Kelly Jennings

Mrs. Anderson
Response to Clements and NY Times Article
September 19, 2016
Through close observation of the narrator in The Catcher in the Rye, it is evident that
Holden Caulfield is an outsider in society who has trepidations about his entrance into
adulthood. Recent studies by the New York

Times have shown that Holdens trepidations are

common, especially among young people today, despite the opinions of his peers, who make
him feel like an outsider, as he does not have a clear plan for his future.
Victor Turner, a twentieth century British cultural anthropologist, defines the concept of
an outsider as, the condition of being either permanently and by ascription set outside the
structural arrangements of a given social system (Turner; 1947). Contrary to Turners definition,
Paul Clements, author of Charles Bukowski, Outsider Literature, and the Beat of Movement,
believes that a phase of being an outsider is normal, as it gives young people a better feeling
about re-joining society as adults. Of these two views, Turners most closely relates to Holden
because his state of outsiderdom seems more permanent rather than a phase.
Two years ago, on September 19, 2014, Laurence Steinberg published T
he Case for
Delayed Adulthood: Gray Matter
in the New York Times. The article focused on a case study
which showed that since the late 1970s, each generation has taken longer to finish school,
establish financial independence, and start a family. Steinberg believes that those who prolong
adolescence actually have an advantage, as the college environment provides challenges that
stimulate the brain in several ways that just maturing does not. Though these studies were
performed starting in the late 1970s, they do not entirely exclude those from earlier years.
Holden was a minority in this sense during his adolescent years. If he was an adolescent today,
however, he would be part of the majority.

Apart from the educational aspect of this study, Steinberg also discusses the topic of
marriage. There is a study which shows that dating may be better for your brain than marriage
is, whereas dating tends to be unpredictable, with what could potentially be a change in
partners, and marriage can be repetitive, with little unpredictability. By studying Holden, readers
can tell that he does not like repetitive behaviors. He likes going out and doing things with
different people everyday. Holden does not seem like the type who can settle down with one
person for the rest of his life, as readers can see based on his Jane versus Sally mental debate.