Turd” is a word a recently potty-trained child might use instead of a prep school teen. So Holden not only admits to having a limited vocabulary, but he has a vocabulary seemingly limited to one even younger than his age.
Holden’s regular use of cursing demonstates not only the depth of his emotion, but signals the reader to the fact that he is caught in the stage where childhood and approaching maturity collide. He relates poorly to instances other than those from his early youth, and tries in vain to bridge the gap between adolescent and adult worlds with his use of profanity. He fails to notice that his cursing loses much of his intended rebellious impact by his overuse of the words. Rather than successfully rebelling against school or his parents, Holden appears sometimes tortured and pathetic, and sometimes just plain silly.
This superficiality of youth leaves him with little ability to communicate because he relies so heavily on simple words and thoughts to express the majority of his feelings. While Holden’s teenage angst is apparent, Salinger carefully crafted Holden’s vocabulary to create a character who is believable. As Holden’s vocabulary and outlook on life demonstrate to us his character as a fictional persona, the realistic flavor of his vocabulary mixed with emotion unfailingly ties him with the harsh realities of adolescence and the youth of his time.