A Dive Into Holden's Subconscious
In Defense of Holden Caufield
Linden Peters
In The Catcher in the Rye, the narrator is polarizing among readers. It is easy to see that Holden Caufield has many complaints about the world. Many of these complaints seem surface-level, petty, and overly harsh, which may lead us to question the narrator's judgement. However, these are just the judgements he is comfortable sharing. The real problem lies far deeper, etched into his subconscious through traumatic events.
We can use the case study of page 13 where he says: "One of the big reasons I left Elkton Hills was because I was surrounded by phonies. That's all. They were coming through the goddamn window. For instance, they had this headmaster Mr. Haas, that was the phoniest bastard I never met in my life. Ten times worse than old Thurmer. On Sundays, for instance, old Haas went around shaking hands with everybody's parents when they drove up to school. He'd be charming as hell and all. Except if some boy had little old funny-looking parents." (Salinger). Here seems like an exaggeration of small details. He describes leaving a school because a teacher would only shake some peoples' hands. But later in the book, he reveals a shocking story of a boy at Elkton Hills named James Castle. He jumped out of a window after getting aggressed on by other boys (Salinger 170). When he describes the injustice of the boys not even going to jail, it is much easier to be sympathetic with his views. In short, we see the theme that many of his surface-level complaints are actually a trauma response, and that the real problems lie much deeper.
In addition, we can look at his fight with Stradlater. Initially, it seems like he is unnaturally escalating the situation trying to punch him after asking unassuming questions. However, his subconscious plays a much bigger role than what he actually lets on out loud. For one thing, he just opened up to the reader about Allie, his dead brother. He wrote an interesting sounding description about baseball glove where he wrote poems on. Stradlater completely disregards this heartfelt work and complains that it didn't follow the homework prompt. If I was in that situation, I would also be pissed. In the same moment, there is also the thread of Jane. Holden also sees Jane as one of the few people in his circle and appreciates her unique quirks like putting her kings in the back row. Stradlater could not care less about this. Holden also has anxiety that maybe she has changed as a person and become more like a "popular" "phony". In short, he feels like everything he holds dear to him in his life is under attack. Despite not explaining everything out loud, his subconscious takes over as he punches Stradlater in the face.
It is up to the reader whether to view Holden Caufield as an insufferable loser or a troubled child lost in grief. However, it is important to remember when analyzing him that many of the true meanings of his actions and thoughts lie far deeper in his mind.
Hello Linden,
ReplyDeleteGreat analysis of Holden's inner convoluted inner conflict! Throughout The Catcher in the Rye, Holden's behaviour tends to get him into very unfavorable situations. But it is important, like you said, to remember that all of Holden's actions come from impulses deep within his mind that, although seemingly confusing and unprompted to outside witnesses, at least make sense to him in the moment. I also like your breakdown of the Stradlater fight and the way you put into perspective all the things that were troubling Holden in that moment. After seeing all those factors laid out in front of me, Holden's actions seem more than reasonable.
Hi Linden! Good blog. I also find lots of people harsh on Holden. When I usually argue that people take his comments too much "at face value" instead of dissecting what he really means, which is that he doesn't like the socioeconomic inequalities/prejudices of the time, the pressure to make money (though academic success first) and sleep with people, selfishness, cruelty, and dishonesty/phoniness (and some other things probably, but I'm not trying to name them all), I find myself looking for hard, irrefutable evidence in the text that Holden sometimes doesn't present the best evidence for why he hates things. Holden, like many people out there, "teases" us with what he truly means. He hates on the small things because, honestly, that's much easier to do, both from the perspective that he doesn't have to get that emotionally vulnerable with us all the time and still appear "funny" and light-hearted, and because it's hard to identify explicitly the reasons some things trigger him. I also like how you brought in the fact that Holden doesn't just do this with us, but also with people in his life like Stradlater. He doesn't explain why it bothers him so much that he went on a date with Jane, but the reader can really understand why Holden's actions in the "fight" scene are actually meaningful because of what Holden told us about Jane. Holden doesn't always give us such a clear picture of what motivates his actions, but I think if we try hard enough, we can see "the method to his madness".
ReplyDeleteoops I forgot to add that right after this: When I usually argue that people take his comments too much "at face value" instead of dissecting what he really means, which is that he doesn't like the socioeconomic inequalities/prejudices of the time, the pressure to make money (though academic success first) and sleep with people, selfishness, cruelty, and dishonesty/phoniness (and some other things probably, but I'm not trying to name them all), I find myself looking for hard, irrefutable evidence in the text that Holden sometimes doesn't present the best evidence for why he hates things." sentance I meant to say that I really appreciate you highlighting the fact that Holden doesn't tell us about James Castle till the end of the book, and had we known about him much earlier, we would have interpreted everything he said as more reasonable.
DeleteBefore reading this blog, I hadn't really thought about how the moments Holden is narrating are not everything. This book could be, and most likely is, just a surface-level view of Holden's life at a specific coming-of-age moment in time. He doesn't really go into depth too many times about past experiences (with the exception of moments like James Castle's death), and I truly wonder what other events in his life AREN'T talked about. I also like how you brought up when Holden wrote about the baseball glove, as this gives another moment of insight into maybe some of the underlying tragedy he has yet to explain in detail. Overall, great blog post, and I hope to see more from you in the coming weeks!
ReplyDeleteI love the topic of your blog. I never thought of this when I initially was reading the book, but I completely agree that Holden's problems aren't on the surface; they lie way deeper. I think that his mind takes over when making some of his decisions because he feels that he is protecting the memories that he has with people. I think that you described how his subconscious is sort of taking over him really well. Good Job!!!!
ReplyDeleteI see a clear link between Stradlater's response to the essay ("it's about a goddamn baseball glove!") and his dismissal of the fact that Jane likes to keep her kings in the back row ("Checkers, for chrissake!"). For Holden, both of these represent quirks that make Allie and Jane special, and he is proud that he is attuned to these kinds of things--and he assumes that we, as readers, will be interested as well (I am). And Stradlater's characteristically boneheaded response "confirms" Holden's priors that he's a phony moron. So I don't know why Holden expects any other reaction from Stradlater here, but still--it's got to hurt to hear his adored little brother dismissed so summarily by such a "moron." It's the kind of thing he'll cite later as what was "wrong" with Pencey, just as he cites the headmaster of Elkton Hills as the "phony" who inspired him to "leave" that school (involuntarily). Good catch on the fact that he's talking about Elkton Hills both times, and indeed he may have the "phoniness" of administration in mind when he gives the example of the headmaster, while really thinking of the ways that same administration failed James Castle. (Antolini has apparently also left the school, although we don't know enough to conclude that he does so in disgust or protest.)
ReplyDeleteHi Linden! I think you did a very good job at articulating the complexities of Holden's character. Holden is a deeply thought out character with many of his inner thoughts and ideas not completely fleshed out, and this was deliberately done by him (his character.) I do believe that for the bulk of what he does, there's a reasoning behind his actions and feelings. Holden can easily be discredited as an entitled rich white boy, but it is clear that there was more to his persona that Salinger wanted the readers to understand. Great post!
ReplyDeleteHello Linden, I like how you show the complexity of the character Holden. The reader may not agree with Holden's actions, but may be able to sympathize with the Holden. He has complaints about things that could seem regular like the way a teacher shakes hands with parents. In the Stradlater fight, Holden pours his heart and soul out in the writing assignment about Allies glove only for Stradlater to complain. Holden also complains about a lot of things, but he also cares deeply for things such as Allies glove which the reader may sympathize with.
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