The Catcher in the Rye, a short story.
20th Waver Jaeho Park
This is an excerpt from The
Catcher in the Rye. Holden Caulfield views Christmas as a phony holiday,
but when he spends it at school, without his family, for the first time, his
negative thought on Christmas slightly changes.
Damn
Christmas. It’s pretty much the time of the year, when sparkles of love and
happiness fill the air; only to cover up the loneliness and guilt spread upon
the ground. It’s a day that sings about hope and opportunities; while nothing
has changed within. And it’s a celebration of the phonies, for the phonies, by
the phonies. Damn, I’m sorry to Lincoln for using his words in this way,
especially to a president of a Christianity-based country; but hey, don’t think
of it as a blasphemy. A blasphemy itself is merely a “solution” applied to a
problem with no answer. Anyway, this was my thought on a typical Christmas, but
that was when I spent it with my family. This year, it was the first Christmas
I spent alone, at school. And damn there was no shitty “Christmas spirit”
anywhere. That killed me.
Well, I woke
up at noon, on Christmas. I mean, the fact itself was crazy, as millions of
other people would have woken up early, excited by the charming day ahead of
them. I jumped off the bed, and hit the floor with a sleepy, yet refreshing
laughter. Was kind of amused to start away Christmas by sleeping through the
half of it. Then, I went outside the dormitory, only to see a sunny day with a
clear, blue sky. White Christmas was nowhere to see. That really made me laugh.
And like this, I spent hours of time, just simply appreciating this refreshing
feeling the new Christmas gave me. At evening, I went back to my room, and
discovered a Christmas tree my roommates have made. It was made with an
umbrella, a few socks, and some string. The tree looked so trivial, and the
efforts of my friends to mimic the Christmas tree seemed so pathetic. But
somewhere within myself, the words “Merry Christmas” seemed to slightly emerge
for the first time.
