The Catcher in the Rye
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Was Holden Resisting Growing Up?
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About the squaw diorama, no. I share your view. People are reading too much into it.But I wonder if he is resisting adulthood in a subtler way - he is not only evaluating adult behaviour, but refusing to accept that he should live that way. In fact I wonder if his feelings are common to quite a lot of us in adolescence - adults say (well, it's just that way" and you reply, "well, it shouldn't be".
Mike wrote: "But I wonder if he is resisting adulthood in a subtler way - he is not only evaluating adult behaviour, but refusing to accept that he should live that way. In fact I wonder if his feelings are common to quite a lot of us in adolescence - adults say (well, it's just that way" and you reply, 'well, it shouldn't be'."Yes, and we also have to figure in that he is spiraling toward a nervous collapse. He sees the madness of the adult world and his idealized way of coping is to run away, escape to a cabin in the woods.
But I think it is very adult to comprehend the madness of the adult world. This is addressed very poignantly in the fim, The Big Chill, in which one of the characters, a former brilliant physics student, commits suicide because he can't cope.
I don't see Holden as resisting adulthood so much as wanting it on his own terms. He's embracing the candy and looking for a way to avoid the spinach.
It's more of his adult thinking. Working adults all have bosses or clients they have to suck-up to, graffiti plastered everywhere, signs reminding us of rules and penalties for breaking them, hunting for parking places.
How many of us have not felt the urge to get away from the madness? Look at the prevalence of "cabins in the woods" where people go to escape. Salinger himself found his cabin in the woods in New Hampshire and lived there most of his life. Ski resorts and mountain retreats exist everywhere there are mountains.
Holden has highlighted the big compromise of adulthood--the vast majority of us have to do things we don't like in order to have what we want. People spend six to ten hours on the road cooped up in a car in stressful traffic and dangerous weather to have a few hours of actual relaxation. What the hell, it's a break in the routine.
"Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules." - Mr. Spencer
Holden sees the solution most adults see--escape. Instead of "it shouldn't be," perhaps he's saying, "I know a better way. Maybe I can pull it off." And he picks out a good-looking girl to escape with. A plan is taking shape.
As indeed it should!I see the book as actually questioning whether we should comply; it presents a lack of logic in the adult world and says, challenge this. Adults do have to do things they don't want, but are they complying with that a little too much? As you say, Salinger decided not to.
That is what a great book does! It questions authority. I never got the idea that Holden did not want to grow up. I am surprised so many theories, even John Green. Hmmm. I'd say they are missing the point of the book. The catcher was more of a protective figure, hence 'adult' or 'mature'.
Christine wrote: ". I am surprised so many theories, even John Green. Hmmm. I'd say they are missing the point of the book."Agreed. Perhaps they were projecting from their own experience.
What is doubly surprising is the academic pedigrees of the people who see Holden as resisting adulthood. The evidence to me is so overwhelmingly the opposite, but Smart educated people in the literary mainstream are getting it wrong.
Is it a case of academic group-think? Has some noted professor steered class after class down the wrong path? I have seen this before. Perhaps everyone's afraid to take on the prof.
Absolutely. But who doesn't at some point in the years before adulthood? Not to mention he was grieve
Oops, guess I hit post too soon. Anyway, he was grieving the death of a family member, & grief affects people in different, & often strange ways. It alsmost seems as if his related depression from the grief, forced him to look at a world that can be very empty, souless, & self -centered at times,& he did so at an earlier age than most. So seeing the world for what it truly is & how harsh & uncaring it can be, again at a young age, would make almost anyone resist growing up.
Ash wrote: "...who doesn't at some point in the years before adulthood?"I didn't, nor did any of my working class friends who couldn't wait to escape their parents and be on their own.
Ash wrote: "Absolutely."
a) Where on the page is the most compelling evidence that Holden is resisting adulthood? and b) How do you refute the evidence cited above to the contrary?
Monty J wrote: "http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/19/boo...In the above-referenced October 14, 2014, article in The New York Times Sunday Book Review, the ar..."
