J. D. Salinger_ A Life - Kenneth Slawenski [47]
Among the six Holden Caulfield stories (or chapters, depending on Salinger’s mood) in his possession in April 1944 was the story “I’m Crazy.” The history of this piece is particularly interesting. Salinger would use it in 1944 as an indicator to test Burnett’s commitment to the now-proposed Young Folks anthology. The following year, he submitted the story to Collier’s, which published it in its December 1945 issue. Eventually, however, the story appeared in its intended position, incorporated into The Catcher in the Rye as the chapters in which Holden visits Mr. Spencer and leaves Pencey Prep. Since much of “I’m Crazy” appears in The Catcher in the Rye with minor alterations, its plot is familiar to many readers. Yet the story was written six years before the novel was published, offering fascinating contrasts and insights into the evolution of the book. Also, because this story falls between Holden’s first account in “Slight Rebellion off Madison” and his final testimony in The Catcher in the Rye, it should be recognized as sharing elements of both, with a climax resembling that of its predecessor, “Last Day of the Last Furlough.”
In “Madison,” Salinger used a remote third-person narrative to tell Holden’s tale. “I’m Crazy” employs a first-person account through the voice of Holden Caulfield and is far more intimate than Salinger’s first attempt. However, the story is not relayed as a stream of consciousness, and the voice of Holden in “I’m Crazy” is not the same as it will be in Catcher. Though far more intimate than the self-conscious exchange of “Madison,” it is still not completely spontaneous. The narration of “I’m Crazy” is more deliberate and certain than it is in Catcher. In some instances, it is also more precise and poetic.
Stylistic differences aside, the major distinction between “I’m Crazy” and The Catcher in the Rye is in their endings. In Catcher, the climax comes at the Central Park carousel, but in “I’m Crazy,” it comes at the bedside of Holden’s little sister, much as it did for Babe Gladwaller. After accepting the chastisement of his parents—an event we never witness in Catcher—Holden slips into his sisters’ room while they are asleep. There he pauses briefly at Phoebe’s bedside. But it is another sister, Viola, who makes her sole appearance in this story, who draws Holden’s attention and becomes the source of his enlightenment. Viola is sleeping in her crib with her Donald Duck toy. She has recently taken a strange liking to cocktail olives (which she calls “ovvels”), and Holden has brought her some. He lines them up on the railing of Viola’s crib. “One of them fell on the floor,” he tells us. “I picked it up, felt dust on it, and put it in my jacket pocket. Then I left the room.”26 This is a tiny act involving common and unremarkable elements, but it can also be interpreted as symbolic: Holden’s withholding of the soiled olive represents his desire to protect the purity of his little sister, a sign of his appreciation of Viola’s innocence. It is an appreciation that he attains at the same time that he surrenders the rights to his own. Returning to his room, Holden speaks to the reader of compromise. He seals the story with a definitive statement that the later novel lacks: “I knew everybody was right and I was wrong,” he concludes with resignation.
The fourth of Salinger’s Caulfield stories, “I’m Crazy” expounds upon themes first tackled in “Last Day of the Last Furlough.” “I’m Crazy” goes beyond “Furlough