Goddamn Purgatory: Holden’s Search for the Significance of Life in The Catcher in the Rye The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, set in New York City in the mid-1900’s, tells the story of Holden Caulfield, a teenage boy who flunks out of Pencey, a well-known boarding school, and flees to the city. At Pencey, Holden is surrounded by people whose self-worth is derived from good grades and athleticism. Holden's values differ from those of his peers, and are based on finding truth within himself, within others, and within the world, leaving him isolated and without meaningful connection. This difference of values pushes him to analyze and criticize the meaning that his peers find through their obedient natures and their conventionality, in …show more content…
order to find his own personalized religion of human connection. Salinger uses religion and religious figures to symbolize Holden’s relentless search for meaning and community, revealing his strong desire for meaningful human connection. Holden thinks about Jesus as someone who is surrounded by people who are not inspiring or valuable; by defending Jesus, Holden is able to relate to someone in a similar situation, and defend his own loneliness in the process. When Sunny, a prostitute, rejects Holden after he refuses sex and tries to have a conversation, in the midst of his loneliness, Holden's thoughts wander to Jesus and the people he would have talked to if he was in Holden's situation. Holden remembers “[Arthur Childs] said that because Jesus picked the Disciples, you were supposed to like them. [Holden] said [he] knew He picked them, but that He picked them at random” (54). Holden looking down on Jesus’s companions in a time of loneliness is his attempt to justify the disapproval he feels towards his companions. Holden wants to connect to people and share special moments with others, yet when he fails, he thinks of others who may have been misunderstood. Additionally, when Holden says that Jesus picked the Disciples at random, it communicates how the people who are in his life are “random.” Holden is supposed to like other people, like one is supposed to like the Disciples, but two random things do not connect in any significant way. Holden’s rejection of the Disciples, people who are random yet still appreciated, shows his search for the opposite of random appreciation: significant connection. Holden’s interest in the nuns and in the simplicity of the lives they lead is juxtaposed against Holden’s complexity and deep rooted desire to find truth within himself.
When Holden internally reflects on the nuns whilst they are eating their simple meals of toast and coffee, he “could tell, for one thing, that they never went anywhere swanky for lunch. It made [him] so damn sad…” (62). Although these nuns are without money, their happiness is portrayed in the pure simplicity of their lifestyle. The sadness Holden feels towards the nuns’ simple lifestyle while at the same time yearning for it, shows how complexity is embedded deep inside of him. Holden is very wealthy and presumably has always had the luxury to go to fancy restaurants for lunch, yet because of the value placed on his materialistic experiences, he never had the luxury to explore himself to find inner peace and acceptance. While Holden’s mind is a rich jumble of unclear ideas and unconnected connectedness, the nun’s minds are clear and they know what they are living for; they have a clear purpose. Holden’s extreme interest to talk to these nuns about life, and the flow of the interaction they have with each other, shows how Holden is eager to find any insight or clarity on the truths of the …show more content…
world. The concept of joining a monastery interests Holden because of his desire to be around people who share his values.
After he gets in a fight with Stradlater, Holden, face covered in blood, wakes up Ackley by saying, “Listen. What's the routine on joining a monastery? . . . Do you have to be a Catholic and all?" (27). Although Holden is not Catholic, he wants to be part of a community of like-minded people who understand each other on a deeper level. Catholics in monasteries don’t only agree with each other on a basic belief level, but their spiritualities are connected because of their understandings and interpretations of the world and occurrences in the world. At Pencey, and at the other boarding schools Holden has attended, violence has been validated and not hitting back has been considered weak. Holden’s values differ so greatly from those of his peers and he is stranded on an island, yearning to be part of a like-minded community, unlike the community of Pencey. Holden wants to find a way to connect with people who understand him and who he understands, and believes that he may find this within the monastery on his path to
altruism. Throughout The Catcher in the Rye, Holden's desire for meaningful connection with others and desire for meaning in general is portrayed through his interests in religion and spirituality. As Holden relates to the reader and talks about religious aspects of the world, he shows his fascination in other people's ways of leading a meaningful life. Holden is trying to find a way to maneuver himself through the lies, and find what his truth is. It becomes clear to Holden throughout his life of interacting with people he finds to be phony, that his truth is so different to everyone else's truth. To find someone with coinciding truths to himself, Holden sees religion and religious figures as people who relate to him, for they too are also looking deeper into the world and looking for connections that go beyond physical realm.
