Wisdom In The Catcher In The Rye by J. D. Sallinger

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It is widely agreed that Salinger’s Catcher in The Rye is unarguably the quintessential coming of age and initiation story . This story has been compared against Ellis’ Less Than Zero and T.S. Elliot’s Wasteland as being among the literature that best elucidates the alienation of our youth . The story of Holden’s transition into manhood has been compared against the American transition into consumerism after the world wars . The story has been elevated above bildungsroman to an epic of Odyssean proportion . Certainly the chronicle tackles Holden’s identity crisis to include the desire to be authentic . Adolescent development is explored through Holden’s exploits . Small details of the story, such as the name Caulfield, have been critically dissected as allusions . Most unusually, a critic even explored the relationship between the siblings, Holden and Phoebe, through the lens of feminism . Even though there are many different ways to look at Catcher, everyone agrees that this story employs the loss of innocence model of the fall from disillusionment and pain which leads to wisdom.

While all these other topics have been scrutinized ad nausium, the “fall” in the Catcher in The Rye has only been explored in passing as Holden as the fallen idol . Another critic observed that through his perspective, the “fall” in the story, could be salvation without intervention . On second glance, Holden Caulfield’s narrative also exemplifies Feliz Culpa, the fortunate fall. The fortunate fall is originated from St Augustine’s writings as regarding the fall of man and original sin. This religious philosophy believes that evil must occur to bring about the greatest good, that of redemption. The fortunate fall explains that wit...

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...his last fall, Holden sees himself in Phoebe. When Phoebe choses to run away with Holden it demonstrates both sides of Phoebe, the child who wants to run away forever as well as the adult who wants to stay with Holden because he needs someone to care for him. In this sense Phoebe is caught halfway between adult and child much like Holden is caught between adolescent and adult. In this fall, Holden realizes that becoming an adult might not be as bad as he had imagined and it might in fact be necessary. This final movement through disillusionment which moves him to wisdom leaves him unusually pleased, “I felt so damn happy all of 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” (Salinger 114). Holden had accepted his new role in adulthood and found peace.

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