The Role Of Conformity In Catcher In The Rye

The 1950’s were a start of a new way of life in America due to the end of World War II. There was a social change between the older and younger generations of America. They had different views of what should happen in America. In J.D. Salinger’s book “The Catcher in the Rye” he portrays the dissatisfaction with the new conformity in culture by presenting Holden’s thoughts and actions to show what the older and younger generations viewed each other.
Holden was told by his teacher “Life is a game that one plays according to the rules” (Chapter2). This was the view of the older generation, that they wanted to life to go back just as it was before the war. The counter culture was created by the younger generation with the hopes of changing “the culture of conformity”. “The culture of conformity” was they younger generations definition of changing they older generations outlook on what was to continue in years to come.

The younger generation or counter culture wanted to be accepted for their differences, unfortunately that is now how things happened.

“The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody’d move….Noboy’d be different. The only thing that would be different would be you” (Chapter 16). Just as the “hippies” and youth of the 1950’s knew they were different, Holden knew that he was different. Society may have had a plan for them, but they knew that they wanted to be different and follow their own path. The young men and women did not want to be conventional adults, holding down regular jobs and “conforming” to the norms of the past. Instead they chose to rebel, by doing drugs, listening to alternative music and expressing their sexuality. Though these forms of expression are not a horrible way of expressing individuality, they were often factors that led to needless violence do to drug

use.
Older generations wanted to find a way to save the youth from the destructive and non conventional behavior they were expressing. Holden expresses this through his fantasy, “I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff – I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all” (Chapter 22). This symbolizes the older generation trying to save the “hippies” or “counter culture” they believed were “falling off a cliff”. Many of the older generation, who did not comprehend the younger generation, believed that they were either mentally ill or that the drugs and alternative music was brain washing them. Due to the older generation’s fear of change, they were extremely apprehensive of what the world was to become when the youth took over the world. With the draft of the Vietnam War in the 1970’s, the hippie culture quickly began to end.
“The Catcher in the Rye,” expresses the discontent of cultures when Holden shows the various views of himself just as there were different outlooks on society. Holden knew he was different just as the younger generation knew that they were different from the older generations. Just as Holden’s teacher wanted him to conform and play by the rules, the older generation of the 1950’s believed the youth should follow the example they had given for how life was to be lived. The older generation wanted to save the youth from their destructive behavior or in their eyes saving them from “falling off of cliff”, just as Holden fantasized about saving children from falling off of a cliff.