Romanticism In Catcher In The Rye

Hope is an idolized concept. It has been credited with freeing nations, inspiring great artists, and saving lives. However, too much hope—too much faith put into idealistic dreams—can lead to unrealistic expectations and, in time, extreme disappointment. On the opposing side, an overabundance of doubt is a gateway to cynicism and bitterness. The key to achieving the model state of mind is to find a healthy balance between the two. While it sounds simple, finding this stability between romanticism and realism is incredibly difficult, as shown in J.D. Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye. This acclaimed novel tells the story of the mentally unstable Holden Caulfield as he struggles to find balance of his own. As Holden makes his way through

the hero’s journey and faces the realities of death, maturity, and adulthood, he eventually attains balance between realism and his own romantic views concerning youth and innocence.
Holden starts his hero’s journey as a true romantic who reveres the concepts of innocence and youth—an idealistic view he has gained through watching the experiences of his loved ones. His romantic ideology stems from Allie, who Holden places on a pedestal, describing him as “The most intelligent member of the family. He was also the nicest in a lot of ways” (Salinger 43). Holden considers his brother the best of the best, an embodiment of perfection. After Allie’s death, Holden never receives closure and perceives his brother not as dead, but as eternally youthful and innocent. This, combined with his idolization of Allie, causes Holden to conclude that the way he imagines Allie—a perpetual state of childhood—is the way people should strive to stay, especially over the alternative of growing older and dying. Holden’s sentiments are only motivated by Jane Gallagher; who Holden shares a close emotional bond with. It is implied that Jane has been abused by her step-father, as portrayed when her step-father speaks to her and “this tear plopped down on the checkerboard. On one of the red squares” (88). The red square—red symbolizing maturity and loss of innocence—that Jane’s tear landed on is one of many context clues that indicate Jane’s abuse. Holden, having recognized the pain and trauma brought on by Jane’s loss of innocence, decides that innocence is preferable to maturity and should be protected at all costs. The last primary reason behind Holden’s romantic ideology is his aversion to adulthood itself. He fears that adulthood is the antonym of purity, childhood, and everything he believes in—which, in a way, it is. Holden takes this belief a step further by thinking that adulthood strips people of their dreams and sincerity, making them into phonies. For example, Holden claims that his older brother D.B. is “being a prostitute” (4) in Hollywood because he gave up on his calling of writing books to write movies. In Holden’s eyes, D.B. is trading in his talent for quick cash. Though Holden never directly places blame, it can be inferred that he holds D.B.’s adulthood responsible for this change of career and personal values. The effect that adulthood had on D.B., much like the impact of experience on Jane, shows Holden the negative consequences of growing up and perpetuates his romantic reverence of Allie’s youthful, innocent state. Holden is so deeply rooted in these belief that it seems impossible he would ever give it up, even when under duress.
When Holden crosses his threshold, leaving Pencey Prep for New York, he sets out to find someone who shares his romantic sentiments, only for his opinions to be challenged by realism at every turn, and, in response to these threats, Holden tries to cement his beliefs by reacting with denial and hysteria. In one attempt to regain control of his instabilities, Holden goes to the Museum of Natural History, which he likes because “everything always stayed right where it was…The only thing that would be different would be you” (135). In short, Holden wants to visit the museum because it is a haven of constancy in the ever-changing world—nothing there ever matures or dies. He can always count on the museum to be the same. Yet when he arrives at the museum, Holden suddenly cannot stand the idea of going in, claiming he “wouldn't have gone inside for a million bucks” (136). This is because Holden subconsciously realizes that if he goes inside that museum everything would be the same, except for his reflection staring back at him in the glass. Going inside would force him to face how he has changed since his last visit—how he has matured. By not going in, Holden denies the reality that he is in the process of losing his own innocence and youth. Another instance in which Holden desperately defends his sentiments is when he asks Sally to run away with him. Sally tries to convince Holden that they can just go when they are older to which Holden reacts hysterically, shouting that “it’d be entirely different” (147). In his hysteria, Holden is unable to coherently explain to Sally why it would be so different for he is too far in denial to confess his true intentions. The reasons he is so afraid to admit are that he wants to leave now to escape his problems—to escape maturity, adulthood, and death. Leaving when they are older would defeat the entire purpose as they would have already become adults—insincere phonies who give up on their dreams—the exact thing he wishes to run from. Despite Sally continuously asking why, Holden cannot bring himself to concede his romantic beliefs in fear that they will sound unreasonable and foolish. Though he continues in his denial of realism, Holden’s experiences have unsettled him and his romanticism is in question.
In a last attempt to hold on to his denial, Holden seeks out his little sister Phoebe, hoping she will reassure his romanticism, only for her to do the opposite and crush his reveries.

