Analysis and Implications of Holden's Bewilderment of Growth in The Catcher in the Rye
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Analysis and Implications of Holden's Bewilderment of Growth in The Catcher in the Rye
Abstract: The purpose of the paper is to analyze Holden’s bewilderment of growth, discuss the reasons why the youths become so snobbish, and provide some implications to nowadays adolescents.
Keywords: Holden; bewilderment; implication
1 Introduction The Catcher in the Rye was a landmark book in America, which soon became a popular reading for students in high schools and colleges. In reality many students and teachers were affected by the book. Holden Caulfield, a Sixteen-year-old boy, the narrator of the novel, is expelled from his school. Unwilling to go home, Holden decides to take a room in a hotel in New York for a couple of days. During these days, he met different people, and most of the time, he is depressed. Then he wants to be “a catcher in the rye”, who would stand in a field and keep children from going over the edge of “some crazy cliff”. Adolescence is critical, which is the period of time that Holden is going through and one of the most important stages of human development. Although many have written on this phase of growing up, few have done so with such an awareness of the intensity of suffering and depression. Holden Caulfield stands for American youth after World War II. His story has great impacts on the adolescents and the adults in that generation. At that time many students imitated Holden’s typical behaviors and appearance. This present study will investigate the causes and implications of Holden’s bewilderment in order to provide some implications to nowadays adolescents.
2 Holden’s bewilderment of growth Adolescence is fairly a new period for teenagers, who are going to become a sexual being, to have new sorts of relationship and to support themselves. Holden, who is a typical adolescent, has great bewilderment towards death, sex, and peer group.
At the age of thirteen when Holden’s little brother, Allie died, Holden has firstly suffered greatly emotional breakdown. That night he sleeps in the garage and “…I even tried to break all the windows... It was a very stupid thing to do. I’ll admit, but I didn’t even know I was doing it, and you didn’t know Allie.” These sentences implicate Holden’s deep love for his little brother, and reflect he blames himself for not saving Allie’s life. It is the first time Holden recognizes the fragility of life. The second death Holden has to confront is the death of his classmate, James Castle. After being insulted by other students, the boy commits suicide. Holden says what he really feels like he is committing suicide. For Holden, unfortunately, there is no one to instruct him how to cope with death, and how to recover from the sorrow. This is Holden’s bewilderment towards death.
Chris Becket proposes that boys and girls get different message about sex in adolescence; boys must have sex in order to prove themselves. In this novel, Holden’s bewilderment in growth towards sex can be seen from his curious fondness, and great interest in opposite sex. In the hotel, he asks for prostitutes twice, while he fails to make relation with them, for he dares not to have real sex. He considers that sex belongs to the adult in his mind. At the adolescent stage, boys are eager to learn about sex. Holden admits he knows nothing about sex, which makes him curious on sex.
In America the main role of the peer group is to train young people the art of sociability, which is a key skill. Holden values his peer group. He tries to win their approval. That’s why Holden senses other people’s needs, negotiates his way into and out of interpersonal situations with teachers, classmates, brothers and sisters. Holden has a classmate, named Dick, who is embarrassed by his cheap suitcase. Holden finds this, and he tries to protect Dick’s feelings, so he hides the case under a bed. Unfortunately, Dick misunderstands him and tries to fight against him. In this novel, we can see the outstanding aspect of Holden’s treatment and activities to the peer group is just the way he treats his brothers and little sister. Holden values them the same, and he also holds long imaginary conversations with his dead brother. Holden has close relationship to his brothers and sister, which is a sharp contrast to the relation with his parents.
3 Causes for Holden’s bewilderment Holden’s bewilderment is not only caused by his typical adolescent psychology, but also by family, school and social factors.
