“a Searing Indictment of the Failure of the American Education System” – Is This a Fair Assessment of the Catcher in the Rye and Death of a Salesman?

“A Searing Indictment of the Failure of the American Education System” – Is this a fair assessment of The Catcher in the Rye and Death of a Salesman?

In The Catcher in the Rye (1951) and Death of a Salesman (1949), there are contemptuous references to the American Education that currently existed. This was a time of educational reform, which continued into the 1950s. These reforms were the result of the inadequacies discovered during recruiting for World War II when recruits were found to be almost illiterate and five million were rejected for educational deficiencies. Attempted reforms merely stretched the already strained resources “this…badly lowered the quality of instruction” 1. Furthermore underpaid teachers rebelled against their low and wages by going on strike. However, they gained little public support and only increased the Red Scare, the belief that Communist agents were infiltrating American society. This, coupled with a sense of falling behind the Soviet Union on subjects such as science and foreign languages, meant that reform was desperately needed. As a result the government poured millions in to state education, improving teaching, resources and curriculum.

The characters in both texts are or have been through the American Education System so there are common condemnations and endorsements of the system in each text, although Holden is privately educated.

Holden Caulfield is in education as The Catcher in the Rye progresses at the private “Prency Prep”. Holden has recently been to a “fencing meet” with McBurney School. They were planned to arrive around “dinnertime” and so would have missed an all-important football game between Prency and Saxon Hall. This is very poor organisation by the school, scheduling an off-ground fencing activity for the same day as a football game where the losing team is expected to “commit suicide or something”. Not only does this mean the fencing team would need to miss such a prestigious event, but any achievement they gained would be completely over-shadowed by the football game. In addition, it strikes one as discordant that football is given such importance. The game is evidently given in undue consequence is “suicide” is even remotely considered appropriate action for the losing team. It also foreshadows James Castle’s suicide, for what seems like an equally futile reason, a comment about Phil Stabile. Finally it is ironic that so much emphasis is put on football when the school’s adverts show a horse and they are tying to give an impression that “all you ever did at Prency was play Polo”, yet here a football game is given precedence. This implies the school wishes to be view as a sophisticated to appeal to the privileged WASP section of American society who would be the majority clients. This problem is not specific to Prency, according to Holden who has attended many schools throughout America, as he is always “flunking out of” them, and in his considerable experience ”all the athletic bastards stick together”. This is a clear indication of the social segregation with in schools. The fencing team “ostracized” Holden in the train on the way back from New York. This could be seen as a metaphor, in the same way the stereotypical “athletic bastards” “ostracize[s]” the rest of the school. This is a comment on the American system where money and “being well liked” are used to give people undue credit.

In Death of a Salesman education is presented differently, partly because the characters are being educated at a public rather than a private school. The prime example of this is Bernard whom Willy considers to be at a disadvantage in life because he spends his time studying rather than playing football and being “well liked”. He is described by Willy as “an academic” and “a worm”. However, he expects Bernard to help Biff pass his exams and even to “give him the answers”. This is a heavy demand even for a friend, especially as this is a state exam and they are “liable to arrest me [Bernard]!” Regardless, Willy even goes so far as to blame Bernard for Biff’s failure who “he can only envisage in the simplistic language of football heroics” 2. Bernard later becomes a lawyer and epitomises everything Willy wants for his sons, rich, successful and athletic. Bernard is going to argue a case “in front of the Supreme Court” in Washington therefore is a successful lawyer. Bernard’s reluctance to engage in sport has been replaced with interest in tennis. This is a further exploration of Miller’s criticism of the edited American Dream taught in books such as Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936) which had changed the Dream the idea that “anything is attainable through hard work” 3 and that “America is a classless society” 3 which was created with the Declaration of Impendence which encouraged “the pursuit of Happiness” 4; to “anything is attainable through” 3 “being well liked” can achieve everything. This is further exemplified in Willy’s statement to his sons “you are going to be five times ahead of him” in the business world despite the fact that Bernard can “get all the best marks in school”. Willy believes the boys’ sporting prowess is worth more than Bernard’s hard work. This is at odds with the true American Dream; a fact that the House Un-American Activities Comity (HUAC) failed to pick up on when they accused Miller of being a Communist sympathiser in Death of a Salesman and The Crucible. Miller was cleared by HUAC, but his criticism still remains that the American Dream had been perverted in the years leading up to the publishing of both plays.

Holden later describes the books he is reading; it is revealed that the school library “gave me [Holden] the wrong book and I didn’t notice”. This metaphorical statement implies criticism by Salinger of the education system, that the system is failing, but the students do not take advantage of the opportunities that it gives them.

Holden reading Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen, On Human Bondage by William Somerset Maugham and The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy. All of these books relate in some way to an individual who is an outcast and “ostracized” by society. Out of Africa is about a European living in Africa; in On Human Bondage Philip Carey has a club foot and in The Return of the Native Eustacia Vye is dissatisfied with her life and manipulates others to change it. Ironically Holden says “I like that Eustacia Vye”, a woman who is the villain of the book, whose actions lead to her death, and suffering for others. It is almost inconceivable then that Holden should “like” her, the reader is led to sympathise with her frustrations, but she is still remarkably selfish; Holden too feels he is “trapped on the other side of life” in Prency. It suggests that the school is similarly oppressive to Holden as the heath is to Eustacia, and that Holden must do similarly desperate things to escape it. Holden’s choice of books are also significant, they are classics but are not what might be called traditional classics. This choice of books, particually unsusual classics, is a clear indication of Holden’s intellect and interest in English.

