Turning your back on the world is not good
A major theme of J.D. Salinger’s novel, “ The Catcher in the Rye,” is turning your back on the world is not good. The teenage boy Holden Caulfield demonstrates this theme in the story with the constant negativity he receives as result of his negative attitude.
When someone turns their back on the world the consequences are bad. Holden shows this by slacking off leading to his expulsion from school. “ They gave me frequent warning to start applying myself…but I didn’t do it. So I got the ax.” Holden proves this theme once more by vandalizing in a fit of rage over the death of his little brother Allie. “I was only thirteen…I broke all the windows in the garage.” Even when Holden does not express his negativity physically he expresses them mentally. “I’m always saying “Glad to’ve met you” to somebody I’m not at all glad I met.” “I felt more depressed much more depressed than sexy.” When a young man turns his back on sex there is definitely something wrong. Even chances for great friendships are ruined when Holden turns his back on a former roommate. “But I roomed with him for about two whole months, even though he bored me till I was half crazy, just because he was such a terrific whistler….” A chance for romance is ruined also when Holden is annoyed by the supposed inane conversation of his date Sally. “You give me a royal pain in the ass…” The characters in the book are not oblivious to the fact of Holden’s back turning and negativity.
Holden’s little sister Phoebe could see that he turned his back on school after Holden sneaked in her room early for holiday break. “You did get kicked out!” His old teacher and good friend Mr. Antolini saw that he had a tendency to turn his back on the world too. “…I can very clearly see you dying nobly, one way or another, for some highly unworthy cause.” Holden finally realizes too that turning his back on people isn’t good. “Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.”
All the examples of Holden’s back turning in the story show how negativity pushes people away.
J.D Salinger gives his personal vision of the world successfully through his persona Holden Caulfield in the ‘Catcher in the Rye’. Caulfield struggles with the background of New York to portray Salinger’s theme – you must live the world as it is, not as you would like it to be. There by exposing Salinger’s vision on the world.
Holden also has a negative perspective of life that makes things seem worse than they really are. In addition to Holden’s problems he is unable to accept the death of his brother at a young age. Holden’s immaturity, negative mentality, and inability to face reality hold him back from moving into adulthood. Holden’s immaturity causes him many problems throughout the story. Although he is physically mature, he acts more like a child.
Holden experiences both alienation and disillusionment when meeting with people like Sally Hayes, Sunny and Ackley. Holden is so desperate to have human connection yet, when he starts to talk to them, he experiences them as ‘phonies’. This makes him more depressed, continuing his downward spiral. Holden is caught in a trap of his own making.
Around every corner Holden sees evil. He looks out on a world which appears completely immoral and unscrupulous. The three days that the novel covers place a distressed Holden in the vicinity of Manhattan. The city is decked with decorations and holiday splendor, yet, much to Holden's despair "seldom yields any occasions of peace, charity or even genuine merriment."3. Holden is surrounded by what he views as drunks, perverts, morons and screwballs. These convictions that Holden hold waver very momentarily during one particular scene in the book. The scene is with Mr. Antolini. After Mr. Antolini patted Holden on the head while he was sleeping, Holden jumped up and ran out thinking that Mr. Antolini was a pervert as well. This is the only time during the novel where Holden thinks twice about considering someone a pervert. After reviewing Mr. Antolini, Holden finally concludes that maybe he was not making a "flitty" pass at him. He wonders if he just like patting guys heads as they sleep. This is the only time in the novel where Holden actually considers a positive side to something. However, this event does not constitute a significant change. As Holden himself says, "It's not too bad when the sun's out, but the sun only comes out when it feels like coming out."4. The sun, of course, is a reference to decency through the common association of light and goodness. His perception of the world remains the same.
Holden alienates himself by believing he is better than everybody else. Every time Holden meets or talks about someone he is judgemental. Even when he is talking about someone he spends time with, he cannot help but ridicule them, “I never even once saw him [Ackley] brush his teeth....he had a lot of pimples. Not just on his forehead or his chin, like most guys, but all over his whole face. And not only that, he had a terrible personality. He was also sort of a nasty guy. I wasn't too crazy about him, to tell you the truth.”(Salinger,14 ). Ackley is probably the closest thing to a friend Holden has. Yet he criticizes him is a very nitpicky way, convincing himself he does not like
Catcher in the Rye is one of the most famous books in American literature. Written by J. D. Salinger, it captures the epitome of adolescence through Salinger’s infamous anti-hero, Holden Caulfield. Holden Caulfield learns about himself and his negative tendencies, and realizes that if he does not do something to change his perspective, he may end up like his acquaintance James Castle whom he met at Elkton Hills. Holden tries to find help to mend his outlook on life through Mr. Antolini so he does not end up like James, who did not want to face the problems he created for himself. This is proven by the similarities between James Castle and Holden, Mr. Antolini’s willingness to try and help Holden, and Holden’s future being forecasted by James.
