The novels, The Catcher in the Rye and The Stranger, influence the reader to see the World, with a capital W, and the connections to Philosophy, with a capital P. In 1951, J.D. Salinger’s published the character, Holden Caulfield, to the world. Holden has a Nihilistic attitude toward a majority of stimuli, except children, where he has an ethical view. In 1942, Albert Camus’s character Monsieur Meursault was published onto paper. Meursault has an absurdist view on both the world and purpose, but an aesthetic view on people. Both Holden and Meursault, have a constant internal struggle within themselves that they have troubles expressing. In the rare situation where they will show their repressed thoughts, it is expressed in a rash and destructive …show more content…
way. While Holden’s attitude toward the world and people were strong and developed, Meursault’s attitude toward people, the idea of purpose and the world were more robust and developed. Holden Caulfield has a Nihilist view on the world where he lives in the beginning of the novel but later develops a more ethical view.
In the beginning of the novel, Holden believes that the world is out to get him, so he alienates himself for protection. A way to do so, he brings forth his hunting hat, “‘This is a people shooting hat,’ I said. ‘I shoot people in this hat.’” (Salinger, 22) Holden’s hunting hat is the strongest symbol in the novel. It gives Holden protection from people who could be potentially harmful to him. Whenever he is afraid or anxious he regresses and puts on his hunting hat for comfort. This anxiety is triggered by memories from his past. The world has stepped on him and beat him down, so now he uses his hunting hat to symbolize his independence and alienation from the world. He consciously knows that the hat will not physically protect him, but, “the nihilist does not believe in the necessity of being logical.” (“On the Pathos of Truth”) So, since he doesn’t need to be logical, he uses the hunting hat regardless if it is actually going to work or not. Holden feels disconnected to the world in the beginning of the novel. Holden states that he feels trapped on “the other side of life.” (Salinger, 8) When Holden says this, he is in a distressed point in his life because he has recently just been expelled from his fourth school. The expulsion could be a reason why he feels so disconnected, but since this didn’t happen during his last expulsions, he …show more content…
has obviously been influenced and triggered. Holden feels like he has lost himself and that he is, “yearning for nothing.” (“On the Pathos of Truth”) This intense pessimism causes him to feel disconnected and hopeless about his place in the world. Holden seems to have a shift in physiological belief when he visits the museum. Holden has an epiphany while at the museum when he realizes that the displays never change at the museum, yet he always changes. This ideology symbolizes the ethical stage. Holden admires the displays in the museum. There are models of Eskimos and Native Americans on the ground and birds on the ceiling seeming to be in mid-flight, just to name a few. These displays convey that they are frozen in time, whereas Holden is constantly changing. This exemplifies the contrast between the living and dead, or in this case, the inanimate. Holden realizes that he is an ever changing person and that he has a “deeper connection with [his] personal being.” (“Either/Or”) The deeper connection that Holden experience allowed him to make his transition from a nihilistic lens to an ethical lens. Holden has a nihilistic view on the concept of adulthood and adults themselves. Holden thinks that adults are phony and hypocrites. When Holden is thinking about how lawyers don’t save innocent people. Holden believes that they just have fun all of the time, and don’t really care about the cases. Holden finishes this thought by saying, “‘How would you know you weren’t being a phony? The trouble is, you wouldn’t.’" (Salinger, 172) Holden strongly dislikes and doubts lawyers and adults, in general, because he is afraid of growing up and being like them. Adults have a lot of knowledge, which Holden aspires to have, and since he doesn’t have it currently, he unconsciously uses the defense mechanism of regression. When a person regresses their ego unconsciously reverts to childish impulses, instead of handling the situation in a more adult- like fashion. When children are jealous of something that someone else has, they are rude to the other person. So, Holden is rude to adults because they have something they want, and he will do anything possible to get up, just like a nihilist would. Holden alienates himself from adults. While Holden was in the bar, he sat away from everyone, even though he knew people in the bar. Holden most likely did his because he feels intimidated by them. Holden hates the fact that they are there because they know that, he is under age, that he should be in school, and that they can tell his parents that they saw him. All of these reasons causes Holden to feel intimidated and makes him alienate himself to the back of the bar. Since Holden doesn't know what they would do, he develops an “urge for truth.” (“On the Pathos of Truth”) But since he can’t read their minds or predict the future, he alienates himself and becomes irritated with them being there. Holden’s ethical opinion of children is completely opposite from his nihilistic opinion on adults.