The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger's novel set in the 1950s, told the story of sixteen-year-old Holden Caulfield. Deciding that he's had enough of Pencey, his fourth school that he'd failed, he goes to Manhattan three days before his scheduled return to home, not wanting to inform his parents that he'd been expelled and sent back. He explores the city, calls up some old friends, gets nicked by the elevator operator, and gradually becomes bitter about the world and people. He then visited his sister Phoebe. After fleeing from the house of Mr. Antolini, his former English teacher, because of mistaking his actions for a homosexual overture, Holden went to Phoebe's school and sent her a note telling her he was leaving home and to meet him at the museum. When Phoebe arrived, Holden angrily refused her request to take her with him and she ignored to speak to him. He then took her across the park to a carousel, bought her a ticket and watched her ride. Holden ended his narrative here, telling the reader that he was not going to tell the story of how he went home and got "sick". He planned to go to a new school in the fall and was cautiously optimistic about his future.
Holden Caulfield, the teenage protagonist of Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger, struggles with having to enter the adult world. Holden leaves school early and stays in New York by himself until he is ready to return home. Holden wants to be individual, yet he also wants to fit in and not grow up. The author uses symbolism to represent Holden’s internal struggle.
Holden is not just abnormal, he has problems that other teenagers, including the students at Pencey, experience going through adolescence. An example of this is Holden's jealousy towards Stradlater when he finds out he is going on a date with Jane Gallagher, “Boy,was I getting nervous” (42). Every teenager has bouts of jealously especially about the opposite sex, and Holden is no different. Holden's rebellious nature, to an extent, is typical for a teenage boy. His rebellious nature of smoking when it is not allowed, “You weren't allowed to smoke in the dorm...I went right on smoking like a madman.” (41-42). Holden is also anxious about change, which again to an extent is normal, “Do you happen to know where they go, the ducks...”(60), and he has the right to be; change,especially during adolescence, is a terrifying but exciting ride into the unknown, and similar to other adolescents Holden is afraid but intrigued about the unknown.
Holden has been to three different boarding schools before he attended Pencey. At Pencey, Holden was rooming with Stradlater, who Holden thought lived his life as a secret slob and a moran. Stradlater and Holden do not see eye to eye on most things. One Saturday night, Stradlater had plans to go on a date with Holden’s friend Jane. Jane was very close to Holden and Holden knew that Stradlater would try and put the moves on her just like he does on every other girl. After the date, Holden and Stradlater are talking and Stradlater ignores his questions. Their conversation gets heated and it results in Holden cutting up his face and then exiting his room and entering Ackley’s. Ackley, who is asleep, gets woken up by Holden and Holden asks if he can spend the night in his room. As they both lied in their beds, Holden asks Ackley, “‘What’s the routine on joining a monastery?’”(Salinger 50). After Ackley gets mad for Holden asking questions, Holden changes his mind about the monastery, “Aah, go back to sleep. I’m not gonna join one anyway. The kind of luck I have, I’d probably join one with all the wrong kind of monks in it. All stupid bastards. Or just bastards.” (Salinger 50). Holden believes that the world is full of bad, crumby people even in the places that have good people. Holden wants to get away from people like
Holden's idealism is first brought forth when he describes his life at Pency Prep. It is full of phonies, morons and bastards. His roommate, Stradlater, " was at least a pretty friendly guy, It was partly a phony kind of friendly..." (26) and his other roommate, Ackley is "a very nosy bastard" (33). Holden can't stand to be around either one of them for a very long time. Later, he gets into a fight with Stradlater over his date with Jane. Holden is upset because he thinks that Stradlater "gave her the time" and that he doesn't care about her; 'the reason he didn't care was because he was a goddam stupid moron. All morons hate it when you call them a moron' (44). Holden not only sees his roommates as phonies and bastards, but he also sees his headmaster at Pency Prep as a "phony slob" (3). This type of person is exactly what Holden doesn't want to be. He strives to be a mature adult; caring, compassionate, and sensitive.
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.
To conclude, Holden try’s desperately on holding on to his innocents. Triggered by the loss of his brother, Holden makes it his mission to protect kids from there inevitable maturity, sealing them from phony’s and. When he realised that he could not achieve the qoel of saving all children from growing up Holden has a nervous breakdown. He dosint understand the proses of life ad he can’t pick to stay a child for ever when in reality growing up is inevitable. ‘’We've let the blade of our innocence dull over time, and it's only in innocence that you find any kind of magic, any kind of courage.”
