Holden And Peter Holden

In J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield displays many characteristics and personality traits of the Peter Pan character created by J.M. Barris. There are three major components of Holden’s character that directly relate to Peter Pan which in reality make Holden a victim of the Peter Pan Syndrome.

The first component is both characters use alienation as a form of self protection. Holden feels he is trapped on the “other side” of life and is convinced that he lives in a world that he doesn’t belong in while Peter Pan creates an imaginary world. Peter Pan is boastful, cocky and careless and tells others how great he is. He comes across as brave. Holden intentionally isolates himself as a defense mechanism and then he claims that he is better than everyone else and too good to talk to them. The isolation that he causes is the root of his painful existence. It clearly shows that the alienation causes Holden pain yet he doesn’t talk about his own emotions. He hides behind his alienation and appears to be strong, when really he is afraid. The two emotions work against one another. Peter Pan is also afraid. Peter Pan doesn’t want to grow up and dwells in Neverland: a place where eternal childhood exists. Neverland is not a place where you do not age; it is a place where you refuse to grow up. Peter Pan fears that growing up will not be any fun. Neither of these characters want to grow up. They both believe that growing up will take away their innocence. Holden and Peter Pan are also analogous to one another in respect to experiencing death. Holden experienced a conflict with his brother Allie’s death on July 18, 1946, from leukemia. His mother was so preoccupied with Allie while he was dying and then mournin...

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... Holden’s parents in the novel. There was a lot of room for interpretation. In Chapter 25, as Holden watches his sister on the carousel, he realized that growing up is not that bad. Sometimes you just have to let kids be kids. It’s okay to make mistakes and you don’t have to correct everything in trying to save their innocence. It’s part of learning and growing up. This can leave room for interpretation of how Holden’s parents may have behaved. The stories about Holden and Peter Pan are about adolescent crisis. In the book Holden is forced to face the problems of growing up by seeing a psychiatrist and being in an institution. He somewhat comes to terms with it. Peter Pan never comes to terms with it because his character is never supposed to grow up because he represents the author Barrie’s older brother who eternally remains a child because of his death.