Here is a comment posted to the above article this morning:
"Tricia Parker Phoenix, AZ 52 minutes ago
Yep, we read differently at different ages, but I, too, disagree with Daniel Mendelsohn's take on Holden Caulfield, who is as dear to me as if he were one of my high school students. I don't teach (that would ruin it) CITR, but it is on my recommended reading list. When students choose it, I ask them to make a soft promise to return to it when they've aged at least ten years, so they may see Holden differently, with kinder, more compassionate eyes. Time has taught me that most of my students are as annoyed with Holden's obsessiveness, repetitiveness, and constant complaining as they are with Hamlet's, well, same stuff. Kids can be so frustratingly developmentally on-target -- my students are JUST LIKE HOLDEN, most of them, knock wood, without his sadness. Isn't Holden the guilt-ridden, grieving, invisible middle-ish sibling who clearly wishes he had been the one to succumb to leukemia rather than the beloved Allie and who suspects his parents wish the same? I don't think annoyance with Holden (or Hamlet) is an appropriate response, so I ask this small thing. I wonder if I'll be around long enough in public education for any of my students to make good on their promises."
Tricia, an English teacher, agrees that Holden is not resisting.
The tally, so far, is 4 against and 2 (counting Mendelshon) for the proposition that Holden is resisting adulthood. (Actually it's 5 against, but I'm not counting my girlfriend, who's also an English teacher.)
C'mon, guys, speak up and be counted.
May I also encourage you to post your views as a comment on the article itself?
Do it! Literature is important. As Captain Kirk said, "Engage!"
Wow! I've never looked at the book that way. I always thought that Holden is an annoying and immature boy who needs to stop acting like a cry-baby and grow up already. Reading your theory, I think I might read that book again with a different perspective.
Really, you never thought "I want to be a kid forever"? I admit most of my young life I also remember saying & thinking, I can't wait until I grow up & can get out of here. However, I was refering to Holden, a fictional character, who has lost a sibling at a young age, & as I stated earlier, grief affects people in strange ways sometimes. My opinion is he got a glimpse of a world so wrapped up in itself, & meanwhile here he is in pain after losing a brother, & he seems to learn early that no matter how young, or how much pain you are experiencing, it doesn't affect the rest of the world. There is a scene in the book, & it has been a few years since I have read it, so you will have to forgive me if I get parts of it wrong, but Holden & his family visit his brother's grave, then they go eat. And Holden thinks to himself, it's fine for all of us, but what about poor(I truly have forgotten his brother's name), he is underneath the cold.earth with rain falling down & nobody ever seems to talk about that.That scene to me showed a child who was becoming a cynic & jaded way too early, so maybe he wasn't conciously resisting growing up, but the little boy in him had to yearn for the feelings he once had as a carefree kid. The truth is hard, especially for a child who has to face harsh truths before a lot of children do. He had to at least wonder why part of him didn't feel like a kid anymore. As far as citing on which page I feel this happened, and then "refuting evidence cited above to the contrary"? Those two questions alone put me right back in Undergrad & Graduate school. I am finished writing all those papers. If I have nightmares of finishing my degrees, looking up references, or hardcore professors, I am holding you resposible, lol. By the way, if you aren't a professor, you would have been a great one. And that is a compliment.
I have heard several people say Holden was nothing more than a spoiled brat. I never stated that, nor have I ever felt that way. I just see him as a sad,.grieving, kid,.who became jaded & cynical.at way too early of an age. Please, please tell me you are asking other's who have commented to post their views as a comments on the article itself? It has been years since I have read the book, & I wasn't really(& still am.not) adamant about my view of Holden resisting adulthood. I just don't see how part of him could not have yearned to just be a carefree kid again, after so much of it was snatched away from him. You are absolutely correct,.Literature is important,extremely important. I would go so.far as to say it is sacred to me. But come on, it's a NY Times article. Do you honestly think they care what anyone but themselves thinks anyway? I hope I'm not offending anyone, but how many people at the NY Times even realize there are other, intelligent people out there? Even outside of Manhattan no less. I pride myself on being non-judgemental, & almost anyone would.agree this publication has such pretentious people.writing it's articles.it's actually funny to me. Well,Vanity Fair has there share too,.but I do love their articles. Let them stay in their little bubble of what they assume to be genius, one day it will burst.
Ash wrote: "But come on, it's a NY Times article. Do you honestly think they care what anyone but themselves thinks anyway? I hope I'm not offending anyone, but how many people at the NY Times even realize there are other, intelligent people out there? Even outside of Manhattan no less. I pride myself on being non-judgemental, & almost anyone would.agree this publication has such pretentious people.writing it's articles.it's actually funny to me. Well,Vanity Fair has there share too,.but I do love their articles. Let them stay in their little bubble of what they assume to be genius, one day it will burst."Ah, but this is how we keep them honest. Break them out of their complacent bubble of group think.
