Holden Caulfield: The Catcher in the Rye
Holden cannot accept the help of others because he shuns the conventional world and in this sense becomes an iconoclast to his entire society. It can be theorized that he finds himself in such a predicament primarily because of his traumatic past. Two major deaths scarred Holden’s development and most likely were the reasons for his consequential bent perception of the world. Holden lost one of his dearest and most precious companions, his younger brother Allie Caulfield, early in life. He probably never recovered from this tragedy and thus this death must contribute to Holden’s current turbulent mental state. In addition, Holden also witnessed the suicide of fellow classmate James Castle, who resembles Holden through his unknown status in school and his futility fighting against oppressive bullies.
James Castle’s circumstances must have influenced Holden’s outlook on life as they reflect Holden’s current predicament in that Holden is now an unknown of society and fights corrupt “phonies.” Consequentially, the sum of such a traumatic history results in negative impact on Holden’s mental health as he becomes lost and roams about the streets of Brooklyn having morbid thoughts and turbid emotions as he searches ceaselessly and futilely for stability in life and eventual finds himself on the brink of emotional breakdown.
Holden is undergoing a natural stage of life in which he must pass from childhood and adolescence to adulthood. Adolescence is a difficult time for Holden as he struggles to find stability and identity. Along the way, he concludes that adulthood is corrupt and impure and attempts to resist the transition to maturity. His immature mental defiance is stubborn and persistent despite the obvious physical changes he is undergoing through his natural passage into adulthood. For example, his hormones have caused a growth spurt in Holden’s height. “I grew six and a half inches last year.” (Salinger 8).
His body is undergoing a natural process of development in his years of adolescence and this does not exactly please Holden as he feels he needs to maintain the innocence of youth and resist the corruption of adulthood. “I looked exactly like the guy in the article with lousy hormones.” (Salinger 254). However, in contrast, in other examples, oddly Holden tries to appear more mature. Holden ingests large amounts of alcohol despite being under legal age, is fascinated by sex, and smokes cigarettes. Such actions suggest that something troubles Holden and he has some sort of illness or insecurity.
Holden makes his troubles known by reaching out to others. He does this by attempting to appear more mature or engaging in activities that appear startling as so to ensure his attempts do not go unnoticed. In one example he asks a waiter for liquor but the waiter does not fall for Holden’s fast talk.
I ordered a Scotch and soda, and told him not to mix it-I said it fast as hell, because if you hem and haw, they think you’re under twenty-one and won’t sell you any intoxicating liquor. I had trouble with him anyway, though. “I’m sorry, sir,” he said, “but do you have some verification of your age? Your driver’s license, perhaps?” (Salinger 91.)
This just shows that most of Holden’s efforts do not fool anybody, yet Holden persists regardless. Many times, people wonder what he is doing and why he engages in vices such as drinking and smoking when he is obviously not old enough for such activities. However, even when they realize his cry for help, few are able to help him or even try to help him. In addition to his vice of underage drinking, Holden also thinks of vulgar thoughts occasionally and finds them strangely arousing all the while knowing that such adulteration is corrupt and impure.
In my mind, I’m probably the biggest sex maniac you ever saw. Sometimes I can think of very crumby stuff I wouldn’t mind doing if the opportunity came up. âÂ?¦.The thing is, thought, I don’t like the idea. It stinks, if you analyze it. (Salinger 81).
These vulgar thoughts that Holden has foil with his views that love should be mutual and pure and honest. Oh the topic of sex, Holden often finds himself in a state of confusion and is torn between his ideals and his natural desire for sex. “Sex is something I really don’t understand too hot. You never know where the hell you are. I keep making up these sex rules for myself, and then I break them right away.” (Salinger 82).
As a developing adolescent, naturally he is interested in the opposite sex, but Holden brings it to the next level. Holden flirts with older mature women and they giggle at him because his efforts seem premature for his age. “I started giving the three witches at the next table the eye again âÂ?¦. They probably thought I was too young to give anybody the once-over.” (Salinger 91). Such activities with older women are unnatural for a boy of his age yet Holden persists still. Holden also hired a prostitute in one episode on the whim as a desperate cry for companionship. These examples of Holden’s actions clearly illustrate how his behavior can be contradictory to his values and ideals.
This demonstrates that Holden is searching for his identity and acceptance and belonging by engaging in mature activities. However, the fact that the adult society sees through his faÃ?§ade reinforces Holden’s alienation from his society. In effect, Holden retaliates by rejecting adulthood and continues to criticize its flaws as he indulges in them. He passes judgment quickly on those that he feels are corrupt and calls them “phony.” This only further worsens Holden’s situation and even further detaches him from society and help. But how did such a vicious cycle of self-destruction start? Questions arise as to whether Holden has always been this way. It can be theorized that his lost identity could be the result of two specific tragedies from his past.
There are two main events from Holden’s past that had great effect on shaping Holden’s turbulent personality. The first of which was the death of his dear younger brother Allie who Holden idolizes to immeasurable bounds. Allie’s death was a great tragedy to Holden and led to his admission to an asylum after his initial violent emotional collapse. In a frenzy of sadness and frustration on the night that Allie died, Holden smashed all the windows in his garage with his bare fists.
