Holden Caulfield doesn't like meddlers.

Salinger begins Catcher In The Rye with Holden Caulfield standing where he will stay for the rest of the novel: separate from his social group and looking at it disaffectedly. Caulfield is one of the most popular characters of youthful rebellion and dissent in classic American literature, and I think it's partly because that's what we see him as at first, and the image is retained on the surface for the rest of the novel.

But Caulfield isn't as rebellious as some may make him out to be, if by rebellious we mean repulsed by authority. He's standing on Thomsen Hill not just because he doesn't feel like going to the game, but because he arrived late from the school's fencing match in New York. He's the team's manager, itself a position of authority. And then he goes to visit Spencer, his History teacher, to say goodbye before leaving for Christmas and forever after being kicked out of boarding school. Spencer is a teacher and an old one at that: the second authority figure we don't see him being angered by.

So he doesn't despise authority, per se. He's quite respectful to Spencer when he first comes into his house. What doesn't he like, then? He gets ticked off the moment Spencer begins to talk to him condescendingly about his time at Pencey. When he leaves Spencer's house, he returns to his quarters. Everyone's at the game save for him and a few other people—including Robert Ackley. Ackley goes around his room, playing with his and his roommate's things and not putting them back where he found them. Caulfield's dislike isn't for authority, it's for people thumbing their nose in other people's business, which frankly is what authority often does, anyway, which may be the reason for the common assumption about Caulfield.

Throughout the rest of the book, we'll get to know more about what Caulfield thinks and why he absolutely hates all the "phonies." But in these first few chapters we get a sense of who he is and where he's headed, and that's important as we'll get to see his attitude towards everything that's coming his way.

On a side note, what can we make of the imagery of Holden Caulfield standing next to a wartime cannon on Thomsen Hill, overlooking the baseball game?

Novel #1: Catcher In The Rye by JD Salinger

I anticipate it won't be particularly easy to start this adventure by reading The Catcher In The Rye, that bildungsroman by late literary recluse J.D. Salinger. For one, I've read it before, which makes me liable to read lazily and gloss over important parts. For another, Holden Caulfield is easily one of modern literature's most talked-about protagonists. He, along with all the metaphor peppering the novel, has been analyzed and reanalyzed to infinity and back.

But it's only fitting I begin with a coming-of-age story, and one that's replete with such rich and interesting symbolism as this. It'll be both a good exercise in analyzing and interpreting, and an interesting story in itself to absorb.

From Wikipedia:

Originally published for adults, it has since become popular with adolescent readers for its themes of teenage confusion, angst, alienation, language, and rebellion It has been translated into almost all of the world's major languages. Around 250,000 copies are sold each year, with total sales of more than 65 million books. The novel's protagonist and antihero, Holden Caulfield, has become an icon for teenage rebellion.

It even fits in my jacket's breast pocket, if I ever decide to go into artiste deep-thinking hipster mode.