J. D. Salinger was influential without trying to be. Young people took to his work with an avidity that is surprising by today’s standards. Today when the young totally disrespect their elders and take for granted that they know better by the time they are 16 it is difficult to imagine a time when youth planned to follow in their parents’ footsteps. But that was how things were up until the time that Salinger’s most influential work, "The Catcher In The Rye," was published in 1951. In this still important novel the lead character, Holden Caulfield, gives voice to the rebellious and disquieting youth that sees the flaws of the older generation – the adult world – but is powerless to correct the wrongs he sees or even to find a place for himself within it.
