Death of Icon Hits the Heart of Students, Staff
Issue date: 2/1/10 Section: Features
J.D. Salinger, the reclusive and legendary author of the famous book The Catcher in the Rye, died this past Wednesday at the age of 91. Salinger was a secretive and elusive man. Even so, a half a century after his last work was published, he remained an extremely celebrated American author, and his near-extinct presence on the literary world will be greatly missed.
Salinger's initial fame came during the time of beatnik
poets, James Dean and Marilyn Monroe, but to most of the current generations, his name is most likely synonymous
with a high school English class.
Initially scrutinized and banned by the American public, J.D. Salinger's most famous piece of work, The Catcher in the Rye, ironically
is now one of the most common books on American high school reading lists.
The book still remains a source of conflict because the main character, Holden Caulfield, is not considered to be a suitable role model for readers.
The Catcher in the Rye, published in 1951, remains in the public eye for more reasons
than high school reading
lists. Holden Caulfield's search for his identity and the main plot for The Catcher in the Rye extend over generation
gaps, translated into all of the world's major languages
and sold somewhere around 65 million copies worldwide.
Although The Catcher in the Rye was never made into a movie, the idea of a lost young man looking for himself
lived on as a cinematic theme.
Just one example is the movie The Good Girl with Jennifer Aniston and Jake Gyllenhaal.
Gyllenhaal's character related so much to Holden Caulfield that he changed his name to Holden. Several other
films are said to have been based around The Catcher in the Rye, including Igby Goes Down, Chasing Amy, Donnie Darko and Woody Allen's Annie
Hall.
Perhaps the continued references
of Salinger's work in media explains why even people who were never assigned
J.D. Salinger's books, like Henderson senior mass media major Katy Cox, still chose to read his work on their own.
Cox, who recently read The Catcher in the Rye, said, "I never had to read it for school. I just read it on my own in my free time, and I really
enjoyed it."
J.D. Salinger's disappearance
from the public eye disappointed so many people who expected to keep reading
his work before he went into hiding. Many have waited
years for him to publish again.
"We always think it's a loss when a great writer dies," Henderson English Department
Professor Tricia Barr said.
"Salinger hasn't been publishing
for years, but if he's been writing he's been sitting
on a great storehouse of wonderful stuff," Barr said. "Hopefully if that's the case, we'll get to see something."
Salinger's initial fame came during the time of beatnik
poets, James Dean and Marilyn Monroe, but to most of the current generations, his name is most likely synonymous
with a high school English class.
Initially scrutinized and banned by the American public, J.D. Salinger's most famous piece of work, The Catcher in the Rye, ironically
is now one of the most common books on American high school reading lists.
The book still remains a source of conflict because the main character, Holden Caulfield, is not considered to be a suitable role model for readers.
The Catcher in the Rye, published in 1951, remains in the public eye for more reasons
than high school reading
lists. Holden Caulfield's search for his identity and the main plot for The Catcher in the Rye extend over generation
gaps, translated into all of the world's major languages
and sold somewhere around 65 million copies worldwide.
Although The Catcher in the Rye was never made into a movie, the idea of a lost young man looking for himself
lived on as a cinematic theme.
Just one example is the movie The Good Girl with Jennifer Aniston and Jake Gyllenhaal.
Gyllenhaal's character related so much to Holden Caulfield that he changed his name to Holden. Several other
films are said to have been based around The Catcher in the Rye, including Igby Goes Down, Chasing Amy, Donnie Darko and Woody Allen's Annie
Hall.
Perhaps the continued references
of Salinger's work in media explains why even people who were never assigned
J.D. Salinger's books, like Henderson senior mass media major Katy Cox, still chose to read his work on their own.
Cox, who recently read The Catcher in the Rye, said, "I never had to read it for school. I just read it on my own in my free time, and I really
enjoyed it."
J.D. Salinger's disappearance
from the public eye disappointed so many people who expected to keep reading
his work before he went into hiding. Many have waited
years for him to publish again.
"We always think it's a loss when a great writer dies," Henderson English Department
Professor Tricia Barr said.
"Salinger hasn't been publishing
for years, but if he's been writing he's been sitting
on a great storehouse of wonderful stuff," Barr said. "Hopefully if that's the case, we'll get to see something."
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