Is Holden Caulfield Relevant Today

J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is the cliche favorite books among English teachers. Some people may feel that Holden Caulfield was just an average, moody teenager. However, the many different things that he went through made him the person he was. The themes, characters and the feelings in The Catcher in the Rye give many people are relevant to today’s society. Holden could be considered to be phony, just like he calls everyone else. He is very depressed and can be seen throughout the novel. Holden’s views on growing up can be parallel to many others just like him.
Holden calls everyone phonies, he believes no one really says what they want to say. He can be believed that he is a phony himself. He is always holding in what he wants to say.

“‘Perhaps you know my son, then. Ernest Marrow? He goes to Pencey.’ ‘Yes, I do. He’s in my class.’ Her son was doubtless the biggest bastard that ever went to Pencey, in the whole crumby history of the school.” (Salinger 61) Holden meets this lady on the train and talks about how great her son is, even though he does not really think that. He is always whining about how people do not say what they really want to, but he does the same thing. People shuffle around the truth to protect others feelings. Holden keeps calling people phonies and jerks, but he would never say that to their face. He is deceiving Mrs. Marrow into believing her son is so great, just so he does not hurt her feelings. He thinks that sometimes lying is okay in order to be nice. “I am always saying ‘Glad to’ve met you’ to somebody I’m not at all glad I met. If you want to stay alive, you have to say that stuff though.” (Salinger 98). Holden is a hypocrite, it could be a result from his mental illness.
Holden has depression, and it is fairly obvious.

He is constantly talking about how lonesome or depressing something is. He has had depression for a while because of his brother’s death; he punched through the windows in his garage. Even to this day he feels depressed in some of the happiest things. “New York’s terrible when somebody laughs on the street very late at night. You can hear it for miles. It makes you feel so lonesome and depressed.” (Salinger 91) Just the sound of someone’s laughter was making Holden feel miserable. When someone is happy and it makes him feel somber, that is a sign of depression. Holden is always wanting to say a goodbye, it makes him feel less depressed. “What I was really hanging around for, I was trying to feel some kind of good-by. I mean I’ve left schools and places I didn’t even know I was leaving them. I hate that. I don’t care if it’s a sad good-by or a bad good-by, but when I leave a place I like to know I’m leaving it. If you don’t, you feel even worse.” (Salinger 6-7) He always needs to say goodbye to a place whether he like that place or not. It makes him feel that there is something to say goodbye to. He is worried that everything will be different if he ever comes

back.
Holden is afraid of change, which could also be apart of his depression. He says how much he loves the museum because it never changes. “The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody’d move. You could go there a hundred thousand times, and the Eskimo would still be just finished catching those two fish, the birds would still be on their way south… Nobody’d be different.” (Salinger 135) It does not matter how many times you have been to the museum, nothing would ever change. Holden can find happiness in that. “The only thing that would be different would be you.” (Salinger 135) People are forever changing, not just getting older, but also becoming wiser and just different. Today a lot of high school seniors are feeling the pressure of change. With graduation around the corner, seniors are getting ready to say goodbye to their favorite teachers and all their friends. I am starting feel even more closely to The Catcher in the Rye now that I am almost done with high school. When Holden talks about goodbyes, I really feel the connection to the novel. It is not that I am going to miss the school, it is the feeling of me growing up and becoming an adult; it is scary.
Many of the themes and emotions talked about throughout the novel can be connected to my life as well as many others. Holden calls people phonies but would never say that to their face. Everyone is kind of like that, thinking is not saying, nobody ever really says what they want. Saying goodbye is hard, I know that now, more than ever. Growing up is hard too, it is basically saying goodbye to your childhood. The Catcher in the Rye is very relevant in today’s society and there is no denying that.