Catching a True Role
The symbol of the carousel and adolescence used by J.D. Salinger in the Catcher in the Rye develop Holdens character into a young man. Holden Caulfield is an adolescent that refuses to grow up. He begins his life in the book as a confused young man in search of saving humanity. Through the realizations Holden has, he is able to recognize his true role in life. Holden understands that he is not able to stop every child from taking risks, that allowing them to take risks is part of growing up.
Holdens character changes drastically during the course of the book. Holden grew up viewing adults as phonies. Phoniness is Holdens way to describe the superficiality, hypocrisy, pretension, and shallowness that he encounters in the world around him (Seng 14). To him, children are still pure, and he tries to preserve that in them. At his old school, Pencey Prep, Holden strongly disliked the teachers because he believes that they were unjust and treated him unfairly. Pencey was full of crooks. Quite a few guys came from these wealthy families, but it was full of crooks anyway. The more expensive a school is, the more crooks it has -- I'm not kidding (Salinger 2). In his mind, everyone is appearance obsessed, a secret slob, or a suck up (Irving 118). Holden finds any semblance of a normal adult life to be phony. He does not want to grow up and be like them; he does not want to get a job or a house or go to an office, and he certainly does not want to do what those bastards do. Holden deals with the thought of phonies in interesting ways. If Holden calls everyone a phony, he can feel better if they reject him. For example it was not his fault that the girls in the Lavender room did not want to be with him, they were just phonies who could not understand him. It is his defense mechanism.
One way to understand his abnormality is to look at his childhood. The events in his childhood were not pleasant, sometimes too traumatic for little Holden to deal with, resulting in his strange behavior in many parts of the novel. A big impact on Holdens personality is his brother Allies death. Allie was one of only a few adults Holden views as still pure. Allies death diminishes him, and he has an obvious hard time dealing with it. Holdens confession about how he broke all the windows in the garage the night Allie dies is and important one; Allies death has a huge impact on Holdens life. Holdens psychological distress is shown greatly, as he can not control his emotions and lets them all out. The thought of Allie reoccurs many times throughout the book, with Holden always referring to Allie in tough times. Furthermore, Holden is also self-destructive at times, contemplating suicide on many occasions. He says he would volunteer to sit on top of an atomic bomb, just so his life may be over. Holden states: I'm sort of glad they've got the atomic bomb invented. If there's ever another war, I'm going to sit right the hell on top of it. I'll volunteer for it, I swear to God I will (Salinger 181). Other times, he seems terrified at the though of his own death. While in New York City, Holden is afraid to step off of the block to cross the street, thinking that he may fall off and never be able to get up. To save himself from falling, Holden talks to Allie at the end of each block, saying: Every time Id get to the end of a block Id make believe I was talking to my brother Allie. Id say to him, Allie, dont let me disappear. Allie, dont let me disappear. Allie, dont let me disappear. Please, Allie. And then when Id reach the end of the street without disappearing, Id thank him (Salinger 204). Holden needs someone to watch out for him, to save him when he is in need. The significance of the imagery of falling is evident in how Holden lives his life. Falling is used as a parallel to maturing. Since Holden views adults as phonies, he cannot stoop so low as to mature and become one of them. He never takes risks because he is too afraid of falling. Holden is plagued with thoughts of mortality.
The biggest influence on Holden and his transformation is Phoebe, Holdens sister. Phoebe is the one thing Holden lives for. He has an unconditional love for her that is very evident in the book. Holden speaks about his sister up to no end. She is the smartest kid ever, Holden assures the reader, as well as a great listener. Phoebe is a great dancer, emotional, and funny. In Holdens eyes Phoebe is his savior, and she always has a knack for helping Holden when he most needs it. She is a pretty amazing character to him because she somehow manages to be all over the place, but still very much ten years old. Phoebe always is there for Holden and he can lean back on her for support. Holden finds her to be so amazing because of her ability to act like a child and an adult at the same time (Burrows 81). She is smart enough to figure out that Holden was kicked out of Pencey, but she still is childish enough to utter: Daddyll kill you! (Salinger 216). She promises Holden that she will run away out west with him. Phoebe isnt eager to run away, she is eager to be with Holden. When Holden refuses to let her come, she takes care of him in her own way, in the carousel scene, where she puts his red hunting hat back on his head. She is the only one who gives back to Holden. So, in Holdens eyes, Phoebe is exactly the kind of child need to be saved. He wants to protect her from the perils of adulthood. This idea of saving Pheobe is full of irony, as it is soon learned that Holden is the one in need of saving. When Holden runs away from Pencey, he walks around