Your comments, our comments, are their umbilical to the outside world. Lets shake them up. Rattle their cage. Let them know we're out here watching--that we think literature is important and they don't own it.
When I read CiTR at age 19 I thought he was a spoiled brat. I had no sympathy for him. Forty years later it was a completely different book to me. I could see myself in him at his age. It's a different book at each age depending on how we have matured. Some of us never "grow up," emotionally. For some it happens suddenly in military boot camp. For some it is a long gradual process. With Holden, Salinger compresses a lot into just 3 days.
A part of me refuses to grow up. I fiercely protect my ability to play and have fun. Part of me grew up too soon and never got to play. I identify with Peter Pan. I think a lot of people do. It is healthy.
In Holden we have a great case study in child development. He's part Peter Pan and part Kaspar Hauser (the German boy who supposedly grew up in a cage.) The elements influencing the transition to adulthood are vital to understanding the human condition and cry out for expression in literature.
I think "He resisted growing up" is essentially true but also a little too simplistic at the same time. He resists what he believes growing up represents and turns a person into. Sure, he didn't mind smoking and drinking and seeking out prostitutes (notice that he can't manage to actually seal the deal with her), but he did mind most of the other "phony" things that adults also do. I think it is quite clear that he is terrified of the possibility that he will eventually turn into the things that he professes to hate.
As an aside, I have a tendency to draw very weird parallels between literature and film. Holden actually reminds me of an episode of "Gilmore Girls". The main character, Rory, is in college and is dating Logan, a boy from a very privileged background. Because of her upbringing, she has a penchant for making snide and condescending remarks about rich people. (Her mom was a rebellious teen who ran away and raised her humbly with small town values etc.) Her very privileged boyfriend grows weary of it and checks her by reminding her that she is not as different as she likes to think that she is because....1) she is also from a very privileged family 2) she went to an exclusive and very expensive prep school 3) she is now attending a very expensive ivy league university 4) her privileged family has been paying for her education all along. 5) she happens to be living rent free in his very nice apartment.The point is that Rory is so busy calling others out for being rich elitist pricks that she fails to realize that she is very much a part of that world. Holden is so busy calling people phonies even though he might actually be the biggest phony of them all.
Of course he was resisting maturity. That was one of the main internal conflicts of the novel.He wants to show his independance by living alone in NY.
However, he remains obsessed with ducks. Hardly an adult obsession.
He admires the museum exhibits because of their unchanging nature. In fact, he explicitly states he likes them because they don't change and also laments that he has been a different person every time he has returned.
The fact that he requests a prostitute shows he want to grow up, albeit a crude way to illustrate this.
However, he tries to have a conversation when she arrives. He is afraid of actually going through with the 'rite of passage' and 'becoming an adult'.
There are loads of example but I think those are enough unless someone wants to talk more about it. I feel the fact that he was resisting is one of the main points of the book.
In re-reading the article and all the comments, it occurred to me that 'resisting to grow up' is very different from wanting to change the status quo. Holden thinks the status quo is full of 'phonies'. He does not want to be one of them. That doesn't mean he avoids growing up!! That means he is, on some level, actively engaged in trying to make the world a better place!I am chuckling at all these NYT intellectual snobs. Hehe. Do these people realize this book sells about 250,000 copies per year? I assure them, that is NOT because Holden is some whiny immature kid who avoids adulthood. It is because Holden is a REFLECTION of what is GOOD about HUMANITY, wanting to change a status quo that no longer serves us! Wanting to create a better situation, wanting to create a more compassionate experience, wanting to create a better world! That is the real attraction of this book.
(And yes, we DO read differently at different ages, duh. I would never have made those statements when I first read this book at age 15. I would have said that Holden was a funny guy and I liked reading an easy book :P)
I agree Christine. I feel there's no many different ways to enjoy the book. Teenagers might empathise with him. When those teens grow up they might smiles at Holden's immaturity and then later again they might see even more layers of the book.I think Holden is definitely a good person at heart. He defends himself from the world with bitterness and cynicism but really he wants to help children and stop them from losing innocence. Even if it's unrealistic, it's a noble aim. We also see Holden's good qualities in that he feels sorry for Ackley and invites him to the movies. I think he truly is a good person despite his bitterness.
