Killers in the Rye

The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger , is a work piece that, in the raw words of a 16 year old boy, deals with topics such as confusion, maturity, distress, among others; however, one of the facts that caught my attention the most (besides the language used, pretty unfamiliar, although close and catchy) is how our protagonist, Holden Caulfield, deals with hypocrisy during the whole reading.

Phonies. Let’s talk about phonies in this one. Holden clarifies that he is surrounded by phonies; false people with false living, falsehood everywhere. To make it clearer, on the very first page he states that his own brother used to be a terrific writer, but now his just a sellout; a prostitute of Hollywood. He even says that movies (probably an observation not only of the character itself but from the writer) are false for showing fake roles, fake emotions; and the people at movies who laughed at stuff that was not funny at all were phonies too. However, as a result of all his experiences on his narration, Holden kind of retreat his feeling of criticizing everything as false in the last fragment of the novel.

Overall, Holden Caulfield results to be one of the most loved character in American literature, as well as The Catcher in the Rye one of the most read novels in the mentioned country. Notwithstanding, there are some special moments in history were this book was controversial, and not precisely for its message, but for its reception and backlash.

It’s well-known the moment in which a man, allegedly insane, shot dead a famous artist, and waited for the police to arrest him while reading The Catcher in the Rye in the crime scene; I’m talking about Mark David Chapman, who on December 8^th, 1980, discharged his weapon against John Lennon, at the entrance of the building where Lennon resided. Lennon was a musician and peace activist; Chapman, a huge follower of Holden Caulfield’s image and thinking. Lennon was an atheist, as he expressed on his work; Chapman, a “born again” Christian. Mark Chapman thought that Lennon was a phony for being an activist of peace and social justice, and yet he did not  followed the path of God, which had no sense for Chapman.

After the murder, Chapman sat near Lennon and proceeded to read The Catcher in the Rye, in the wait for his arrest. When the police confiscated his book, they found the sentence “this is my statement”, signed by Holden Caulfield, exposing his obsession of emulating the fictional character.

But not only Chapman was obsessed by this character: John Hinckley, who tried to kill President Ronald Reagan, happened to have a copy of the novel on the coffee table of his house, found by the police. Robert John Bardo, who had mental issues, who also had little to none tolerance to falsehood, and  who stalked Madonna and the actress Samantha Smith, found the American actress and model Rebecca Schaeffer alone in her domicile and killed her in 1989, having a copy of the book with him on the crime scene, the same as Chapman did.

We cannot say that The Catcher in the Rye is a book that encourages people to be murderers; if that would be the case, there should be hundred or million cases similar to what happened with Chapman, Bardo or Hinckley. But after reading the book, which may be the overall factor that triggered this behavior, and consequently these mentioned events?

References:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1965201-introducing-the-catcher-criminals
http://www.hiddenmysteries.org/conspiracy/reststory/fbirye.html