Holden Caulfield: Young Republican

How Did This Guy Ever Become a Hero to the Disaffected Left?

J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye is one of those books much more celebrated for the meaning behind what happens rather than the events themselves. Holden Caulfield, the protagonist, remains one of the seminal characters in American literature, embraced by the disaffected ranging from the kid who sat next to you in tenth grade to Mark Curtis Chapman, who carried a copy of Catcher in the Rye in pocket as he shot John Lennon to death. 

The events of Holden Caulfield’s life during the narrative are sketchy at best in relation to the impact upon the millions of readers of the novel. Holden Caulfield is a hero to many rebellious youths desperately searching for an icon of nonconformity in a world hellbent on enforcing conformity from every angle. 

When one begins look closer at the character of Holden Caulfield, however, these readers for whom he represents the ultimate rejection of the established order might be unpleasantly surprised to discover that Holden, living in the golden age of conformity—America in the 1950s—is actually rebelling against progress and liberalism. In a way, Holden Caulfield is nothing more than a young Republican who might deem Pres. Eisenhower as being too progressive.

Catcher in the Rye begins with Holden Caulfield as a 16 year old east coast prep school student who has recently flunked, ust before Christmas vacation. He plans to spend a few days in New York City on his own before he heads home to his family. Holden has friends at school and is personally quite charming, but he also constantly feels alienated from everyone around him, whom he singularly sees as phonies. The one person in all the world he feels closest to his younger sister Phoebe. Unfortunately, Holden fears that if he gets in touch with Phoebe, she will spill the beans about his flunking out and his spending time alone in the city.