How Is Holden Caulfield Relevant Today

The Catcher in the Rye was a pivotal novel in the 1950s because of how it portrayed teenagers during those times. The character of Holden Caulfield is a very troubled teen with a lot of angst and is failing four out of his 5 classes, he was only passing English because of the fact that he was a gifted writer. The Catcher in the Rye was written by J.D. Salinger who is now known as a hermit lte in his life, and he is also very critical of how people interpret what he meant from The Catcher in the Rye. It was originally written for adults when it was first published but since then, the novel has become very popular with teenagers because of characters like Holden Caulfield. The 1950s was also going through many difficult times, including the Korean

War, The Red Scare, and the Space Race. The novel deals with many adolescent issues like identity, innocence and connection, and many teenagers identified with all three of these tropes from the character of Holden Caulfield.
Salinger was born to a medium sized family in 1919, he was the youngest of two children from his father Sol Salinger and his mother Miriam Salinger. His father was born Jewish and his mother was a Scottish woman, at that time mixed marriages were looked at with disdain. The fact that his mother was not Jewish cames as a surprise to young Salinger because of how well his mother hid it from everyone. Salinger was a very intelligent child, however he failed out of McBurney School that was near his hometown in New York. After that, he attended Valley Forge Military Academy in Pennsylvania. When he graduated Valley Forge, Salinger went to Europe with his father’s money and his encouragement. He came to Vienna to learn about the language and the import business, but after spending five months in Vienna, he spent more time learning about the language. After returning home from Vienna, Salinger attended night classes at Columbia University, that was where he met his professor Whit Burnett. Burnett was the editor of Story Magazine, he sensed Salinger’s talent as a writer, and Burnett pushed Salinger to write more often and soon, Salinger’s works were appearing in Story Magazine and other popular magazines. Soon after that, Salinger’s writing career took off, but it was then interrupted by World War 2. During the war, Salinger wrote many chapters for a novel whose main character named Holden Caulfield. After the war, Salinger returned to New York to write for one of his favorite magazines, The New Yorker. Finally, in 1951, he finished The Catcher in the Rye and it was also published that same year.
The Catcher in the Rye is a story of a young angsty teen named Holden Caulfield telling a story of what happened to him last Christmas and other “madman stuff,” to his therapist (Salinger 1).

The novel is about innocence, death, and confusion. The character of Holden Caulfield wants to stay innocent, and ever since the death of his younger brother Allie, Holden does not want things to change because Allie never changed and will never change. The book earned many positive reviews but has also received its fair share of negative reviews. Reviewers believed that Holden Caulfield was promoting immoral views because of how he speaks and acts to other people around him. When the novel was first written, many adults could not identify with Holden because of his views. The novel is more geared towards young adults around 18 years old who can understand the problems that Holden faces every day. Today, The Catcher in the Rye is an integral book for young readers and for American literature. To date, the book has sold more than 65 million

copies.
The 1950s was a difficult time full of new concepts such as Communism sweeping the nation. Communism is a theory or system of social organization based on the holding of all property in common, actual ownership being ascribed to the community as a whole or to the state (dictionary.com). It was started by Karl Marx in 1848 when he wrote the The Communist Manifesto. It wasn’t until the 1950s that Communism hit the United States. In March of 1951, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were found guilty of conspiracy and were sentenced to death in the electric chair. From here on, many Americans were scared that their neighbor was Communist.
The 1950s was also a time of war, in November of 1952, the first Hydrogen Bomb, named Mike, exploded in the Pacific Ocean.

In that same year, Eisenhower travels to Korea to finally end the war. It was not until July of 1953 that the Korean War ended and the US, China, North Korea, and South Korea all signed an armistice agreement. The US was also in a war of racism within the nation. Many different things like bathrooms, and water fountains were segregated. Not until May of 1954 that schools were segregated, and then in December 1955, Rosa Parks refused to leave her seat on the bus. She was then considered a leading model for what people should do when faced with segregation in everyday

life.
The 50s was also a time for the discovery with the “Space Race” in full speed. In December of 1957, the first attempt by the United States to launch a satellite into space exploded on the launch pad. It wasn’t until January of the next year that Explorer 1 launched at Cape Canaveral, the satellite discovered the Van Allen Radiation Belt. Another discovery in the 50s was when Alaska became the 49th state was admitted to the United States, it was then followed by Hawaii the next year.