"If a Body Catch a Body" by Amber

"If a Body Catch a Body" by Amber - February 2015 Scholarship Essay

What really knocks me out about high school literature is that it is all so phony. It is like Shakespeare or all of those other phonies know how to relate to kids or something. However, one book stands out among the rest on the shelves of language arts teachers all over the United States and the world. 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". Holden Caulfield, the symbol of growing up and being pushed into the adult world, would likely say this about the book he is the protagonist of: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Unlike other works of fiction studied in high school, such as Romeo and Juliet, Jane Eyre, The Great Gatsby, and many others, The Catcher in the Rye features a relatable hero who is struggling to find his niche in the world. For high school students Holden's problem is similar to their own as they anxiously approach the idea of college and jobs in adult society. Through Holden's insight and commentary on the world around him, high school students get to feel his struggle, have clarification of what may be their own problems, and most importantly, know that they are not alone.

Holden Caulfield is sixteen or seventeen years old at the time of the novel. This age is the same as many juniors and seniors in high school. Because of this, many high school students can empathize with him. Age is not the only characteristic that makes him engaging to high school students. He is humorous in his descriptions and his language. In addition, he is facing similar issues such as sex and sexuality, grades, change, and the problem of family pressure (just to name a few). Holden's goal, which he makes quite clear throughout the novel, is to be real and not be "phony" like all of the adults he has encountered in his life. Throughout the novel, he calls on old friends who he discovers to have turned phony. Students often have a goal to stand out in a crowd as they try to find out who they are. For these students, Holden is a model to whom they can look too for inspiration.

To be clear, Holden as a role model is not very desirable. He fails out of school, has an inappropriate vocabulary, is an underage drunk, and by the end of the novel, is discovered to have had a mental breakdown. However, through him, high school students will know what not to do when faced with the problems of the adult world. Despite all of the problems that Holden goes through in the events of the novel, he reveals at the end that he is planning to start school again in the upcoming fall. The moral that things will eventually get better underlies the plot in the most subtle of ways. It shows high school students that no matter how rough their problems may be, they will eventually work themselves out if attended.

One of the fears of being a teenager is being misunderstood and alone. This is also a fear of Holden's that he faces quite often when Sally Hayes and Luce leave his company at different points in the novel. The Catcher in the Rye, then, serves as a consolation to these fearful students that they are not alone. Despite Holden being a fictional character, his story shows that it is possible to overcome the fear of being isolated. This comfort is another reason, of many, that explains why high school students should be required to read The Catcher in the Rye.

The empathy felt between the teenage reader and Holden Caulfield is tremendous as the reader is probably experiencing many of the emotions that Caulfield has throughout the novel. It is through his struggle and his endeavors to find his place that the student reader comes to the understanding that they are not alone when they run off that metaphorical cliff in Holden's dreams. His story of growing up serves as a benchmark that shows that growing up is not as scary or jarring as running off a cliff may be and that no one can save you from it. If you want to know the truth, as Holden would put it, growing up is not very phony at all.