A claim.

Ok finally today I know, I have no ability to comprehend Vietnamese, or at least Vietnamese that was translated from some other languages. Trust me in this, I'm not joking around 'cause I wanna raise attention since one would frown and come at me with such disgust on their face and call me a show-off. 

Since long ago, I have always wondered why the hell I could not absorb any meaning of "Bắt trẻ đồng xanh". The only thing that motivated me to read the book is because a friend introduced it to me and said "Isn't Holden just who you are?". I was curious. So I read; and though as excited as I was to realize how much he resembles me, I still cannot get myself out of the goddamn annoying question popping in my head: "What the hell does this novel convey?". Later on I found out the novel is considered to be one of the greatest books in American literature, along with "The great Gatsby" and "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn". So there, I tried reading it again, still that same old translated-English green cover book I got from a bookstore. I was furious, I was left dumb-founded once again. You have to know that I was frustrated not because the book is considered to be so great and I could not comprehend a thing [which would make me look like an idiot]; I was because I admire Holden Caufield. I even have him as my comrade in my mind. A comrade with the same point of view for this world, the same hatred for "phony" and a denial to be matured. That was when I tried myself out with the original book. Ah ha, and as you may guess, I finally know what it means  to be a catcher in the rye. Like quoted from the book itself: 

"Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all.  Thousands of little kids, and nobody's 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 everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them.  That's all I do all day.  I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all.  I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be." 

It was this kind of easy English that left the book unfathomable to me for such long time. So I, again, believe Vietnamese is not my means of communication at all [at least so far]. The translated one might get through to anyone right away, but not me. Such hard work to ultimately understand something you love. Phew.

I'm reading the book again and Holden's still in me. :)