Tao Te Ching
Catcher in the Rye
There's something powerful in this simple telling of adolescent angst, suffering, identity crisis, and struggle to reconcile the open honesty of childhood with the soul-selling demands of adult life. Salinger once said that, "all my best friends are children" and that appreciation and respect easily melts through the descriptions of "maturity's" hypocrisy, self-deception, and rampant corruption. The basic symbolism of a "catcher in the rye" is someone preventing children from unknowingly falling over a cliff. Although recently included on Time Magazine list of 100 best novels, Modern Library's best 100 novels of the 20th century, and number 15 on a BBC list; teachers were fired for assigning it to their classes, it was described as an "overall communist plot," and between 1961 and 1982 it became the most censored library and high school book. At the same time as being the second most taught book in US public schools, these attempts to censor it in libraries continued through 2009 with critics calling it blasphemy, an undermining of values and morals, and a promotion of rebellion, promiscuity, lying, smoking, and drinking. Why did it provoke such heated reactions, both positive and negative? Because it uncovers so much that status quo culture doesn't want to see? Because it exposes a deep soft spot of compassion we all share but try hard to hide because we don't want to question our materialism? Because it points toward a more genuine, authentic way of life that increases meaningfulness but undermines egocentric pursuit? Yes.
Themes
Quotes from Catcher in the Rye
“Even if you did go around saving guys' lives and all, how would you know if you did it because you really wanted to save guys' lives, or because you did it because what you really wanted to do was be a terrific lawyer, with everybody slapping you on the back and congratulating you”
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“Everybody says that, especially my father. It's partly true, too, but it isn't all true... People never notice anything.”
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“I can never really get sexy—I mean really sexy—with a girl I don't like a lot. I mean I have to like her a lot. If I don't, I sort of lose my goddam desire for her and all. Boy it really screws up my sex life something awful. My sex life stinks.”
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“I think I'd have found out a lot sooner if we hadn't necked so damn much. My big trouble is, I always sort of think whoever I'm necking is a pretty intelligent person. It hasn't got a goddam thing to do with it, but I keep thinking it anyway.”
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“I'm quite illiterate, but I read a lot... What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish 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.”
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“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”
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“If you do something too good, then, after a while, if you don't watch it, you start showing off, and then you're not as good any more.”
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“It's funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they'll do practically anything you want them to.”
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“Take most people, they're crazy about cars. They worry if they get a little scratch on them, and... if they get a brand-new car already they start thinking about trading it in for one that's even newer... I'd rather have a goddam horse. A horse is at least human, for God's sake.”
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“the funny part is, I felt like marrying here the minute I saw her. I'm crazy. I didn't even like her much, and yet all of a sudden I feel like I was in love with her and wanted to marry her.”
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“The trouble with girls is, if they like a boy, no matter how big a bastard he is, they'll say he has an inferiority complex and if they don't like him, no matter how nice a guy he is, or how big an inferiority complex he has, they'll say he's conceited. Even smart girls do it.”
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“When I really worry about something, I don't just fool around. I even have to go to the bathroom when I worry about something. Only, I don't go. I'm too worried to go. I don't want to interrupt my worrying to go.”
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“you don't have to be a bad guy to depress somebody—you can be a good guy and do it. All you have to do to depress somebody is give than a lot of phony advice.”
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