Eventually, however, toward the end of the novel Holden starts to realize that he misses all those that he interacted with in his time. “I sort of miss everybody I told about. Even old Stradlater and Ackley.” (214) He misses them because they were an anchor that his thoughts could attach too. Without people around to help him he falls into depression and his condition worsens. Even those that did not initially have a positive impact on him make a small positive difference. “I think I even miss that goddam Maurice, It’s funny.” (214) At the end of this novel Holden sympathizes with even Maurice, the man that beat him up for money. It shows that any type of interpersonal interaction he has with people helps him psychologically. These two instances of Holden's interaction show that all relations with people, positive or negative, are vastly important to his mental
Protected by a cocoon of naiveté, Holden Caulfield, the principal character in the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, therapeutically relates his lonely 24 hour stay in downtown New York city, experiencing the "phony" adult world while dealing with the death of his innocent younger brother. Through this well-developed teenage character, JD Salinger, uses simple language and dialogue to outline many of the complex underlying problems haunting adolescents. With a unique beginning and ending, and an original look at our new society, The Catcher in the Rye is understood and appreciated on multiple levels of comprehension. The book provides new insights and a fresh view of the world in which adolescents live.
From the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, the youthful protagonist Holden Caufield, employs the word “phony” to describe the behavior of a number of characters including Mr. Spencer and Ossenburger, however it is not them who are“phony”, it is the young main character. First, Mr. Spencer, Holden’s ex- history teacher, is not described as phony, but according to the adolescent, his choice of words are. Secondly, according to our main character, Ossenburger is not the generous philanthropist he portrays himself to be, but rather a greedy undertaker. Lastly, the protagonist could quite possibly be the authentic phony. All in all, the main character’s use to describe many other characters in the book is with the single word phony, when in fact the word phony would be the most probable word to describe the lead character.
Holden had a tough time fitting in at his schools because he thought of almost everyone as phonies. "`It's full of phonies, and all you do is study so that you can learn enough to be smart enough to be able to buy a goddam Cadillac some day, and you have to keep making believe you give a damn if the football team loses, and all you do is talk about girls and liquor and sex all day, and everybody sticks together in these dirty little goddam cliques' (pg. 131)." He seems to have a history of expulsion and failure at various schools because of his lack of ability to cope with others. Ordinary problems of his had turned into major conflicts with other students. "I hate fist fights. I don't mind getting hit so much - although I'm not crazy about it, naturally - but what scares me most in a fist fight is the guy's face. I can't stand looking at the other guy's face, is my trouble. It wouldn't be so bad if you could both be blindfolded or something. It's a funny kind of yellowness, when you come to think of it, but it's yellowness, all right. I'm not kidding myself. (pg. 90)" Holden got into a fight with his roommate at school because he was going out with his ex-girlfriend. He's afraid that the guy is taking her from him, even though he's not with her anymore. These are problems that are normal, but Holden has trouble dealing with them.
The negative light that Holden views the world under is a key contribution to his unhappiness. He is unable to see even a glint of sincerity in people’s actions which allows him to experience feelings of severe despondency and dejection. “People never give your message to anybody,” (pg. 166) shows how Holden no longer feels let down by people but instead expects the worst from them instead. He struggles to find genuinity in people’s actions, and in turn feels “lousy and depressed,” by nearly everything. Holden is constantly seen bringing down the adult world. It is shown he has an inner conflict between his adult and child self, leading him to feeling lost and without a place. He is disgusted by the adult world describing it as a place filled with “phonies” but, views adolescence as a source of happiness. He shows a direct fear of change by stating, “The best thing...was that everything always stayed right where it was.” (pg. 135). As Holden is being pushed out of his childhood and into an area where he feels out of place, it is only inevitable that this would be a source of his depression. Both of these internal conflicts add to Holden Caulfield’s
J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye is a remarkable book that gives readers a unique and perhaps gloomy perspective of the 1950's through Holden Caulfield, a cynical and peculiar teenager. Through The Catcher in the Rye Salinger describes important aspects of the 1950's. Salinger emphasizes several key characteristics of the 50's and criticizes them through Holden. In addition, Holden Caulfield is a very interesting character with several traits that put him at odds with society.
Holden refers to everyone around him as ‘people’, exclaiming that he is disparate compared to the surrounding world. Always wondering about seemingly pointless things, such as where the ducks go, Holden finds it difficult to understand that the “people never notice anything… (2).” Holden blames those around him for not noticing the hardships he is going through, resulting in him setting himself apart from the ‘people’ in order to feel better about his insecurities and low self-esteem. This creates an image of Holden believing himself to be superior to those around him, thinking that while he knows the problems that plague the world, the “people never believe [him] (5).” This further alienates Holden from those he’s close to as he feels like he cannot open up to anyone about what he is going through, forcing him to deal with his emotional hardships alone. Classifying those around him as uncaring further alienated Holden from society, as well as his blatant refusal to partake in conversations with anyone. While some people may be talking about how “...they’re crazy about cars…(17), Holden cannot even agree with something so trivial, explaining that “...[he doesn’t] even like old cars (17).” Even if he didn’t want to participate in the conversation, there was no need for such adamant denial over something so trivial. Once again, Holden’s fear of connecting with someone forces him to be alienated from the ‘people’ around him. By referring to those around him as ‘people’ and excluding himself from the majority, Holden has become alienated from the world that he thinks hates him.
Holden instead of challenging these ideologies chooses to perpetuate them. Holden’s obsession with the objectivation of women and death exemplifies that the masculinity he practices is toxic. Male readers of this novel can then cling to these stereotypes as well, and continue to perpetuate rape culture and toxic masculinity. In the above examples, Holden shows that he is a product of negative social constructs upheld by a patriarchal
When we are told that we do good, we’ll do better; when we are told that all we do is bad, we become worse. Holden seems to be arrogant to the fact that the people around him only try to help because they care about him. Holden’s sister Phoebe constantly chastises him to keep his grades up in school, and to stop running away from his issues; for example, every time holden comes across an issue in school, he tries to leaves.