Catcher In The Rye

Jerome David Salinger was one of the most important authors in the post-World War II era, as his writings changed the way people perceived the lives of adolescents. Born in New York City, Salinger served the United States in World War II. When he returned from battle, he pursued a career as a writer and eventually published his first and only novel The Catcher in the Rye in 1951. The novel was immediately successful but was somewhat controversial (“Catcher 116”). “It was also the bane of many parents, who objected to the main character’s obscene language, erratic behavior, and antisocial attitudes” (116). Catcher eventually became so successful and popular that by the 1970s, it was taught in almost every high school in America. Despite the
popularity of Catcher, Salinger never enjoyed the fame and publicity that came with being an accomplished author. Salinger disliked the fame so much that he moved to New Hampshire in the 1950s, not long after the publishing of Catcher, and became somewhat of a recluse for the rest of his life (117). The Catcher in the Rye chronicles three days in the life of a sixteen-year-old boy, Holden Caulfield, as he combats the struggles of growing up, adolescence, and loneliness. Over the course of Holden’s three-day journey home, Holden continuously expresses the fact that he dislikes everything and everybody he comes across. Three characters, however, embody his idea of innocence: his younger brother Allie, his old friend Jane Gallagher, and his younger sister Phoebe. Holden’s view of his younger brother Allie is one of purity and perfection; it is a symbol of light and innocence in Holden’s otherwise gloomy and depressing life.
When Holden was thirteen years old, Allie died from leukemia at the age of ten. Because Holden was so young when Allie died, he is unable to cope with the pain of the loss. As a security from the emotional toll Allie’s death takes on him, Holden completely imagines full conversations with Allie when Holden is in a situation that makes him uncomfortable. According to Clinton Trowbridge, author and professor of English literature and creative writing at Suffolk College, “So terrible is Holden’s depression, so complete his sense of alienation from the world of the living, that in his disturbed imagination only the dead, idealized brother can save him from the nothingness, the hellish state of his own nihilism” (26). Holden views Allie as one of the few good and pure people in the world, so naturally he thinks of Allie whenever he feels scared or alone. When Holden is talking with Phoebe and she accuses him of not liking anything, Holden tells her he likes Allie. Phoebe then yells at Holden that he cannot like Allie because he is dead. “I know he’s dead! Don’t you think I know that? I can still like him, though, can’t I? Just because somebody’s dead, you don’t just stop liking them, for God’s sake—especially if they were about a thousand times nicer than the people you know that’re alive and all,” Holden explains sorrowfully (Salinger 171). Naturally, Allie is one of the few people that Holden sees in a positive
way. Just as Allie represents innocence to Holden, Jane too represents the innocence of childhood as Holden thinks back to a more positive time in his life. Not long after Allie’s death, Jane Gallagher moved next door to and became neighbors with Holden and his family. Jane quickly became one of the most important people in Holden’s life. Some of Holden’s most cherished memories come from his and Jane’s daily checker games, with Holden holding a special place in his heart for Jane’s stacking of her kings in the back row. In fact, Holden cared for Jane so much that he felt that he could share his deepest and most intimate secrets with her. “She was the only one, outside my family, that I ever showed Allie’s baseball mitt to, with all the poems written on it,” Holden reminisces fondly (Salinger 77). Similarly to the way that Holden views Allie, he sees Jane as pure and innocent, so when he finds out that Stradlater has gone out on a date with her, Holden becomes incredibly upset. As Jonathan Baumbach, American author and film critic, writes, “That Stradlater may have had sexual relations with Jane—the destruction of innocence is an act of irremediable evil in Holden’s world—impels Holden to leave Pencey immediately (but not before he quixotically challenges the muscular Stradlater, who in turn bloodies his nose)” (68). Holden finds the fact that Stradlater may have taken Jane’s innocence away so vile and repulsive that he feels the obligation to attack Stradlater as a form of retribution for Jane. The final person whom Holden finds innocence in is his younger sister Phoebe; Phoebe’s innocence and purity are so prominent in Holden’s mind that in a way, they serve as Holden’s salvation. Phoebe is the light that can lead Holden out of darkness. In the same manner that Holden feels about Jane, he wants to preserve Phoebe’s innocence from those who could possibly take it away. When Holden is in the bathroom at Phoebe’s school to give her a note, he is alarmed at what he finds. Holden reflects worriedly:
But while I was sitting down, I saw something that drove me crazy. Somebody’d written ‘Fuck you’ on the wall. It drove me damn near crazy. I thought how Phoebe and all the other little kids would see it, and how they’d wonder what the hell it meant, and then finally some dirty kid would tell them—all cockeyed, naturally—what it meant, and how they’d all think about it and maybe even worry about it for a couple of days. (Salinger 201)
Holden wants Phoebe to keep her innocence for as long as she possibly can. Not only will Phoebe’s keeping her innocence allow her to stay pure, but it will also offset the darkness inside Holden. It will save Holden from himself. According to David J. Burrows, critic and author of Myths and Motifs, “Phoebe takes from him the remnants of his idealism and the fragments of his personality and accepts the burden of ‘saving the pieces’. Mature in her own way, and at home in the world, she will, through her love, be the means by which Holden will begin to move towards maturity” (85). Phoebe leads Holden out of the darkness in which he was trapped for so long. Holden Caulfield demonstrates a strong cynicism and distaste towards almost everyone in his life except for his younger brother Allie, his childhood friend Jane Gallagher, and his younger sister Phoebe. Due to Holden’s consistent depression, he uses Allie as an escape from reality to Holden’s ideal world where Allie is still alive. In Holden’s idealized version of the world, Jane is the same innocent little girl that he knew so many years ago. He desperately wants to preserve this innocence, so much so that he attempts to fight Stradlater when Holden thinks he has jeopardized it. Finally, Holden wants to save Phoebe’s innocence just as he wants to save Jane’s when he sees “Fuck you” written on a wall at Phoebe’s school. A common theme exists in all three people that Holden holds most dear: an attempt by Holden to remain in his perfect world instead of accepting reality for what it is. Holden keeps this mentality until he and Phoebe visit the carousel. When Phoebe is trying to reach the gold ring, Holden is worried that she might fall and thinks about going over to catch her in case she does. Holden then decides against helping her because he realizes that if she falls, she will get hurt but will learn from the experience. Per David J. Burrows, critic and author of Myths and Motifs, “The responsibility he assumes toward her, as well as the freedom he realizes she requires, provides a starting point from which he can learn to accept the world’s pervasive mutability,” (86). Holden finally accepts the fact that children, Phoebe included, need freedom to full live their lives.