V. GANGADHAR
Two novels, very different in nature, still influence people.
ALBERT CAMUS' The Outsider and J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye. On the surface, these two famous novels have nothing in common. Yet at a poll by London University 500 men, professionally interested in literature, voted these novels as ones that had changed their lives to a certain extent. The men voted for books that dealt with isolation, indifference and alienation and viewed from this point of view the choice of The Outsider makes sense. Published in 1942 when France was overrun by the Nazi hordes, The Outsider reflected the mood of the times. Twenty-nine-year old, Algerian-born Albert Camus, after a brief flirtation with Marxism, was disillusioned. After several odd jobs, he had found his feet in journalism, working for Alger-Republicain, a paper that championed workers' causes. He was a prolific writer, excelling in reviews, commentary and issues dealing with exploitation of the masses. Writing The Outsider ( L'Etranger) came easy to him. The hero, Meursault, is completely indifferent to everything except immediate physical sensations. He is unmoved by his mother's death and funeral, and is only bothered that he had to take leave of absence from work. One afternoon, almost blinded by the bright sun, Meursault shoots down a knife-wielding Arab, pumping four bullets into him when he is down. He displays the same indifference when he is tried and sentenced to death. His only defence is "I was blinded by the sun when I killed the Arab."
Similarities with author
Critics detected similarities between Camus and his hero. From the beginning, Meursault was conscious of the nature and value of the attitudes he represented and, like Camus, wanted society to know how much he despised it. As Camus wrote in 1955, "One would not be much mistaken in reading L'Etranger, as the story of a man who, without any heroics, accepts to die for the truth." Salinger's Catcher in the Rye is of a different genre. It became a cult movement, particularly among the youth. First published in 1951, it remained on the bestsellers' list for several years. Holden is a member of American society, which had everything to give to its affluent representatives. In return, it expects people, including youngsters, to think on stereotyped lines. Holden Caulfield attends some of the best private schools and is thrown out of every one because he could not think and act on pre-determined lines. The only people who understand him were his brother, a creative writer in Hollywood and his younger sister, Phoebe. The book is also a comic masterpiece. We read, laugh and then ponder. Everyone is a "phoney" to the hero. The book is peopled with characters we meet in everyday life from the nail-chewing, pimply-faced schoolmates to the selfish, greedy school principals and teachers who suppress the creativity of young minds. So Holden Caulfield finds great pleasure in spotting phonies and being a compulsory liar. What does Holden want to be when he grows up? He tells Phoebe, "I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this field of rye. There is nobody around, nobody big, I mean, except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everyone, if they start to go over the cliff, I mean, if they're running and don't look where they are going. I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all the time, I'd just be the Catcher in the Rye, and that's all. I know that it's crazy, but that's the only thing I want to do." Despite being grown ups, most of us want to do crazy things. That accounts for the eternal popularity of Catcher in the Rye. The disillusionment, the hope and the dream to live a life of our choice. Even if it meant being a catcher in the rye!