Re: Ages
~sarah~ (cinnimon@vvm.com)
Sun, 25 Oct 1998 14:24:29 -0800 (PST)
I, too, read TCITR for the first time when I was a freshman in high school.
Contrary to what many other people have said about him being somewhat of a
"poor, lost soul," I truly don't think that that stigma engraved on Holden
ever crossed my mind. I have always felt a connection with Holden that
helped me in going outside of myself and looking in from a new viewpoint or
direction. I don't know if one could call that an 'escape from my reality'
or not, but as for myself, I've always felt it was more of an
identification that helped me in understanding who I am.
Back to the idea of age effecting interpretation...while I obviously don't
have many years of experience in the world to be able to say this with much
assurance, but I feel that the reason why people tend to change their
interpretation of TCITR as they age is due more to the fact of knowledge of
people and the world, and not mere age. Maturity, and not years.
Experience, perhaps. I don't feel that Holden's age and how the reader
feels toward him, age wise(older, younger), has much to do with the
understanding of the book, but instead more of the reader's experience
soley. (I might be way off, I'm only 15, so I don't have much in the way
of "real-world experience")
Patrick-just curious, how was TCITR a literary rite of passage for you?
Could you elaborate on that?
Sarah
----------
When I first read _Catcher_ as a freshman in high school, Holden was
definately older than I was. Then, three years later, I re-read _Catcher_
and thought of Holden as someone younger than myself. I don't know--it was
a sort of literary "rite of passage" I guess :) But, nevertheless--an
intriguing idea for _Catcher_ fans to consider, don't you think?
Patrick