Holden views children ethically because they are sympathetic toward him, modest, and intelligent, unlike adults who are false-faced, hypocritical, and selfish. Holden’s dead brother Allie exemplifies his thinking process. Holden seems to remember Allie when he is feeling down about the world. The first memory of Allie that Holden shares to the audience was about Allie’s baseball mitt. Holden describes this mitt as a left-handed fielder's mitt, but there is something unique about it. It has poems written all over it, so “he’d [Allie] have something to read when he was in the field.” (Salinger, 38) Simply by writing these poems, the audience gets a good look at Allie’s character. He is very pure and simple-minded, unlike adults. He finds pleasure in the simplest of things, like little poems on his mitt. Allie’s mitt symbolizes how pure Allie was while he was alive and his death. Since Holden still treasures this object, one could infer that he still hasn't gotten over the fact that his inspiration in life is no longer living. Holden repents “back into the family” (“Either/Or”) and remembers the pure memory of his brother, which gives him the strength to go on in life. Holden wants to save children for a living. Holden claims that he will, “catch everybody if they started going over the cliff.” (Salinger, 173) Now, this occupation is strictly hypothetical, but the imagery that
he proposes is immaculate. Holden wants to be a protector for all children because he never had one for himself. Holden can manipulate their futures for the better because children are extremely impressionable and will listen to people who are more mature than them. Holden wants to change the lives of children so they didn't have to end up like he is and like the current adults in the world. Holden is “transparent to himself” (“Either/Or”) and believes that it is his duty to be the protector of innocence and youth, which is a viewpoint of the ethical stage. Unlike Holden, Monsieur Meursault has the same perception of people regardless of age and views them from an aesthetic lens. Meursault doesn’t show much emotion when interacting with people. When Marie brings up the idea of love to Meursault his answer was emotionless. “She asked me if I loved her. I told her it didn’t mean anything but that I didn’t think so.” (Camus, 35) It is not that Meursault is heartless or indecisive, he is just psychologically disconnected to the world and people around him. Significant life events like marriage and love, in general, don’t seem to spark that much interest in him emotionally. No matter what emotion Meursault is feeling, he will deliver the same callous expression. He also doesn’t have the social skills that are required for a person to function in society. He seems to be an isolationist and doesn’t interact with people, except if it is absolutely necessary, which makes him seem socially awkward and emotionless. Meursault befriends people only if he’ll get something out of the relationship. Two people who he does this to are Raymond and Marie. The main reason why Holden befriends Raymond is because Raymond gives Meursault wine and food, and the main reason why Holden befriends Marie is for sex. Meursault embodies Kierkegaard's aesthetic stage because he is focusing on physical pleasure. All he wants out of the relationship is the pleasure for himself. He doesn't necessarily care about what the other person is thinking or wanting, but if he gets what he wants then he is satisfied with the relationship. Once he gets what he is looking for, he doesn’t really care how the rest of the relationship goes. Meursault’s philosophies regarding people are stronger than Holden’s because Meursault is able to see past what is on the outside. Holden is very one sided and stubborn, so once he has made up his mind, there is no changing it. Holden can’t look past the fact that people in this world suck and they lie, whereas Meursault knows how to use people to his advantage in order to receive a reward from making relationships with them which make Meursault stronger. Meursault seems to have an atheistic view toward the idea of purpose, but as Meursault is faced with challenges, absurdism fills its place. Meursault doesn't believe in God, or any aspects of Christianity. While Meursault was getting interrogated for killing the Arab man, the magistrate took out a crucifix. The magistrate was trying to explain to Meursault that if he repents to God, that He will forgive him for his sins. The only problem was, Meursault doesn't believe in God, so why would he repent to him? The magistrate asked Meursault “if I [Meursault] believed in God. I said no.” (Camus, 69) Since Meursault doesn't believe in God, he doesn't have