Rebel, Rebel

Please meet Holden Caulfield, TEH rebel. The guy here is the protagonist, the essence of American writer J.D. Salinger’s masterpiece: “The Catcher in the Rye” (1951).
“Holden TEH rebel” I said before, well, he is: he is an adolescent but he’s not James Dean, he’s not a “rebel without a cause” nor a pretender who fakes his own rebellion for fashion. Some critics said, wrote that Holden Caulfield and his own life are just failures, others affirm that the days reported in the book are just a phase to him, others again that Holden is the only true adult of the story in seeing and understanding things that a lot of grown up people just don’t.
Well, I disagree: I think Holden is not a failure, I think Holden is not just a confused adolescent living a momentary period of his life at all and that yes, he’s an adult, but, according to me, this isn’t the major theme of the novel. I think Holden is so much more than this: he’s a fighter, he’s a person who mocks the ones he calls “phonies” with their own daily bread, the hypocrisy; he doesn’t have respect for fake people and that’s why he lies to them, not for adolescent reasons, not just to have fun. He always fights what he just despises, avoiding being like people he refuses: that’s what makes of Holden a rebel, but, above all, what really makes of him a great person, a rebel with a cause, is the relationship with his little sister Phoebe.
Phoebe is true, she’s just a child but she’s so damn smart, so brilliant, so wise, she’s just what Holden is not, what probably he will never be; Phoebe is Holden’s projection, she’s his rational part, she’s his shelter and he’s so in love with her, so respectful toward her that he would never lie to her, because she doesn’t deserve it and because she herself would never lie to him, to her brother, to the blood of her blood. This relationship is what makes of Holden a better person, it’s what gives meaning to this young boy’s life and what gives him strength and courage, hope and faith; this relationship is what makes him aware of his own mistakes and limits, but more than everything it is what always reminds him that it’s worthy being a rebel who fights, who never surrenders, who never gives up if this means making of the world a better place in which to live, to dream, to hope and fight and, above all, making all of this for those people who love, protect and care about you the most.
I sincerely believe that who doesn’t recognize the greatness of a person, of a life like that of J.D. Salinger’s literary creature is exactly who we really must fight against: our enemy is the phony society with its false principles and values which alienate the ones who are considered to be different and dangerous or just childish rebels because of their fighter souls, because of their freedom, because of the truth in both their feelings and actions, because they never accept something just because it is what the mass accepts, because they still have the courage of their own ideas.