There are historically two schools of thought when it comes to Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye.
People either detest him and everything he stands for, or they love him.
Often, this is tied to when one reads Salinger’s novel for the first time. Read it in your teens and you’ll likely relate to Holden. Read it in adulthood, and one becomes less sympathetic.
This is perhaps a little reductive, but it does tend to be the general trend.
As a figuratively paid up member of the Holden Caulfield Appreciation Society – along with my friend and podcaster Lucy Kikuchi, I’m going to tell you why Holden’s haters are dead wrong.
Why do people hate Holden Caulfield?
Bit of a history lesson.
When The Catcher in the Rye was published, it was a highly controversial book. The constant cussing and ‘taking the lord’s name in vain’ led to it being banned in certain parts of America.
Holden is a rebel. He claims to see through the insincerity and inauthenticity of adult society, branding people around him ‘phonies’ – even people who perhaps don’t deserve such a description.
Holden is immature, hypocritical, unbelievably cynical, and even a little misogynistic. Whilst it would be harsh to label him an incel, he does possess certain similar characteristics with today’s online movement.
This makes him enemies.
“But, hang on John, you’re meant to be batting for this guy” I hear you protest. What exactly are his redeeming features?
The Truth About Holden Caulfield
There are two strands to Holden Caulfield that are often overlooked, or at least not acknowledged as much as they ought to be. These are grief and the loss of innocence.
Unresolved grief permeates The Catcher in the Rye. Holden’s grief is for his late brother Allie, whom he tends to bring up periodically – usually when he’s depressed.
Breaking off from his current situation, Holden goes on extended monologues about Allie in nostalgic, almost reverent terms. These moments are where the close reader begins to understand the vulnerability of Salinger’s protagonist, in spite of his prickly demeanour.
The loss of Allie is also linked to Holden’s loss of innocence. Death focuses the mind, and anyone who has ever lost a friend or family member at a young age will have felt that vacuum of justice, and complete bereftness.
Meanwhile, Holden constantly rejects the sexual awakening of himself, and of others.
Jane, a friend of his when he was younger, whom Holden was rather attracted to in a maternal sense, goes on a date with his roommate Stradlater.
Stradlater’s cool, confident exterior is everything Holden isn’t. Holden fears he’ll ‘put the moves’ on Jane and ‘getting off’ with her – something he’s obsessed with preventing in order to not sully his memory of Jane in more innocent times.
Holden seemingly suffers a mental breakdown towards the end of the novel, after a controversial exchange with an old teacher, Mr Antolini. Desperate for help, he seeks out Mr Antolini – a teacher who understood Holden and one he felt safe with. Antolini allows him to stay for the night, but upon waking up to find Antolini stroking his head, Holden implies to the reader that Antolini is a sexual abuser and flees. The truth of this isn’t established, with Holden a highly unreliable narrator.
With not even Antolini to rely on, Holden Caulfield is lost. You’ll notice that I’ve neglected to mention his parents. Their absence, emotionally and physically in the novel, is palpable. Even the biggest critic of Caulfield has to at least empathise with this.
Holden Caulfield is, in my view, a tragic hero. A massively flawed, but nonetheless affable and loveable character who must be protected at all costs.
What the Catcher in the Rye is Actually About
The band Keane once wrote a song called Everybody’s Changing. It’s a great song. Here’s a brief extract from the chorus:
So little time
Try to understand that I'm
Trying to make a move just to stay in the game
I try to stay awake and remember my name
But Everybody's Changing, and I don't feel the same
You're gone from here
Soon you will disappear, fading into beautiful light
'Cause Everybody's Changing, and I don't feel right
And this song pretty much sums up Holden Caulfield’s experience.
That period in one’s life – the transition from childhood to young adulthood – the teenage years if you will, is a painful period. Certainties and securities one can rely on are unceremoniously stripped away, the simplicities of friendship give way to external social pressures, and people change, sometimes for the worse. These are the real growing pains.
Holden summons an image in the novel of children playing in rye fields beside a cliff. As the children fall off, he catches them – a metaphor for rescuing them from a loss of innocence. He’s obsessed with being the ‘catcher in the rye’, but ultimately, he cannot protect everyone.
Growing up is an inevitability but this isn’t acceptable to Holden. This manifests itself in grief over the loss of innocence, both for himself, his peers, and the younger people around him such as his little sister Phoebe.
How do you feel about Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye?
Love him? Hate him? Bit of both? Let me know below 