Catcher In The Rye The Quest For

Catcher In The Rye: The Quest For Love Essay, Research Paper

Catcher In the Rye: The Quest For Love

In many novels in J.D. Salinger’s library of books, there is a recurring

theme of the loss of innocence of children, the falling and the confusions of

childhood, and many other ideas that apply to the ideas of adolescence and the

life of the average teenager growing up. Many of his themes occur in a short

period of time in a child’s life that affects him/her in a very profound and

significant way. The idea of love is also a major theme that arises in many of

his characters and that indicates the character of the individual. He uses love

in the context of being a device that is used to protect and to care for people

who need protecting and caring. In the novel, Catcher in the Rye, by J. D.

Salinger, love is used by a character, Holden Caulfield, who struggles

desperately to find a certain somebody or anyone to allocate his love to, but

realizes finally, that this love is not necessarily expressed through saving .

the children in the rye. from the time of trial, but actually caring for them

and being their friends, during the time of trial.

The quest of finding the true love of people is an ongoing dilemma in

the lives of many people all throughout the world. The constant need for love is

overwhelming, and the tragedy of this great world is the fact that some people

do not find the proper love that they deserve. Holden Caulfield is a perfect

example of the striving to acquire a love sought all throughout his life.

According to this quote, .He is simply expressing an innocence incapable of

genuine hatred. Holden does not suffer from the inability to love, but does

despair of finding a place to bestow his love. (Heiserman and Miller 30), Holden

Caulfield has the need for allocating his cornucopia of love for people. His

quest is very simple. He wants to do good. As compared to tragic heroes in the

past,

“Holden seeks Virtue second to Love. He wants to be good. When

the little children are playing in the rye-field on the cliff

top, Holden wants to be the one who catches them before they

fall off the cliff. He is not driven toward honor or courage.

He is not driven toward the love of woman. Holden is driven

toward love of his fellowman….” (Heiserman and Miller 25).

In other words, he is not a tragic hero, but rather a misfortuned hero that

struggles to find a person to give his love to. There is nothing tragic about

his life.

Holden also seeks circularity in his life. According to this quote,

I felt so damn happy all of a sudden, the way old Phoebe kept going

around and around. I was damn near bawling, I felt so damn happy,

if you want to know the truth. I don’t know why. It was just that

she looked so damn nice, the way she kept going around and around,

in her blue coat and all. God, I wish you could’ve been there”

(Salinger 213),

Holden revels in the virtues of softness of the edges, a roundness that can’t

hurt anyone. He finds a comfort in the circular motions of the carousel.

“All the kids kept trying to grab for the gold ring, and so was

old Phoebe, and I was sort of afraid she might fall off the

goddam horse, but I didn’t say anything or do anything. The

thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring,

you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they

fall off, they fall off, but it’s bad if you say anything to

them” (Salinger 211).

This illustrates the pure innocence of children, and the gold rings portray a sort of

round goal that children seek and reach for. This quote is later on in the story

and the true symbolism is realized toward the end of the novel.

Holden also seeks the truth from people in general, reaching for the one

theme left in the world, innocence. One kind of bitter truth he does not seek is

phoniness. In this, he means the people losing innocence or people who already

lost innocence, or has .fallen from the cliff.. He is led to believe from his

early years that adulthood is a form of fake maturity. That is why he seeks to

find adolescents, to catch them from falling into the kind of fake maturity that

they are destined for. He seeks children, free of impurities. At Phoebe’s school,

“….I saw something that drove me crazy. Somebody’d written

‘Fuck You’ on the wall. It drove me damn near crazy. I thought

how Phoebe and all the other kids would see it, and how they’d

wonder what the hell it meant, and then finally some dirt kid

would tell them-all cockeyed, naturally-what it meant, and how

they’d all think about it and maybe even worry about it for a

couple of days” (Salinger 201).

He realizes then, that innocence is a very hard part of one’s soul to save. This

eventually leads him to his final realizations.

Holden has a few aspects and thoughts that help him to app

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