Guardian Del Centeno (Inglés)

Catcher in The Rye (El guardián entre el centeno)

Resumen

Chapter One:

The Catcher in the Rye begins with the statement by the narrator, Holden Caulfield, that he will not tell about his "lousy" childhood and "all that David Copperfield kind of crap" because such details bore him. He describes his parents as nice, but "touchy as hell." Instead, Holden vows to tell about what happened tohim around last Christmas, before he had to take it easy. He also mentions his brother, D.B., who is nearby in Hollywood "being a prostitute." Holden was a student at Pencey Prep in Agerstown, Pennsylvania, and he mocks their advertisements, which claim to have been molding boys into clear-thinking young men since 1888. Holden begins his story during the Saturday of the football game with SaxonHall, which was supposed to be a very big deal at Pencey. Selma Thurmer, the daughter of the headmaster, is at the game. Although she is unattractive and a bit pathetic, to Holden she seems nice enough, for she does not lavish praise upon her father. Holden, the manager of the fencing team, had just returned from New York with the team. Although they were supposed to have a meet with the McBurneySchool, Holden left the foils on the subway. The fencing team was angry at Holden, but he thought the entire event was funny in a way. Holden does not attend the football game, instead choosing to say goodbye to Spencer, his history teacher, who knew that Holden was not coming back to Pencey. Holden had recently been expelled for failing four classes.

Analysis:

J.D. Salinger begins TheCatcher in the Rye with a bold and sarcastic declaration. His main character immediately rejects the idea that the events that he describes in the novel consist of his life story or that this story is indicative of any larger message. He eschews the Dickensian idea of literature, in which plot points and narrative progression serve a moral end, and rather adopts a discursive style with no concreteŒmessage.' Salinger resists the idea that Catcher in the Rye serves an instructive end or acts as a cautionary tale; rather, as Holden insists, it is a tale that exists independent of any larger meaning or message.

Although Holden insists that his story serves no larger purpose, in this first chapter Salinger establishes several conventions of a cautionary tale. Holden indicates that he has to "takeit easy" at a new place, strongly implying that he now is found receiving psychiatric help. Also, details of Holden's life indicate that he is pursuing an aimless and self-destructive path. Expelled from school for failing several classes, Holden essentially describes himself as a perpetual failure. Even worse, in his failings he takes a complete disregard for others. His solipsisticself-destruction makes him unable to grasp the consequences of his actions. When he loses the fencing equipment on the trip to New York, he is unable to comprehend that his action was irresponsible; instead, he focuses on how he feels his mistake, which he insists is not his fault, is humorous.

Holden Caulfield is in many ways a typical teenager, skeptical of all authority and with a truculent attitudethat stems from a cynical naïveté. Within the first several paragraphs he dismisses his parents as "touchy" and his brother as a sellout to Hollywood consumerism, yet provides no real critique of their behavior. With the exception of Mr. Spencer and, to a more limited extent, Selma Thurmer, Holden displays contempt for every character he mentions and all of the actions they undertake. The one valuethat he tends to espouse is authenticity, although he has no concrete definition of what this entails. Although he finds Selma Thurmer's failed attempts to artificially better her appearance, his greatest compliment about the headmaster's daughter is that she portrays her father honestly, in Holden's view. This focus on authenticity and, in turn, the essential phoniness of others around him,...