I'm Crazy
"I'm Crazy" is a short story written by J. D. Salinger for the December 22, 1945[1] issue of Collier's magazine.[2] Despite the story's underlying melancholy, the magazine described it as "the heart-warming story of a kid whose only fault lay in understanding people so well that most of them were baffled by him and only a very few would believe in him".[3]
The story is told in first-person narrative mode by Holden Caulfield. Salinger later reworked the story to incorporate it into his classic novel The Catcher in the Rye.
Synopsis
Boarding school dropout Holden Caulfield watches a basketball game from a nearby hill. He then visits his elderly history teacher Mr. Spencer, who lectures him about his academic failure. Holden tells Mr. Spencer about meeting the mother of a "lousy" fellow student on the train and lying to her about how wonderful her son was, which Holden thought would make her feel better. He regrets withdrawing from school mainly because his mother had just sent him ski boots, albeit the wrong kind.
Holden likes Mr. Spencer but realizes that he will receive no sympathy or understanding from him, so he leaves abruptly. He boards a train to New York City and sneaks into his family's apartment, where he talks to his younger sisters Phoebe and Viola. Even Phoebe admonishes him for his academic failure. Holden finally owns up to his parents in a scene that is only described very briefly and indirectly ("When they were all done with me ..."). He concludes that he will not be returned to school but forced into an unpleasant office job.
References
- ^ [http://www.betweenthecovers.com/btc/item/350868/ "I'm Crazy" (story in Collier's, December 22, 1945) - SALINGER, J.D. | Between the Covers Rare Books
- ^ Slawenski, Kenneth (2010). "Sallinger Uncollected Stories". Dead Caulfields.
"I'm Crazy" is an early version of Holden's departure from prep school that later shows up in The Catcher in the Rye.
- ^ Salinger, J. D. (22 December 1945). "I'm Crazy". Collier's Weekly. New York: Crowell-Collier Publishing Company.
- v
- t
- e
- Nine Stories
- Franny and Zooey
- Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction
- Three Early Stories
- "Blue Melody"
- "Both Parties Concerned"
- "A Boy in France"
- "De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period"
- "Down at the Dinghy"
- "Elaine"
- "For Esmé—with Love and Squalor"
- "A Girl I Knew"
- "Go See Eddie"
- "The Hang of It"
- "Hapworth 16, 1924"
- "The Heart of a Broken Story"
- "I'm Crazy"
- "The Inverted Forest"
- "Just Before the War with the Eskimos"
- "Last Day of the Last Furlough"
- "The Laughing Man"
- "The Long Debut of Lois Taggett"
- "Once a Week Won't Kill You"
- "A Perfect Day for Bananafish"
- "Personal Notes of an Infantryman"
- "Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes"
- "Slight Rebellion off Madison"
- "Soft-Boiled Sergeant"
- "The Stranger"
- "Teddy"
- "This Sandwich Has No Mayonnaise"
- "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut"
- "The Varioni Brothers"
- "The Young Folks"
- "A Young Girl in 1941 with No Waist at All"
Unpublished |
|
---|
- Matt Salinger (son)
- Holden Caulfield
- Glass family
- Salinger v. Random House, Inc.
- My Foolish Heart (1949)
- Pari (1995)
- Salinger (2013) (companion biography)
- Manhattan's Babe (2014)
- Coming Through the Rye (2015 film)
- Rebel in the Rye (2017)
- My Salinger Year (2020)
- Category
This article about a short story (or stories) published in the 1940s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
- v
- t
- e