ᴀ ꜱɪɢʜᴛ ꜰᴏʀ ꜱᴏʀᴇ ᴇʏᴇꜱ // ʙɪʟʟʏ ʜᴀʀɢʀᴏᴠᴇ

4 - The Catcher In The Rye

"I get bored sometimes when people tell me to act my age. Sometimes I act a lot older than I am - I really do - but people never notice it. People never notice anything.", Mr. Whitlock recited.
"One of Holden Caulfield's most striking quotes, in my opinion."

My english teacher had just quoted the protagonist of the book our class had to read.
'The Catcher in the Rye'
Unfortunately, I seemed to be part of the minority of people that were really fond of reading J. D. Salinger's most influential novel.

"You read the book, at least I hope you did." He paused to glance warningly at certain students like Tommy or Billy over the edge of his glasses. "Tell me something. What touched you the most? How would you describe Holden, our protagonist, as a character?"

After a moment of no reaction, someone in the back raised their hand.

"Yes, Miss Arnolds.", Mr. Whitlock pointed at Sue, the girl from the party last weekend.

"He is quite troubled, I think."

The teacher looked at the pretty brunette for a while, waiting to see if there was something following that short statement.

"Yes. Troubled, indeed. Anything else?"

The student looked puzzled, I could practically hear the gears turn and turn inside of her head. But I was surprised she even said something at all, that was not really like her. She didn't usually say much in class. I didn't know her well enough to know wether the reason was a lack of interest or rather a lack of grey matter, though.

After a while of pondering, her best friend whispered something in her ear, which made Susan's mouth form to a cheeky smile.

"He's acting very irrational of course. He's impulsive and his thoughts are actually very unsettling to us as a reader. I mean he says all these inadequate things but doesn't comprehend why he's getting rejected by everyone else."

Well summarized, I thought.

Mr. Whitlock seemed just as amazed and nodded at Susan with raised eyebrows.
"Very good, Susan! But why is that so? What is the reason he acts and thinks the way he does?"

That seemed to really put Susan off and her friend didn't seem to know the answer either.

"No one?"

The class went silent, only a few murmurs under the students audible.

"Just say something.", Jon sighed, leaning closer to me.
My eyebrows furrowed.
"Huh?"
"I know you want to.", he said, nudging me in the ribs.

I huffed.
Slowly, while observing the room to see wether someone else wanted to answer that question, I raised my hand.

"Please, Miss Mahan. What do you think?"

I leaned back in my seat, organizing the thoughts in my head.

"Holden is obviously suffering from PTSD, due to his previous loss. So I think the book is also about bringing awareness to the disorder and how it can affect every aspect of your life, without you even noticing it.", I explained, fiddling with my pen.

"Exactly." My teacher crossed his arms in front of his chest. "And what made you get that impression, Miss Mahan?"

"Uhm.. well, he seems to not have fully recovered from the death of his brother, who was diagnosed with leukemia, and his friend, whose death he witnesses later in the book. He was never able to overcome this trauma, so all his untreated depression and pain just builds itself up and converts into highly unbalanced emotions and nihilism. We as readers also see the flashbacks Holden gets, which are also substantial traits of PTSD."