Coming Of Age In Catcher In The Rye

“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it.” -pg. 18 J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is coming to age story with an unhappy ending that captured the adoration of people across the decades from 1951, when it was first published, to the present. While Holden himself is an unlikable protagonist, he is a relatable one. He doesn’t want to grow up, no one does. He thinks everyone is phony, everyone does. Holden is holds as much relevance to the teenagers of the world today as he did in the 1940’s. He doesn’t want to grow up. Holden is scared of adulthood and would rather remain
Holden has symptoms of both depression and Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder. He is overly cynical, doesn't eat or sleep enough, is constantly mentioning how lonely and depressed he is, has frequent crying spells, prone to violence, shows manic behavior whenever he tries to connect with someone, suffers from frequent body and headaches for no reason, is an avid smoker and drinker (possibly self-medication), and is obviously traumatized over the suddenness of Allie and Castle's deaths. And that hasn’t even mentioned his suicidal tendencies. Holden is practically the pinnacle of teenage mental illness. Holden over thinks everything. When he is in the phone booth in New York, he over thought his option on who to call and “...ended up not calling anybody. [He] came out of the booth, after about twenty minutes or so...” He, like many teenagers today, over analyze his situation finding flaws in every decision, every action, and every person. Holden and his story are famous, simply because it has relevance to every teenager and their life. The Catcher in the Rye, even though it was written several decades ago, still has teens relating to it