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An Analysis of Holden’s Confusion of Growing up
in The Cather in the Rye
Abstract: The Cather in the Rye, written by J.D.Salinger, describes a story about a young man named Holden Caulfield.This paper aims to further read Holden‟s contradictive and confusing growth by analyzing his inward loneline, his contact with the adult world and his fear of change and growing up in order to enlighten modern young people during their proce of growing up..Key words: The Cather in the Rye, Holden, growth, confusion
1.Introduction
As a typical bildungsroman, The Cather in the Rye displays Holden‟s confusion about sex, death and social identity in his coming of age and also reflects the real life of American young people in 1950s, including their solitude, depreion, hesitation and resentment to the reality.It is valuable to explore Holden‟s feeling of loneline and his fear of growth during his growing up, which contributes to the better understanding of the novel.2.Holden’s confusion of growing up
Before stepping into adulthood, Holden is plagued by confusing feelings of growing up, attributing to his lonely inner world, his living in a phony world and his fear of growing up, and all of these factors are neceary to be concerned.2.1 Holden’s feeling of loneline
“Loneline”, mentioned many times in the novel, is one of the dominant feeling in Holden‟s inner world.Disregarded by his parents, Holden lives in a world without love and warmth.His father, a succeful lawyer, pins great hopes on him, but seldom gives him sufficient care and concern instead of plenty of money.“Daddy‟s going to kill you.He‟s going to kill you”(Salinger, 2007: 401).The warning, given from his little sister Phoebe, reveals that his father is extremely stern and crude to him.His mother, similarly, is “up all night smoking cigarettes” and too anxious herself to do
more than takes perfunctory care of Holden, for she still not get over her little son Allie‟s death.This lack of affection from his parents not only arouses Holden‟s loneline, but also exerts a profound effect on his life.In such a world of loneline, Holden dare not go back home after his fourth driven out of school.Wandering in the streets, he feels usually cold and aimle.However, he also makes great efforts to find someone to communicate with him and gets away from the feeling of loneline.When Holden arrives at Penn Station the first thing he does is
to go into a phone booth, he launches into a flurry of mental
activities there: he imagines giving somebody a buzz, but his
list of poible candidates—D.B.—his writer brother, now in
Hollywood;Phoebe(who goes to bed around nine o‟clock)…
(Long and Wang, 2008: 30)
In addition, aspiring to get rid of solitude, Holden even attempts to talk with someone he does not like or the strangers.Nonethele, he fails to find anyone to whom he can expre his feelings and thoughts.Loneline as he feels, Holden also points out that he lives in a “phony” world, which even influences him a lot and leads to his confusion of growing up.2.2 Holden’s existence in a phony world
“Phony”, also a common word throughout this novel, is frequently used byHolden to describe the world around him.In Holden‟s mind, people always wear a hypocritical mask, completely showing their spiritual inanity.Phonine and lie feature the whole society.Phonine can be easily found in school.In Chapter One, Holden says that although Pencey Prep always advertises its perfect education and excellent students, actually, students in Pencey Prep are extremely contrary.“They don‟t do any damn
more molding at Pencey than they do at any other school.And I didn‟t know anybody there that was splendid and clear-thinking and all”(Salinger, 2007: 218).Furthermore,Mr.Haas, the headmaster of Elkton Hills, is “the phiniest bastard” in Holden‟s mind.Holden mentions that “He‟d be charming as hell and all.Except if some boy had little old funny-looking parents”(Salinger, 2007: 230).In addition, when Holden leaves school tramping the streets in New York, he totally and clearly realizes that he lives in a phony world suffused with superficial people.After getting to the Edmont Hotel, he suddenly finds that “the goddam hotel was full of perverts and morons.Screwballs all over the place”(Salinger, 2007: 282).To his surprise, he also notices a gay who is fond of wearing women‟s clothes.Then Holden “encounters many characters who do seem affected, pretentious, or superficial—— Shally Hayes, Carl Luce, Maurice and Sunny”(Salinger, 2003: 41).As an innocent, kind and hopeful young man, Holden feels exceedingly puzzled and helple when facing this phony world.Besides, he also feels afraid of growing up and even reluctant to be changed and involved in the adult‟s complex world.2.3 Holden’s fear of growing up
Holden extraordinarily yearns for the childhood, a nice world of innocence, curiosity and honesty.Unwillingly to be changed and immersed into the complex adult world, he feels especially confused and scared during his proce of growing up, and struggles to be free from growth.From Holden‟s consideration to the museum of natural history, it is quite obvious that Holden likes the world “Where nothing ever changes, where everything is simple, understandable, and infinite”(Salinger, 2003:
51).He is terrified by the unpredictable challenges of the world and overwhelmed by complexity.Moreover, in the novel, Holden also describes his dream of being “the catcher in the Rye”, showing his deep infatuation with innocence.He imagines a field of rye perched high on cliff, full of little kids romping and playing.“He says he would like to protect the children from falling off the edge of the cliff by „catching‟ them if they were on the verge of tumbling over”(Salinger, 2003: 47).In fact, Holden wants to prevent children‟s growth and catch them before they go over the cliff of adult and
lose their innocence.Standing at the croroads of life and confronting the complex adult world, Holden feels afraid and confused, resisting the proce of maturity.3.Conclusion
To sum up, with the combination of good and evil, the collision of dream and reality, Holden seems to be contradictory and anguished.Because of innocence and loneline, he longs for other‟s love and care, while the cruel reality makes him cynical and scared of being mature.Holden has suffered the confusion of growing up, which is also very common to modern young peoplein this competitive society.And how to help them remove this confusion and lead a healthy life is valuable to be noticed.Works cited
[1] Long, Senxiang and Wang Xiaoling.Lonely Catcher—The Protagonist Holden's
Pursuit and Lo of “Love” in The Catcher in the Rye [J].Journal of Yulin Normal University(Philosophy & Social Science), 2008, 29(2): 28-32
[2] Salinger, J.D.The Catcher in the Rye[M].Nanjing: Yilin Pre, 2007: 218-401
[3] Salinger, J.D.The Catcher in the Rye[M].Tianjing: Tianjin Science and
Technology Translation Publishing Company, 2003: 41-51