I couldn't have said it better, Ben. Well done. And Christine, I made a comment similar to you about the "more intelligent than others" snobs in NY as well. They make me laugh at what is actually their stupidity in believing no smart people exist outside of Manhattan.
I'd say they're jealous fools, more likely than not. After all, 60 years after the book was written, people are still writing critical reviews about it. What are the chances that 60 years after their critical articles that anyone's going to know who they are, much less read their articles that they're always trying to put forth is akin to the penning of the magna carta?
I lived in New York City for only a few years and thought the entire book was about how much he couldn't stand the fake atmosphere of high society, i.e, wealthy society. I thought that because even in the 2000's, when I lived in New york, that same atmosphere existed all over the city. Like if you told someone in Manhattan you were from the Bronx (over the phone, in this case) suddenly they would take a haughty attitude and immediately find a reason to never talk to you again.
And the writing society in New York City is still the same as it was all those years ago; they're phonier than AT&T and usually boring on top of it. But if you listened to them when they're referring to themselves, you'd expect they believe they pull chariots of fire across the sky.
Very well said Vicky. I don't think the city's literary "insiders" attitudes will ever change. However to me it is quite laughable, & a little sad.
Holden was not resisting. He was doing his best to cope with reality.
Dorothy wrote: "Holden was not resisting. He was doing his best to cope with reality."Absolutely! He wanted to grow up, and he didn't. He was afraid-trying to cope with reality while at the same time trying not to have full blown panic attacks. I loved Holden- so funny, with bits of "grown-up" moments.
Benjamin wrote: "'Growing up' is such a phony concept,"There isn't much phony about the transition from juvenile to adult; it is universal throughout the animal kingdom. If a bird fails to learn to fly, feed and defend itself, the consequences are quick and fatal. For juvenile humans, survival isn't so much at stake as the quality of life as an adult.
Physical maturity comes with age; mental maturity is where it's complicated.
At one end of the social maturity spectrum are people who were infantalized by parents who habitually made excuses for them and encouraged their dependency. The infantalized adult doesn't accept responsibility for his/er actions or integrate well into society.
At the other end of the spectrum are those who were abandoned by parents and forced to be independent while they were still children, chronologically and emotionally.
The trouble with CiTR is that when the reader himself is embroiled in the transition phase, these are abstract concepts. They can't see the forest for the trees.
Benjamin wrote;"Holden spends the entire book trying to get out of the playground, only to find New York is another playground, except one lacking sentimentality. He eventually finds the 'real' in his sister's natural, unconditional enjoyment in the beautiful penultimate chapter."
I am impressed with you Benjamin- I couldn't have said this better; and I love when young people like yourself think this way.
Benjamin wrote;"Hi Karen, I've been following your GR posts recently, I really enjoy your insights also. I'm a dilettante in Kerouac but the more I visit your profile the higher up his novels get on my list."
Thanks! At 21 I think you are doing just fine! You have the wanderlust of Kerouac and the intellect of Holden- keep reading and posting.
Benjamin wrote: "Sometimes I feel like jumping on a Eurostar train and trying my chances in Paris, Prague or somewhere, and other times I get genuinely excited about long-term employment. Then other times I feel like moving to India and joining an Ashram, meditating all day and learning sitar. It's times like those when I'm like "Oh, heck, that's something Holden would say. I want to be the Catcher in the Rye!". Truly terrifying."Rilke: and I would like to beg you, dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.
Here's the full letter: http://www.carrothers.com/rilke4.htm
I think it'd take a close reading of the text with the ideas in this thread in mind to support this contention, but I suspect what is being characterized by Mendelshon and Green as Holden resisting growing up is really the result of focusing on a particular aspect of the book's overall theme, and misinterpreting it. That is, in the broadest and most abstract terms, Holden is trying to come to grips with his mortality. Arguably, that's what adulthood is--the recognition and acceptance of our eventual and inevitable demise. Along the way, one has to deal with a whole lot of nothing (or, as Holden might say, most things are phoney) but it is the rare and poignant moment upon which we ascribe meaning that makes the whole thing worthwhile.So, I don't think Holden is resisting growing up so much as struggling with that process. The wistful and nostalgic thoughts about the museum that are used as an example of Holden "resisting" are really him musing about the temporal nature of life, and wouldn't it be nice if there were something, anything permanent. Musing about the nature of life isn't resisting adulthood--it's part of the process of becoming an adult.
