Holden's frequent and often negative expereinces with change manifested in his idolization of consistency and childhood innocence. This is why when Pheobe asks him about what he wants to do in the future, instead of a traditional job that an "grown up" should have, he says he wants to be a catcher in the rye, to protect children from having to grow up harshly like he did. Since he had his childhood innocence taken from him in such a tragic way, he started to view it as almost sacred, and anything associated with adulthood and growing up as something flawed and phony. For Holden, growing up not only means losing your childhood innocence, but fullly accepting the corrupt nature of society and becoming complicit in it. He desperately tries to prevent this by dropping out of school(a key part of the traditional transition into adulthood), trying to get Sally to run away with him, and wandering around the streets of New York City without a purpose.
Holden's fear of change and idolization of childhood innocence culminates in the end of the novel, where his worldview is challenged. When Pheobe tries to follow in his footsteps and leave with him, he faces the consequence of his fight against change, as Pheobe's childhood, something he holds so dearly, is threatened by her trying to run away. Something that was such a significant part of Holden's identity like this isn't something that will just go away, but by the end of the story Holden seems to make steps towards accepting that change is a part of life.
I definitely agree that a fear of change is deeply rooted in why Holden makes the (often irrational) decisions he does throughout the book. It's probably possible to trace nearly all the things he does can be linked back to this fear, such as running away, wanting to talk to Phoebe, missing Jane, and judging others who are seemingly more mature than him, to name a few. Great blog post!
ReplyDeleteI agree that Holden's big shift in his attitude toward change was when Allie died, signifying Holden's realization that childhood would not be forever. Considering that this is all a big fear of change, it makes sense that he reacts like he does when things change, like his perception of Antolini and getting kicked out of school.
ReplyDeleteThis was a really interesting post! I feel like Holden is especially scared of change because of the fact that he had to mature so quickly and in such a traumatic way. This is especially clear with his future job of being a catcher in a rye field, and how the steep cliff that no one can see coming before they fall off of it is the metaphor for growing up. You can't see the moment you are forced to grow up coming, and to Holden, growing up is painful, so he tries to keep other kids safe from growing up. Good job!
ReplyDeleteReading this blog post makes me think of the Catcher in the Rye as not so much as a coming of age story in the sense that Holden finds a path into his adult life. Rather, its more like he finds that he wants to preserve childhood innocence. This book certainly has a very important final culmination.
ReplyDeleteGood post!
You make a good point when you note that Holden's resistance to change leads him to frequently CHANGE schools in order to try NOT to advance to the next level--there are plenty of ironies embedded in any resistance to change on the part of human beings, because change is the only constant in the world (as the Buddha reminds us), and there is NOTHING we can do about it. So in order to "escape" the treadmill that requires change, Holden proposes an even more radical shift in setting--his various iterations of the run-away-to-the-woods fantasy.
ReplyDeleteI can't help but wonder if readers in this class feel where Holden is coming from here, or if you get impatient with his "immature" attitude toward the fact that all human life is transient, that change is the only constant, that nothing stays the way it was, and that everyone is on a direct course toward death. (Now I'm depressed!) I definitely relate, and it's not easy to admit it: I'm past the half-century mark, and I am prone to shocking bouts of nostalgia and sentimentality, idealization of the past, and a general sense of loss and mourning over "time's relentless melt" (to quote Susan Sontag on the same topic). I will hold off on expanding further, or this comment will get LONG, but I guess I want to say that it might be easy to dismiss Holden as a sentimental and nostalgic character who just needs to face cold reality, but I'm here to tell you that in many ways that cold reality might continue to be unacceptable to you at some deep basic level. Of course, there's no real way to RESIST the relentless melt of time--other than to feel bad about it, while time keeps moving on anyway. Holden's fundamental complaint is not about "society" but something more like "the human condition." And there's no cure for that.
I agree about Holden’s struggle with change and his idealization of childhood innocence. You did a great job connecting his fear of growing up to key events in the novel, especially Allie’s death and his constant school transfers. The way you traced his resistance to adulthood through his action, like dropping out of school and asking Sally to run away, really reinforces your argument. I also like how you pointed out that Phoebe’s actions challenge Holden’s worldview, forcing him to confront the consequences of his mindset.
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