any “life” after death. So he believes that life is meaningless because you just die. He believes that life doesn't matter, but he still has to make the best of what he has. Meursault’s thoughts on existential anguish coincide with Sartre’s atheistic existentialism. They both believe that there is no God to lead or guide the lives of mortals, their existence is entirely up to men, and this is why Meursault doesn't believe in God or repent. Eventually, while on death row, Meursault finds his purpose. While laying in his cell, awaiting his imminent death, Meursault has an awakening. He realizes that the ending is absolute, but the process is not. He can lay in his cell and be pessimistic about his situation and regret what he had done, but instead, he took an absurdist view on the situation. His situation was similar to that of Sisyphus. Sisyphus was a Greek myth about a man who was condemned by the Gods to continuously perform the same meaningless task of pushing a massive boulder up a mountain, only to see it roll down again. But, while Sisyphus was doing this task, he realized that the only thing that he had was his rock, which gave his life and punishment purpose, which is the basic ideology of Camus and absurdism. Meursault is similar to Sisyphus because he was sentenced to death, and even though it may seem horrible on the outside, Meursault grows to accept it. When Meursault eventually finds his “rock” he discovers that he is content with dying, if it is done correctly and quickly. Since Meursault has found his purpose in life, it makes his philosophy stronger than Holden’s. Even though Holden’s purpose of being the catcher in the rye is incredibly strong and heartwarming, he hasn’t done anything productive in order to obtain his purpose, whereas Meursault has found his purpose in life. Meursault’s purpose in life is to die, which is gruesome, yet honest to himself. When Holden matures and does something proactive toward being “the catcher in the rye”, then his ethical philosophy will likely be stronger than Meursault’s absurdism, but as of now Meursault has the stronger of the two philosophies since he has fully discovered his purpose. Meursault has an absurdist attitude toward his world inside of his mental and physical world. Meursault blames his rash actions on the world and environment. At Meursault’s trial, after he killed the Arab, he defended himself by saying, “it was because of the sun.” (Camus, 103) Meursault actually believed that the sun made him do it. In The Stranger, the sun is the main antagonist. It vindictively attacked Meursault and caused him to act the way he did. Meursault claims that he didn’t intend on shooting him, but the sun blinded his thoughts and his ability to think and reason quickly and rationally. The environment parallels the Gods in the myth of Sisyphus. The Gods are stubborn, harsh, and irrational, just like the environment. Neither of them has good intentions for the protagonist, yet both protagonists eventually overcome them and absurdly prosper. Meursault’s external world has rational order, but the world inside of his head doesn’t have any order whatsoever. His external world contains his occupation and things that he does on a daily bases, which seem to be scheduled and orderly, but the world inside of his head is disarranged. With what seems to be a hectic life, Meursault doesn’t seem to realize, because a vast majority of his physical life is so scheduled. It is routine to him. But, his mental life is disorganized. Meursault constantly has varying thoughts dancing around his mind, one of which is the environment. The environment is behind all of Meursault’s struggles and problems in his mental world and interferes with his physical world as well, causing him to think that the world is irrational. Holden’s attitude toward the world is very similar to Meursault’s because nihilism and absurdism are quite similar. Both believe that the world is irrational and out to get them. The only difference between the two is that Meursault discovers that even though he believes that the world manipulated him and demanded to kill the Arab, he grew from the experience when Holden continued to have a pessimistic attitude toward the world. Since Meursault grew from the situation, it makes his philosophy of absurdism stronger than Holden’s nihilism.
While in New York with the fencing team, Holden loses all of their equipment, then buys a red hunting hat. Holden describes the hat as a, “red hunting hat, with one of those very, very, very long peaks… The way I wore it, I swung the old peak way around back - very corny, I’ll admit, but I liked it that way.”(Salinger, 24) The hat makes him stand out and seem like a unique person.
