The Phonies Always Triumph: Ramblings About Holden Caulfield

It's hard to mourn someone like J.D. Salinger. His death last week only ends the rare sightings and fruitless attempts to obtain a glimpse at his New Hampshire hermitage. Authors are one of the rare class of celebrity who can effectively shrink from the glare of the camera.

But the death of an author serves as the perfect platform to rediscover a book or character, and few characters loom as large in 20th century American lit and culture as Holden Caulfield.

I found it amusing which groups of people rushed to claim Caulfield anew in the hours and days after Salinger's death. If George Bush 41 can laud it as a great book (the similarities to the Bush family, with the loss of a child to leukemia and Bush 43 are interesting, if only skin deep) and for all the research papers floating on the 'net about old Holden, what group can stake claims on it?

We're all phonies in our own way. So is Holden. Despite his boasts, he's an unreliable narrator who only gives us glimpses into his tattered psyche and history (who knows if he will really attend a new school, or it is wishful thinking from the mental home). The beauty of unreliable narrators is they give almost any reader the ability to connect with them.

I tend to view hipsters and with the same disdain as the mainstream. We all wear masks, we all have our acts down pat.

But he also represents our failures. Ultimately, what does Holden succeed at, aside from serving as a kindred spirit? His series of alienating events can only lead to an institution. His dream of becoming the catcher in the rye is built on a false ideal. You can't keep children running around with their blinders on; inevitably, their innocence must fail and they must plunge from that cliff.

I think to this past weekend and that rush of joy from speeding down a hill without a worry in the world buzzing in my skull. Think of spinning around in the yard then falling down dizzy; adults only encounter dizziness when sick or drunk. Losing those sensations is a part of life, even though people attempt to rebuild their childhoods by other means (thanks to my comic books, I too plead guilty).

Holden doesn't age in our minds. That someone wrote an unauthorized sequel about Holden as a cranky senior citizen shows how misinformed people can be about this book. We don't need Holden down the road. The character's glory lies in his immortality, his ability to come along as teenagers need the voice of someone like them, but with a greater degree of maturity.

Even as an adult, when I've re-read it, it amazing me how much I needed a Holden-like voice.

Phonies never go away, no matter how old you are.