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.
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is an enthralling and captivating novel about a boy and his struggle with life. The teenage boy ,Holden, is in turmoil with school, loneliness, and finding his place in the world. The author J.D. Salinger examines the many sides of behavior and moral dilemma of many characters throughout the novel. The author develops three distinct character types for Holden the confused and struggling teenage boy, Ackley, a peculiar boy without many friends, and Phoebe, a funny and kindhearted young girl.
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger is a coming-of-age novel set in New York during the 1940’s. Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of the story, is a detached seventeen-year old boy harboring feelings of isolation and disillusionment. He emphasizes a general dislike for society, referring to people as “phonies.” His lack of will to socialize prompts him to find nearly everything depressing. He’s alone most of the time and it’s apparent that he is very reclusive. This often leads him to pondering about his own death and other personal issues that plague him without immediate resolution. Holden possesses a strong deficit of affection – platonic and sexual – that hinders and cripples his views toward people, his attitude, and his ability to progressively solve his problems without inflicting pain on himself. The absence of significant figures in his life revert him to a childlike dependency and initiate his morbid fascination with sexuality. In this novel, Salinger uses Sunny, Sally Hayes, and Carl Luce to incorporate the hardships of discovering sexual identity and how these events affect adolescents as they try to understand their own sexuality.
This event exposes his unfounded view of the world, where his obsession with sex and egotistical attitude block rational thinking. Holden’s interactions with Mr. Antolini reveals Holden’s desperate need for guidance, while also exposing traumatic incidences of Holden’s past, which help us to understand Holden more fully as a person.
The Catcher in the Rye focuses on Holden Caulfield’s journey to New York City after he learns that he has flunked out of the fictional Pencey Preparatory School. Caulfield, a troubled sixteen-year-old boy, is totally alienated from his environment and from society as a whole. (Telgen 120) Caulfield is not alienated by others, rather he chooses to alienate himself. He feels a desire for isolation sometimes because he cannot stand the company of others, or because he becomes disappointed with their company, and at other times because he feels a need to drive others away. (Engel 53)
J.D. Salinger presents Holden Caulfield as a confused and distressed adolescent. Holden is a normal teenager who needs to find a sense of belonging. All though Holden’s obsession with “phonies” overpowers him. Dan Wakefield comments, “The things that Holden finds so deeply repulsive are things he calls “phony”- and the “phoniness” in every instance is the absence of love, and , often the substitution of pretense for love.” Holden was expelled from Pencey Prep School not because he is stupid, but because he just is not interested. His attitude toward Pencey is everyone there is a phony. Pencey makes Holden feel lonely and isolated because he had very few friends. Holden’s feeling of alienation is seen when he doesn’t attend the biggest football game of the year. His comments on the game: “It was the last game of the year and you were supposed to commit suicide or something if old Pencey didn’t win” (2, Ch. 1). This also hints to Holden’s obsession with death. Holden can’t find a since of belonging in the school because of all the so-called phonies. Holden speaks of Pencey’s headmaster as being a phony. Holden says that on visitation day the headmaster will pay no attention to the corny-looking parents. Holden portrays his not being interested by saying, “all you do is study so that you can learn enough to be smart enough to buy a goddam Cadillac someday, and you have to keep making believe you give a damn if the football team loses”(131, Ch. 17). Holden does not care for school or money. He just wants everyone to be sincere and honest.
From the protagonists’ point of view, the adult world Holden and Franny are entering and living in is a very superficial place. Holden who is sixteen years of age is going through a time of crisis where he is almost forced to become an adult. This concept is the very thing that makes Holden afraid, causing him to misbehave at school. His latest school, Pencey Prep, expels Holden due to his failing grades. When asked for the reason of his lack of academic enthusiasm, Holden simply states that he is not interested in anything. In every school he has attended, Holden has managed to find different reasons not to care and possibly even hate the institutions.
To begin with, Holden’s love for the innocence and purity of childhood makes him very hesitant to transition into an adult life. Generally, he finds children to be straightforward, easygoing, and simply pure in every way. This is because they always say what they mean, and never try to set a false façade for...