Holden’s red Hunting hat was very crucial to him as he bought it in New York on the Saturday morning that he visited. The hat is the center of attention for Holden as many people such as Ackley ask about the hat. Holden only puts the hat on at crucial moments in his life such as writing the composition for Stradlater, leaving Pencey Prep, and acting confident in front of the mirror. “It was this red hunting hat, with one of those very, very long peaks. I saw it in the window of the sports store when I got it out of the subway...it only cost me a buck” (17). In the novel, Holden also wears the hat when he leaves Pencey Prep as he says “Sleep tight, ya morons”. In the novel, it can be noted that Holden doesn’t like to wear the hat outside as
Holden’s apparent desire to be separated from the majority of his family and friends appears to have been triggered by the death of his younger brother Allie. From Allie’s there has been a downward spiral in Holden’s relationships, as he begins to avoid contact with others and isolate himself more. The reason I believe this is because we can see how immense his anger is after Allie’s death, ‘I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist’. The death of Allie has become like an awakening to Holden, and has alerted him how precious childhood innocence is, when Holden comes to this realisation he convinces himself to do everything within his power to protect the innocence of himself and those around him, to protect them from what he sees as a false adult world. Although Holden clearly fails to protect himself, as he falls into all sorts of situations which hardly boasts of innocence and virt... ...
Indeed, just the naming of his red hunting cap as a “people-shooting hat” is suspicious enough; but Holden merely wants to stand out in a crowd and be different from all the phonies around him, and the unique hat is enough to do so, despite it making him look foolish. He is going “people-shooting” in the sense that he is putting down partisans of the supposedly fabricated adult world, the same people who put Holden down for his visible immaturity. The cap gives Holden the confidence he needs to feel like his own independent person – an adult – without actually being one. This is yet another one of Holden’s desperate attempts to cling onto whatever shred of youth and innocence he has left and avoid growing
Holden’s hunting hat serves as a metaphor for his growing up; the more he grows up the less he uses his hat as an aide. Throughout the book it seems as though Holden uses his hat unconsciously, until the end, where he seems to divulge his knowledge of the aide of his hat. Does Holden really know how he is using his hat throughout the book, or does he merely realize at the end? The world will never know. What we do know, however, is that he progressively estranges himself from his hat, until he is independent of it.
The novel “The Catcher in the Rye,” revolves around the protagonist Holden Caulfield as the story is told from his perspective. J.D. Salinger constructed Holden Caulfield as a cynical person who cannot accept to grow up. Throughout “The Catcher in the Rye,” J.D. Salinger uses symbolism to reveal and reinforce critical aspects of the protagonist Holden Caulfield. Three important aspects Holden acquired through Salinger’s use of symbolism are: his stubborn, uncompromising mentality; his softer, more caring respectful side; Holden’s cowardly way of acting and thinking.
Holden wants to shelter children from the adult world (Chen). In Chapter 16, the catcher in the rye finally appears. This is also a symbol for what Holden would like to be when he grows older. He pictures a group of many kids playing in a field of rye, where it is his job to catch them from falling off the cliff. This shows Holden’s love for childhood and his need to preserve it in any way he can. According to Alsen, “The way Holden explains why he wants to be the catcher in the rye shows the kindness and unselfishness of his character. However, the surreal nature of the metaphor also reveals his unwillingness to face the real life choices he needs to make now that he is approaching adulthood.” By the end of the book, Holden realizes in order for kids to grow, there can’t be protection from all of potential harm. “He therefore gives up his dream of being the catcher in the rye and is ready to make a realistic choice of what he wants to do with his life” (Alsen). Holden’s dream world, that doesn’t involve change, is unrealistic. He is terrified by the unpredictable changes of the adult world, but there is no way for Holden to avoid the experiences and changes that the
J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye is a compelling narrative on the themes of isolation and individualism. Holden Caulfield’s loneliness, a distinct manifestation of his isolation problem, is a driving force throughout the book. A majority of the novel portrays his almost frantic quest for companionship as he darts from one meaningless encounter to another. However, while his behavior is a stark indicator of his loneliness, Holden consistently shies away from self-reflection and therefore doesn’t really know why he keeps behaving as he does.
