The Catcher In The Rye Holden Essay

The Catcher In The Rye: Holden Essay, Research Paper

The Catcher In The Rye: Holden

Preface -

This book has been steeped in controversy since it was banned in America after

it’s first publication. John Lennon’s assassin, Mark Chapman, asked the former

beatle to sign a copy of the book earlier in the morning of the day that he

murdered Lennon. Police found the book in his possession upon apprehending the

psychologically disturbed Chapman. However, the book itself contains nothing

that could be attributed with leading Chapman to act as he did – it could have

been any book that he was reading the day he decided to kill John Lennon – and

as a result of the fact that it was ‘The Catcher In The Rye’, a book describing

nervous breakdown, media speculated widely about the possible connection. This

gave the book even more notoriety. So what is ‘The Catcher In The Rye’ actually

about .

Superficially the story of a young man’s expulsion from yet another school, ‘The

Catcher In The Rye’ is in fact a perceptive study of one individual’s

understanding of his human condition. Holden Caulfield, a teenager growing up in

1950s New York, has been expelled school for poor achievement once again. In an

attempt to deal with this he leaves school a few days prior to the end of term,

and goes to New York to ‘take a vacation’ before returning to his parents’

inevitable wrath.

Told as a monologue, the book describes Holden’s thoughts and activities over

these few days, during which he describes a developing nervous breakdown,

symptomised by his bouts of unexplained depression, impulsive spending and

generally odd, erratic behaviour, prior to his eventual nervous collapse.

However, during his psychological battle, life continues on around Holden as it

always had, with the majority of people ignoring the ‘madman stuff’ that is

happening to him – until it begins to encroach on their well defined social

codes. Progressively through the novel we are challenged to think about

society’s attitude to the human condition – does society have an ‘ostrich in the

sand’ mentality, a deliberate ignorance of the emptiness that can characterize

human existence. And if so, when Caulfield begins to probe and investigate his

own sense of emptiness and isolation, before finally declaring that the world is

full of ‘phonies’ with each one put out for their own phony gain, is Holden

actually the one who is going insane, or is it society which has lost it’s mind

for failing to see the hopelessness of their own lives.

Holden’s Personality -

There are 3 main aspects in Holden’s personality :

1. His criticism toward the ‘phony’ things in society.

2. His perception that laws (Rules) are ‘child’s play’ for the strong

and a difficult

struggle for the weak.

3. Respect for fellowman.

The criticism toward ‘phony’ things in society is expressed in the novel

primarily by the word ‘phony’. Holden is a representative of the world of

childhood whose characteristics are the opposite values to those Holden calls

‘phony’.

One of the things Holden often calls ‘phony’ is the world of movies and

everything about it. Examples of it are his anger toward his brother D.B.

because he moved to Hollywood, aversion of Sunny the prostitute who tells him

she spends most of her time in film theaters and derision to the three women he

met at the bar who are only interested in movies and famous actors.

Another thing Holden calls ‘phony’ is the theater. He finds the theater ‘phony’

because he thinks that instead of demonstrating reality as it is, the emphasis

is put on polishing theatricality. He says he has never seen so much ‘phony’

things like he saw in the theater. Out of these examples and others we see that

for Holden it is very important to be ‘real’, honest and not ‘phony’, thus the

criticism toward the ‘phony’ things in society is the most significant aspect of

his personality

Another important aspect in Holden’s personality is that rules to him were meant

to serve the strong, whereas he belongs to the weak, thus he ignores them

completely. His attitude toward rules can be demonstrated by these examples :

Ring Lardner’s tells Holden a story in which a married policeman fell in love

with a girl who drove faster than the speed limit and eventually was killed

because of it. In this story laws (Rules) are mentioned twice :

1. The policeman fell in love with a girl while he was married and

this means breaking social laws.

2. The girl drove too fast and this means breaking traffic laws.

The outcome of this story is failure and death. From here we can learn of

Holden’s personality because he likes this story very much and he thinks that

these felonies don’t require punishment.

Another example is Holden’s talk with Mr. Spencer who tells him : “Life is a

game boy. Life is

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