By Mariella Bishop
According to the Literary Hub website, one million copies of The Catcher In the Rye are sold every year. If the Lovett curriculum is any indication, then a good percentage of those million copies have been sold to (and hopefully then read by) American high school freshmen.
The book is about Holden Caulfield, a recently expelled boy who is going through depression after the passing of his brother. For fans, his journey is deep and compelling as he moves forward, evading “phones” and leaving his childhood behind. Although it’s not a book you should read if you’re looking to get a good laugh or smile at the end.
While The Catcher In the Rye is a popular book for most schools, it’s not a book everyone’s too thrilled to read. Most people read the book as teenagers, primarily for school, but sometimes for their own enjoyment. Here at The Lovett School most students read it as freshmen. Some enjoy, some don’t, some are indifferent.
Lovett English teacher Mrs Davis, who teaches the book, didn’t enjoy it when she first read it in high school. “Even as an adult now, it’s not one of my favorites, “ she said.
As a student, she felt it was really negative and that Holden was a very depressing character.
“Yeah, I think as a student I read it and I was like, Ugh, this is the worst book I’ve ever read,” she said. “He’s so negative. ”
But after reading and teaching the book for four years, she says that her perspective has changed. She thinks that now because she is more mature and of age she reads the book with more depth then she did as a student who was forced to read the book. For example, she sees now that people should have been helping Holden, instead of doing nothing.
But she’s realized as a teacher that “those are all things that we so need to be talking about…how do we show up for others.”
She acknowledges that students might not enjoy the book, considering she was once in their place and didn’t find it pleasurable.
There was one character who she did connect with. “I didn’t relate to Holden, but I related to Sally in the book,” she said, “because she tries to be kind to him. And I think she sort of goes on this date almost because she feels sorry for him in a way.” But she said even Sally has her shortcomings. There’s that phoniness about her where she’s like over the top gushing. And so there’s that part where I look back in my own life and I’m embarrassed like, oh, but I can see myself in her that where you’re trying to please somebody or there’s a little bit of element where she’s trying to extend kindness to them.”
Overall, she believes that students do not necessarily need to read this book, considering there are so many other books to read, but in the end, she sees that it’s a good fit to read at some point in life.
“I think it’s a great opportunity just for personal writing and just stretching the kids to really try to unpack this character that’s just full of so much rage and hurt and so it’s good for them,” she said.
So how do students feel?
Freshman Cacku McDonald found the book to be very interesting and enjoyable. And, perhaps more importantly, relatable.
“A lot of times I’m always like, oh, I’m right in this situation. It’s just my perspective. But it turns out I know I’m really right. Like, oh, I hate, it’s like, oh, I hate everything, blah, blah, blah, blah. But in reality, it’s, it’s a great thing that’s happening,” she said.
She feels that Holden is an intriguing character because he “hates” everything but still does the stuff he hates. While most people think that Holden is a very negative character, Cacki believes that he has the right to be negative and upset, especially after his brother’s death. She thinks it’s hard to just move on from something that happened so recently, not to mention all his stress from school.
“I think [Pencey Prep] tries to maintain the high status, but it’s not really well put together and they can’t control all the chaos going on,” she said.
While some students might not enjoy the book or think it should be taught, Cacki believes that this book is good for school and we should be reading it.
“I feel like people are kinda being like Holden when saying it’s a bad book. The book shows such an inside look on life, it deals with stuff we deal with like grief, academics, and it touches so many topics that teenagers also face,” she said.
And even if this wasn’t a school book, she says she had planned on reading it before.
“I would definitely, honestly, I didn’t know it was a school book and I saw Emily [Choi] TikTok about it. And then I was like, I should read in my free time. And then I realized it was a school book, so I was like, oh wow,” she said.
Freshman Elizbeth Bataglio also had mixed feelings about the book.
“I kinda I only liked it when he was with his sister but the other parts I didn’t really like,” she said. “I think that the plot of the story is interesting because the story that Holden tells really explains how his time at school was tough for him.”
While Cacki thinks Pencey Prep isn’t what it seems, Elizabeth likes to think that the school is well-suited for students like Holden.
“I think that Pencey Prep is a really fancy school and only people with a lot of money go to the school, but overall it’s a good school,” she said.
One thing that seems to be true about many readers is that it can take time to appreciate the book.
I spoke with a senior who wrote his UGA book supplemental essay about Catcher. While he didn’t like it at first, he slowly began to understand it more and came around to realizing it wasn’t that bad of a book.
Because Holden is a young adult and most of the students who read this book are adolescents, it can cause readers to relate to his negativity. The Catcher in the Rye explores the experience of a young person trying to comprehend the adult world.
Holden’s desperate desire to become “The Catcher in the Rye” and save the innocence of younger kids reveals the heart of why this novel continues to resonate with students.
Holden’s frustration feels familiar. Whether students like it or dislike it, Holden’s story can push people to think more deeply about mental health and empathy, making it a compelling story for students to join the millions of people who pick up the book every year.