Holden is also aware of the image the hat projects to others, and he often takes it off when he is around someone familiar. This functioned as a metaphor for Holden’s struggle between his need for independence and his need for companionship. Holden doesn’t want people he knows to see him with the hat on because he wants them to continue to be friends with him, and he fears loneliness. However, when nobody is around, Holden has no problem wearing the hat and embracing its quirkiness, because he feels a strong connection to the hat. As he walks down the street in the middle of the night, Holden states that “It was freezing cold, and I took my red hunting hat out of my pocket and put it on—I didn’t give a damn how I looked.
In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden’s outlook in life is either the innocence of childhood or the cruelty of adulthood. He believes that the innocence of childhood is very valuable and it should be protected from the cruelty and phoniness of the adult world. Therefore Holden has a desire and is compelled to protect a child’s innocence at all costs. This is revealed when Holden tells Phoebe that he wants to be the catcher in the rye. Holden says to Phoebe, “What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they’re ru...
We see during the novel that Holden wants to be able to protect innocence in the world, however by the end of the story he lets go of that desire. This is a point of growth for Holden. He finds that it is impossible and unnecessary to keep all the innocence in the world. While with Phoebe Holden says, “I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye...I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff...That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye” (173). In this moment Holden wants to be able to preserve all the youth and innocence in the world. He doesn’t accept that kids have to grow and change and that they can’t stay innocent forever. Later on in the story when Holden is with Phoebe at a carousel again he thinks, “The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the golden 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.” At the end of the novel Holden realizes and comes to terms with the fact that kids grow and lose their innocence. He moves from his want to be the “catcher in the rye” to...
This reveals Holden’s fantasy of an idealistic childhood and his role as the guardian of innocence. Preventing children from “going over the cliff” and losing their innocence is his way of vicariously protecting himself from growing up as well. Holden acknowledges that this is “crazy,” yet he cannot come up with a different lifestyle because he struggles to see the world for how it truly is, and fears not knowing what might happen next. Holden’s “catcher in the rye” fantasy reflects his innocence, his belief in a pure, uncorrupted youth, and his desire to protect it. This fantasy also represents his disconnection from reality, as he thinks he can stop the process of growing up, yet
“I was crying and all, I don’t know why, but I guess it was because I was feeling so damn depressed and lonesome” (53), Holden says. As humans, we have a hard time belonging in society. This is the same case for Holden Caulfield, the main character from the Catcher in the Rye. The Catcher in the rye, a novel by J.D Salinger, is about Holden, a lost boy in desperate need of help. Throughout the novel, Holden seems to be excluded by the world around him. He continually attempts to try and belong in a world in which he is isolating from. In this novel, Salinger uses symbols such as the red hunting hat, the ducks and Allie’s glove to support the theme, belonging and isolation.
The symbolism throughout the novel illustrates Holden’s isolation from the adult world. In the beginning of the Chapter Three, Holden returns to his dorm room where he finds his pestering roommate, Ackley. After seeing Holden’s red hunting hat, which he purchased in New York, Ackley is fascinated by it and tells Holden that “Up home [he] wears a hat like that to shoot deer in,” (22) Holden then takes the red hunting hat off of Ackleys’ head and closes one eye as if he is trying to shoot it. “This is a people shooting hat,” he says (22). It is obvious from the start of the novel that Holden’s red hat symbolizes his mark of individuality and independence. In this scene, the audience sees how his desire for independence is connected to the feeling of alienation and the bitterness Holden feels for the people in society. Of course, Holden will not actually sh...
In J.D. Salinger’s only novel published in 1945, The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield finds himself in an emotional conundrum between being happy while accepting people and their flaws or seeing the world as full of phonies, which would lead to depression. J.D. Salinger makes out Holden to be an adolescent who is troubled and does not apply himself too much besides his family. Holden constantly gets kicked out of boarding school and when we leaves Pencey Prep he wonders off to New York City to visit old friends and cause some trouble along the way. Holden’s feelings of emotion and family are represented through a looming red hunting hat that he wears in a black a white world.