Central Park at night with wet hair. He thinks he might die from pneumonia, but he has to survive because it would affect Phoebe. Boy, I was still shivering like a bastard, and the back of my hair, even though I had my hunting hat on, was sort of full of little hunks of ice. That worried me. I thought probably I'd get pneumonia and die (Salinger 42). The only value his life holds is to Phoebe. Later, while Holden is in the city, he stops to buy Phoebe a record. The "Little Shirley Beans" record represents childhood and Holden wants to give it to Phoebe because he wants her to stay a child forever. The record plays the same song and never changes, just as how he does not want Phoebe to change. Unfortunately, on his way to give it to her he drops it and it shatters into many pieces. It made him so sad, as everything he has worked for was just lost. He tried to make Phoebe happy by getting her one of her favorite CDs, but as usual for Holden, everything goes wrong. Holdens interest in the Little Shirley Beans record is intriguing. After he drops it, he picks up all the pieces and puts them in his coat pocket, even though now they are meaningless. I took the pieces out of the envelope and put them into my coat pocket. They werent good for anything, but I didnt feel like throwing it away (Salinger 78). Holden has a hope that maybe Phoebe will appreciate his effort, and does not want to throw away something that is pure to him. When Holden speaks about the singer, Estelle Fletcher, he mentions that her singing is very Dixieland and whorehouse (Salinger 75). At first, this sounds very odd. Why would Holden buy a record for his beloved sister that sounds Dixieland and whorish? The answer is simple: The record is for children; it is about a little girl who is embarrassed about losing her front tooth. Holden figures that most people, if trying to write a story for kids, would make it cute and mushy, because thats what little kids are into. Holden prefers Estelle Fletcher because she lacks this sort of deceitfulness. Holden eventually gives the broken record to Phoebe, who willingly accepts it and keeps the pieces even though they were useless. Phoebe takes from him the remnants of his idealism and the fragments of his personality and accepts the burden of saving the pieces (Burrows 87). In other words, Phoebe collects bits and pieces of Holdens old self, and saves them so he does not have to.
The point of realization for Holden comes on a simple ride on the carousel. There's only one place in the entire novel where Holden declares himself to be really happy. So happy, in fact, that he's damn near bawling. And that moment is at the end of his narrative, in Chapter Twenty-Five, as he's out in the rain watching Phoebe go around and around on the carousel. She just looks so nice, he says, in her blue coat, going around and around. The carousel goes around and around. It never goes anywhere. It is a symbol of his stagnation in childhood. Holden, who would like nothing to change and everything to stay the same, now accepts that trying to save everyone is a childish dream. At the end of the story Holden does not choose to get on. He lets Phoebe go on and he is comfortable with this decision. On old-fashioned carousels, kids used to reach for a distant gold ring which would give them a prize if snagged. The goal was to reach for the gold ring when it passed. Usually, if a child grabbed it, he then got a free ride. When Holden concludes that you have to just let a kid reach, even though they might get hurt doing so, he might be saying, although he probably doesn't realize it himself, that growing up is in fact necessary for Phoebe and for himself; he cannot really protect a kid from it, so it is better to just accept it as it is. The gold ring represents taking a chance on life. Holden does not believe the Phoebe will be able to reach it, but he still lets her try, symbolizing his understanding of how life works. The gold ring symbolizes adulthood, and all the children are both literally and symbolically grabbing, and trying to get a hold of it. Also, it represents the struggle, and want to grow up and eventually loose innocence. Holden has to let both himself and Phoebe grow up.
Holden has finally found his spot in life. He understands that he cannot be the catcher in the rye. he can no longer devote his life to saving children from the perils of adulthood. At the beginning of the book, Holden is a confused adolescent in need of saving himself. Through the symbols portrayed in the book, Holden is able to save himself, and in turn find out his role in life.
Works Cited
Burrows, David. Allie and Phoebe. Holden Caulfield. Ed ST Joshi. Chelsea House, 1990. 80-87. Print.
Irving, Joanne. Holden Caulfield is Afraid of Growing Up. Depression in the Catcher in the Rye. Ed. Elizabeth Des Chenes. Greenhaven Press, 2009. 112-124. Print.
Pinsker, Sanford. The Ending of The Catcher in the Rye. JD Salingers' The Catcher in the Rye. Ed. Harold Blum. Chelsea House, 1996. 59-62. Print
Seng, Peter. Holden Caulfield Is unable to Cope with an Adult World. Depression in the Catcher in the Rye. Ed. Elizabeth Des Chenes. Greenhaven Press, 2009. 103-122. Print
The Catcher in the Rye. Novels for Students. Ed. Diane Belgian. Vol 1. Detroit. Gale, 1997. 116-127. Print
Trowbridge, Clinton. Symbolism in the Catcher in the Rye. Catcher in the Rye. Ed. Steven Engel. Greenhaven. San Diego, 1998. 43. Print
Salinger, J. D.. The Catcher in the Rye. Ed. Little, Brown and Company. Boston, 1951. Print
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