[jalisco555]

Like most high school students I had these books inflicted on me and I've yet to forgive my teachers.

[TBarnett34]

They pushed these books on us in high school also.

Thank goodness for the internet and Sparknotes.

[IronJack]

I've never understood why English teachers choose Old Man and the Sea for the representative Hemingway work. I've always liked For Whom the Bell Tolls better, and while it is longer, it is less obscure.

As for Salinger, I suspect his opinion of himself is higher than merited by a single work, regardless of how relevant it was to an angst-ridden generation in 1951. Let's just say he falls into the category of What Have You Done Lately?

[atomicpossum]

Indeed a case can be made that "The Catcher in the Rye" created adolescence as we now know it, a condition that barely existed until Salinger defined it. He established whining rebellion as essential to adolescence and it has remained such ever since. It was a short leap indeed from "The Catcher in the Rye" to "The Blackboard Jungle" to "Rebel Without a Cause" to Valley Girls to the multibillion-dollar industry that adolescent angst is today.

[durasell]

You have to be just the right age when you read Catcher. As for Old Man...it really was Hemingway at his worst. The only thing it has going for it is the Hemingway "brand," its relatively short length, and easy-to-read Hemingway vocabulary.

[madprof98]

I think this question is the most significant:

Why is Holden Caulfield nearly universally seen as "a symbol of purity and sensitivity" (as "The Oxford Companion to American Literature" puts it) when he's merely self-regarding and callow?

What were the roots of the shallow rebellion of the '60s, the years that warped our culture and continue to plague us? Some critics have argued that the most pernicious ideas of that era were planted still earlier, by the self-styled rebels of the Beat Generation. Salinger, a great hero to the boys of my era, was arguably the most influential of those writers.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

Indeed a case can be made that "The Catcher in the Rye" created adolescence as we now know it, a condition that barely existed until Salinger defined it.

To my way of thinking, the dream of adolescence is, and always has been, to enjoy all the adult pleasures without any of the adult responsibilities.

[elli1]

I didn't have to read it in highschool but made the mistake of reading it 4-5 years ago.

[LadyDoc]

I never read "catcher in the Rye" probably because as a girl from a working class family I just couldn't feel sorry for a rich kid slobbering over himself in a rich boarding school. I mean, get a break. I had to work part time and study hard. Who had time for feeling sorry for oneself?

BTW: Wasn't Catcher in the Rye the book in Conspiracy theory, i.e. that was the clue you had been programed by the evil CIA or whatever?

[altura]

hated both those books, but especially catcher.

[zook]

I read Franny & Zooey, liked it much more than Catcher. Sallinger is a total a-hole, however.

[P.O.E.]

Sparked a whole genre of similar mind-rot. Judy Blume, Adrian Mole, etc.

Sex, cursing, egotism, broken family ties, etc., all laid out for kids to "identify" with.

[Vision]

"The Old Man and the Sea." They are two of the most durable and beloved books in American literature and, by any reasonable critical standard, two of the worst.

I remember old man and the sea as an easy exciting read.

I also disagree with the premise that Holden couldn't be a rebel and a softy at heart. Literary critics don't impress me.

[Scarchin]

I am a high school English teacher. I've made the following statements many times here at FR and they are appropriate here:

PLEASE get involved with your local school system! Ask to see the curriculum. Find out which books are being taught.

The classics are being phased out for many reasons - some political and some relating to the fact that teachers are giving up because they're "too hard" (read "students too lazy"). However, the biggest reason is that no one is objecting!

Dont' have kids in school? It doesn't matter! It's your tax dollars. It's your community. And, at the risk of sounding melodramatic, it's your country.

If only a few people get together, THEY WILL RESPOND! Adminstrators hate controversy and, believe it or not, many teachers will love you for it.

[Mamzelle]

I have always detested this sappy, trite little story. re: "The Catcher in the Rye" can be fobbed off on kids as a book about themselves. It is required reading as therapy, a way to encourage young people to bathe in the warm, soothing waters of resentment (all grown-ups are phonies) and self-pity without having to think a lucid thought. pretty much sums it up.

Wonder if the affection for this book could be used like an inkblot psy test--to tell conservs from libs? I'd think the classic conserv would regard this book with contempt, and the lib with joy.

[Savage Beast]

I was just a kid. I loved the Catcher, but The Old Man and the Sea bored me into swearing off Hemingway for two decades.

[MadIvan]

My favourite Hemingway work is "A Farewell to Arms". I've never understood the fixation on J.D. Salinger however - A Catcher in the Rye isn't all that good.

Dare I suggest it would be more productive to read H.P. Lovecraft? ;)

Regards, Ivan

[csvset]

I tried to read CITR, lost interest in it. The guy was a lifeguard or something like that?

In high school, my teacher assigned books like Faulkner's As I Lay Dying

[SuziQ]

I guess I'll have to read it to find out what all the fuss is about. Don't know how I got to age 51 without having done so, but I guess I was never in a 'rebellious' enough frame of mind.

[Norman Conquest]

I suspect Catcher made a huge impact on Kerry. Count how many times a day he rails against his foes as phonies. (Talk about projection!)

Phony was my favorite word, too, after I read the book. But then I turned 14.

[nothingnew]

Like most high school students I had these books inflicted on me and I've yet to forgive my teachers.

My ninth grade english teacher had us read Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy.......if I ever run across her I'll slap her silly.

FMCDH(BITS)