I was only thirteen, and they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all, because I broke all the windows in the garage. I don’t blame them. I really don’t. I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my first just for the hell of it. âÂ?¦. My hand still hurts me once in a while, when it rains and all, and I can’t make a real fist any moreâÂ?¦” (Salinger 50).
This event was perhaps the primary turning point in Holden’s life. The effect of Allie’s death apparently still has effect on Holden physically and psychologically. Holden’s hand is permanently physically damaged just as his mental health was shattered as well. Holden appreciates few things in life and Allie must be the number one on that small list of Holden’s values. The loss of one of the few and precious companions surely would have adverse effects on Holden. During periods of stress, Holden still thinks of Allie despite his passing away and finds inspiration and comfort. In one episode, when Phoebe asks what Holden really likes in life, he responds that he likes Allie. When Phoebe contests that Allie is dead, Holden insists,
“I know he’s dead! âÂ?¦ Just because somebody’s dead, you don’t just stop liking them, for God’s sake-especially if they were about a thousand times nicer than the people you know that’re alive and all.” (Salinger 223).
This quotation illustrates that Holden still has a negative view of society and also illustrates the psychological impact of Allie’s death. By saying that Allie was a thousand times better than the people of today, Holden shows that he still misses Allie and that compared to Allie the rest of the world is crummy. In a sense, Allie and Phoebe are the only sources of companionship and solace in Holden’s companionless world. With one gone, things only look worse and worse for Holden.
The second event that most likely played a key role in molding Holden’s perception of the world was the suicide of a feeble, skinny classmate named James Castle. James Castle was a scrawny anti-social boy who was pretty much an unknown in Holden’s school Pencey just as Holden was. “He was a skinny little weak-looking guy, which wrists about as big as pencils.” (Salinger 221). Holden and Castle also never knew each other well at all, but still, they shared several similarities. Like Holden, who failed nearly all of his classes, Castle wasn’t in the scholarly spotlight either. “He was one of these very quiet guys. He was in my math class, but he was way over on the other side of the room, and he hardly got up to recite or go to the blackboard or anything.” (Salinger 222).
This shows that Holden and Castle shared a lot in common despite not really knowing each other and these similarities may have helped Holden identify with Castle’s plight. Castle was bullied one fateful day by a group of boys and refused to apologize for calling one of the bullies conceited. Castle refused the bullies’ demands and escaped by lunging himself out of a window to fall to his death. Afterwards, the bullies responsible faced menial charges and faced only expulsion from the school, rather than conviction for manslaughter or murder. “All they did with the guys that were in the room with him was expel them. They didn’t even go to jail.” (Salinger 221). Holden must have been able to understand Castle’s perspective from Castle’s fight for justice despite great odds.
In this sense perhaps Holden identified Castle as a martyr to a cause and drew inspiration to be more like him in his unyielding battle against “phonies” and corruption of adulthood. Holden reveals later his disappointment and outrage to his younger sister Phoebe that he was sick of the world and its corruption and injustice. “People never think anything is anything really. I’m getting goddam sick of it.” (Salinger 223). Apparently, Holden continues to lose faith in society and further isolates himself from it. Castle’s demise only reinforces Holden’s bent perception that society is corrupt and injust. Also, there are noticeable parallels from Castle’s history to Holden’s.
Castle’s case is parallel to Holden’s situation in that Castle fought and refused to yield to a group of bullies just as Holden fights and refuses to yield to the conventions of adult society. The fights of both characters were futile and both ended in tragedy and failure as well; Castle was thrown to suicide and Holden was admitted to an asylum for psychoanalysis.
It’s not really possible to pinpoint exactly how much of an influence James Castle’s circumstances have on Holden’s rejection of society. However, the similarities and relationships suggest that the parallel nature of Holden’s and Castle’s plights seem to share identical fundamental elements. This theory is also is believable because for as any person, the witness of a gruesome suicide is bound to leave with some psychological scars and cause adverse effects.
In conclusion, Holden Caulfield from Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye is a troubled nonconformist adolescent who finds himself isolated from society and in a position in which he cannot rectify his detached situation. Holden is in the confusing process of passing from adolescence and innocence to what he feels is a corrupt adult society. Along the way, Holden has trouble finding identity and security as he isolates himself from his society by shutting out the world and criticizing others who he deems “phonies.” Because he is so adamant to criticize the world and reject its values and conventions he consequentially isolates himself from people who try to him along the way through this stressful period of transition.
Holden draws much of his passion to continue the fight against the corruption of adulthood from memories of the death of his younger brother Allie and the suicide of his classmate James Castle. Consequential to his fight against society, he finds himself near emotional breakdown near the end of the novel and tells his story from a psychiatric asylum. Perhaps if Holden had a less traumatic past and was able to reach out to more sympathetic companions, he would find himself in a less unsettled present and future.