Furthermore, he is clearly a capable writer, as Stradlater asks him to write his composition for him. This irony is not lost on Holden who says “I’m … flunking … and you’re asking me”, he even comments as much. His first reaction is to think that it is “ironical”. To come up with such a comment apparently spontaneously is an unmistakeable characteristic of someone skilled in appreciating literature. His teacher even goes so far as to say that he is good as Stradlater puts it ”Hartzell thinks you’re a hot-shot in English”. The use of the word “hot-shot” would more typically be used to describe someone who is good at football, and this betrays Stradlater’s character as a narrow-minded “jock” who finds football terms applicable to all situations in real life, a total contrast to Holden who objects to the graffiti scrawled on Phoebe’s school’s wall because to is a profanity. Holden’s reading choice, Stradlater’s and Hartwell’s confidence in him, all of these suggest that Holden is a very competent student, especially when it comes to English. Yet he claims to Mr Spencer that he only passed English “because I had all that … stuff… at the Whooton School”.

This cannot just be Holden’s reluctance to apply himself, after all Mr Antolini managed to teach him about Beowulf and Lord Randal my Son when he was at Whooton. Salinger presents the education system as letting go to waste even as bright a mind as Holden’s, when clearly a good teacher can help him to perform brilliantly.

Despite his earlier assurances, Willy blames the failure of Biff to achieve anything he would call meaningful, on the fact that he flunked maths and did not fully pass his high school education. This situation is not unusual in 1951. Just two years after the play was written, fewer than 60% of students in America completed their high school education. This is again despite the huge sums of money invested in education and especially in college education. Biff appears to have every intention of going to the “University of Virginia”, but fails to do so after finding out about Willy’s affair. His school failed to motivate him before or after this discovery to work harder, especially as he got 61 points, which is four marks off a pass. Furthermore Willy himself does not sufficiently encourage either Happy or Biff to peruse farther and work hard in their education. This lack of personal encouragement means that, in Willy’s words, Biff“’d’ve been set by now”. This lapses into disillusionment and despair, is heavily symbolised by the burning “up in the furnace” of his shoes that say “University of Virginia” on the side of them. This metaphorical device shows Bill’s complete and utter abandonment of the education process, an event that Miller implies must not be allowed to happen.

Daily Bible readings in school was the norm, and this is reflected in The Catcher in the Rye when Prency invites a previous student called Ossenburger to give a sermon to the boys about talking to God. However they also named a dormitory after him, the Ossenburger Memorial Wing. This is ironic as Ossenburger is still alive and is in the undertakers business. It is implied that the school only invited Ossenburger to speak because he is rich rather than because he is a good speaker. Indeed he is not a good speaker telling far too many “corny jokes” and utterly failing to engage Holden, apart from to be judged as a “phony”. Similarly Ackley claims to be Catholic, stating he has “Mass in the morning for Christssake”. The ironic juxtapositioning of the blasphemy and the holy ceremony betrays how lightly Ackley appears to take his religion, apparently going through the typical cultural emotions with no real commitment. The school, as an institution encouraging Christianity, has not impressed upon him the true message of the Gospel as he spends time boasting about “some babe he… had sexual intercourse with the summer before”. The fact that it is boasting and has not actually done it makes it worse, as he is simply protecting his reputation, rather than giving a true account of a failure on his part. These examples also highlight Holden’s cynical views that organised society is “phoney” and hypocritical.

Whereas both texts Death of a Salesman and The Catcher in the Rye naturally condemn hypocrisy and cheating within schools either in the attitudes of Willy Loman or those of Stradlater, Ossenburger and Ackley, they present a noticeably different view of the contemporary schooling system. Death of a Salesman shows that it is flawed and needs improvements, yet it does give it success stories such as Bernard’s achievements through academic achievement. Schools in The Catcher in the Rye on the other hand, have no such redeeming features. They are full of poor organisation, questionable ethics and low teaching standards. The one ray of hope is the attitude and aptitude of Mr Antolini, which are more to do with the merits of him as a person rather than as an employee of the education system.

However, to call Death of a Salesman a “searing indictment” of American schools is too damning. The schools certainly are of low involvement, particularly in their capacity in loco parentis. However, as can be clearly seen in the success of Bernard, Miller believes that the system can still provide a helpful and effective start to life. Contrastingly however, The Catcher in the Rye brings to light many of the flaws that were undoubtedly present in the system at the time, and suggests that the system is failing to provide even that minimal requirement of an education system, a good education especially in private schools. Ultimately, however, the flaws belong to the protagonists.

Bibliography
1. www.encyclopaedia.com/doc/1G223468301461.html
2. What’s wrong with Willy Loman? – Laurence Coupe
3. www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-american-dream.htm
4. American Declaration of Independence
5. http://www.adherents.com/rel_USA.html

Bibliography: 1. www.encyclopaedia.com/doc/1G223468301461.html 2. What’s wrong with Willy Loman? – Laurence Coupe 3. www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-american-dream.htm 4. American Declaration of Independence 5. http://www.adherents.com/rel_USA.html