One of the major influences which has helped construct the core of my concept, explicitly derives from the novel, The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger. It is a novel which explicitly deals with the themes of teenage confusion, angst, sexuality, alienation, and rebellion. It has been frequently challenged for its liberal use of profanity and portrayal of sexuality and teenage angst. It also deals with complex issues of identity, belonging, connection, and alienation. It has been constantly acknowledged as one of the most influential and most challenging books of the 20th century.
The novel is a perceptive study of one individuals understanding of his human condition. Holden Caulfield, a teenager growing up in 1950s New York, has been expelled from school for poor achievement. In an attempt to deal with this, he leaves school and goes to New York to 'take a vacation' before returning to his parents' inevitable wrath. Told as a monologue, the book describes Holden's thoughts and activities over these few days, during which he describes a developing nervous breakdown, symptomised by his bouts of unexplained depression, impulsive spending and generally odd, erratic behaviour, prior to his eventual nervous collapse.
During his psychological battle, life continues on around Holden as it always had, with the majority of people ignoring the 'madman stuff' that is happening to him - until it begins to encroach on their well defined social codes. Progressively through the novel we are challenged to think about society's attitude to the human condition - does society have an 'ostrich in the sand' mentality, a deliberate ignorance of the emptiness that can characterise human existence? And if so, when Caulfield begins to probe and investigate his own sense of emptiness and isolation, before finally declaring that the world is full of 'phonies' with each one out for their own phony gain, is Holden actually the one who is going insane, or is it society which has lost its mind for failing to see the hopelessness of their own lives?
The main motif which i drew from this novel was the main protagonist's vision of a 'catcher in a rye' dream. Basically this refers to an illusion of a field of rye perched high on a cliff, full of children romping and playing. He says he would like to protect the children from falling off the edge of the cliff by “catching” them if they were on the verge of tumbling over. He ideally substitutes adulthood for death as he wants to "catch" them before they fall over the edge and into the adult word. His idealised view of a perfect world is one where nothing ever changes, where everything is simple, understandable, and infinite.
Holden uses this created understanding as his own personal armour of cynicism. He does this due to the fact that he is scared of growing up, he is scared of adulthood, he does not want to lose the purity and innocence of his childhood. His fear of adulthood seems to be derived from the sheer fact that he is terrified by the unpredictable challenges of the world as he has become confused by his brother's senseless death.
On this basis, the following image was produced;