In Holden's case, that process includes the death of his brother, witnessing the suicide of a classmate, some awkward sexual adjustments, etc. These are fairly universal experiences, though the particulars can vary quite a bit. Everyone loses loved ones and experiences death second hand. Hence, the appeal of the book to such a large and lasting audience.
However, I think to say that Holden is resisting becoming an adult is getting it backwards or--more particularly--mistaking the melancholy realization of what mortality means with an attempt to reject that reality.
Gary wrote: "I think it'd take a close reading of the text with the ideas in this thread in mind to support this contention, but I suspect what is being characterized by Mendelshon and Green as Holden resisting...However, I think to say that Holden is resisting becoming an adult is getting it backwards or--more particularly--mistaking the melancholy realization of what mortality means with an attempt to reject that reality."Very well said.
Monty J wrote: "Very well said."Thanks for saying so. :)
Cemre wrote: "Do you think that "falling of the cliff" means sexual maturity or does it mean " learning that you will die" ? Or dying itself, maybe. Castle and Allie died after all."I think it means loss of innocence, which can take many forms. For example, the loss of a loved one, rape, incest, divorce of parents, losing one's virginity, a serious car crash (very common among high-schoolers, drinking or doping while driving results in a great number of fatalities), getting drafted into military service, break-up with a girl/boyfriend, etc. In The Outsiders, one of the boys was shot and killed by the police. Another died of burns received while heroically rescuing children from a burning church. Pick up any morning paper or watch the 6 o'clock news.
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In the above-referenced October 14, 2014, article in The New York Times Sunday Book Review, the article's author Daniel Mendelshon asserts that Holden Caulfield is resisting adulthood, citing as evidence Holden's comment about a diorama exhibit with a bare-breasted squaw. Holden: “The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. . . . You could go there a hundred thousand times, and that Eskimo would still be just finished catching those two fish, . . . and that squaw with the naked bosom would still be weaving that same blanket. Nobody’d be different. The only thing that would be different would be you.”
Mendelshon says, "The all-too-evident regret in that last sentence is striking — one of the novel’s many markers of Holden’s problem, which is a refusal to grow up."
The above illustrates a common interpretation of Holden that I find hard to support in the actual text. Practically everyone, Youtube star John Green included, parses out this passage about "that squaw with the naked bosom" and Holden's liberal use of the word "phony" as concrete evidence Holden doesn't want to grow up, while overlooking a mountain of evidence to the contrary.
Holden smokes, drinks, lies about his age, critiques theater performances, frequents museums, hires a prostitute, repeatedly seeks out adult conversation with peer-level engagement, acts protectively toward children. How many examples are needed to prove Holden is experimenting with adulthood? Criticizing adults as phony means he's evaluating adult behavior, not resisting. This is engagement, not avoidance.
It shouldn't escape notice that Holden was eagerly embracing the candy of adulthood--sex, smoking, booze, nightclub music, dancing, flirting, dating, critiquing literature and the dramatic arts--while agonizing over the spinach of social hypocrisy and rationalization.
So, how DO we interpret Holden's comment about the bare-breasted Native American?
The key is in that last sentence, underlined above: "The only thing that would be different would be you." Holden is telling us he is aware that he is changing. This level of intuitive self-reflection is adult thinking. It also shows maturity to appreciate that some things don't change and never should, because they are part of our cultural identity.
Nostalgic awareness is mature thinking. Mature people want to protect and preserve cultural icons.
Think of the loss and disorientation after the Twin Towers were destroyed. Icons like the Statue of Liberty are signposts reminding us of who and where we are. Holden was feeling lost. In his agitated state he desperately needed that bare-breasted squaw to be right where she had always been. That's all he was getting at with his comment. Give the kid a break.
Holden pondered and wrote down the Wilhelm Stekel quote Mr. Antollini gave him: "The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one." This is another sign he was putting a lot of serious thought into growing up.
To wax psychological, there are teenagers and even some adults, who resist growing up because their parents don't want to let go. They've been infantalized, encouraging dependency. Holden shows no evidence of having been infantalized. Quite the contrary, ending a kid to a military-style prep school could be evidence that Holden was too independent and possibly hard to control.
The evidence on the page shows that Holden was not resisting adulthood, he was aggressively embracing it.
Do you think Holden was resisting growing up?