Phoebe first contradicts Holden’s views when she asks Holden what he likes and the only answer he can come up with is Allie. Phoebe is incensed by Holden’s evasive answer and bluntly replies, “Allie’s dead” (189). Until this point, Allie has been the primary foundation of Holden’s views—the hypothetical Jesus of his religion—and Holden’s image of Allie was not as dead but as eternally youthful, innocent, and, most importantly, alive. To have that image stripped away by Phoebe, a child just like Allie, rattles Holden’s beliefs to the core. Holden attempts to redeem himself and make Phoebe understand by sharing his dream of being “the catcher in the rye” (191), inspired by the line: “if a body catch a body comin’ through the rye” (191), from the poem, Comin thro' the Rye, by Robert Burns. As the catcher, Holden imagines himself as a protector, saving the children of the world from falling off a cliff. This fantasy is a manifestation of Holden’s romanticism concocted by his subconscious in which saving the children from falling is a metaphor that represents saving them from experience, adulthood, and death—the things he could not save Jane, D.B., or Allie from. By saving the children, Holden hopes to atone for not being able to save his loved ones from the same fates. Yet Phoebe again

disillusions him by informing him that the line he has based this entire fantasy off of was misheard and that Robert Burns actually wrote, “if a body meet a body comin’ through the rye” (191). Though this is not his Nadir, this may very well be the most vital point in Holden’s journey from romantic to realist. By completely shattering the two main pillars of Holden’s belief, Phoebe sets into motion the fast deterioration of his romanticism. Throughout his journey, Holden has been heading down a steep slope, but now the ground has crumbled beneath him and he has truly begun to plummet towards his confrontation with death.
As Holden approaches Nadir his romantic values only continue to collapse and he wavers between clarity and fantasy, searching for any kind of stability in his life.

He turns to his former teacher and wise advisor, Mr. Antolini, who, like Phoebe, is one of the few voices of reason capable of getting through to Holden. Antolini recognizes the same truth Phoebe saw, but understands it more clearly: that Holden is too wrapped up in his own mind and his own world of fiction and needs to come to terms with reality before it is too late. If his ways are not changed, Antolini can picture Holden “dying nobly…for some highly unworthy cause” (207). Antolini fears that Holden has set himself on a path that will lead him to regret, bitterness, and even death if he does not switch out his fantasies for reality. Holden, in a moment of clarity, considers Antolini’s advise and sways towards realism. However, his clarity does not last as Holden relapses into his romantic dreams, planning again to run away and live an entirely improbable life complete with an imaginary wife. The most important component of this dream being that should he and his fictitious wife have children, Holden would “hide them somewhere” (219). This wild fantasy is a last-ditch effort meant to replace his reverie of being the catcher in the rye for, though he would not save all the children of the world or himself, he would at least be able to protect his own children from maturity and adulthood. His certainly insane

plan is only encouraged when he sees a vulgar message written on the wall of Phoebe’s school and assumes it had been written by “some perverty bum that'd sneaked in the school late at night” (226). Holden’s assumption portrays that he is still persistently denying the reality that the world—and the children in it—are not as innocent as he would like to believe. He even rubs the words off the wall to protect the children from seeing it and losing some of their innocence. Though it seemed he had made progress, Holden is just continuing to regress into his romanticism as he gets closer and closer to Nadir.
Holden comes face to face with his Nadir and finally accepts the reality of maturity, adulthood, and death, which leads to him surrendering his excessive romanticism and finding the hard-won balance he has been struggling for. Holden’s confrontation with death comes to him in the most literal of ways: at the mummy exhibit in the basement of the Museum of Natural History where he finds “Another “Fuck You” …written with red crayon…right under the glass part of the wall” (224). Unlike at Phoebe’s school, this vandalism is obviously done by a child, as it was written in red crayon. The fact that the obscenity was written by a child forces Holden to see the truth behind innocence and youth. This unidentified child already knows things that Holden believes are not meant for children and will grow up and experience life no matter how Holden feels about it. Holden finally realizes that he cannot save the children of the world from adulthood, maturity, and death anymore than he could save D.B., Jane, or Allie, but he now knows that it is not his fault. Additionally, it is not his responsibility to prevent children from experiencing life because that is exactly what adulthood, maturity, and death are: neither good nor bad, but just a part of life that everyone goes through. Holden’s epiphany sets off a string of revelations that follow his emergence from Nadir, beginning with when Phoebe approaches him “wearing my crazy red hunting hat…dragging this goddamn big suitcase with her” (226). When Holden sees his ridiculous looking little sister begging to come with him, he recognizes how absurd and childish his romantic plot to run away is. He thusly surrenders his dream of escaping his future to the reality that he cannot run away from experience or adulthood. His final reconciliation with reality comes to him as he watches Phoebe ride the carrousel and, although he fears Phoebe will fall off while trying to grab the gold ring, he accepts that “the thing with kids is if they want to grab for the gold ring you have to let them…if they fall off, they fall off” (232). This complete turn around of Holden’s previous fantasies, built around catching the children who fall, is Holden’s last stage of acceptance. He acknowledges that he cannot stop the children from falling—from gaining experience and becoming adults—because he now knows the reality that this fall is a necessary part of living life to its fullest and reaching for that gold ring. Kids simply must fall so that they will learn and grow from their mistakes. Thus, as the rain baptizes Holden and he watches his sister on the carrousel, Holden has achieved balance between his realism and romanticism by accepting that maturity, adulthood, and death are not a part of losing your dreams, but a part of reaching for them.
At times it has appeared that Holden would not succeed on his hero’s journey and more often it seemed he did not even want to succeed. His journey was not one about making his dreams come true like most others, but rather about letting go of the unrealistic fantasies that were holding him back. In his final words Holden shows hopefulness in his future, but avoids setting any solid plans because he knows better than to set his expectations to an unrealistic standard. Now that he has found his balance, Holden knows better than anyone how dangerous too much wishful thinking is. Hope may be a tool, but when you have too much it weighs you down and keeps you from moving forward in life. Romantic hopes can motivate you to follow your dreams to the end of the Earth, but balance between romanticism and realism can motivate you to take the life you have been given and make it into a dream.