J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye Review

Overall Rating

Conversational style.

'Holden is more cynical than innocent '.
Cynicism was originally the combined philosophies of a group of ancient Greeks known as the Cynics, founded by Antisthenes is the fourth century BC. They rejected society and advocated a simpler way of living, spurning money, religion, and other bastions of the advanced society of ancient Greece in favour of the 'pursuit of virtue ' . The fact that Holden seems to spurn society makes him a cynic in its purest form, the modern definition of cynicism however, runs contrary to this notion, the Oxford English Dictionary suggests the modern definition of cynic is 'showing a disposition to disbelieve in the sincerity or goodness of human motives or action 'Holden is 'cynical 'in the modern sense about the reader ' s intentions saying that 'you probably want to know where I was born and what my lousy childhood 'but overall, Holden is cynical in its original sense which, it could be argued, makes him innocent. Innocence has two clear meanings, one of which is naivety and the other is moral purity, Holden is quite knowledgeable about things that concern him; mainly school but seems out of his depth and naive in New York City. He seems to question everything presented to him in a cynical manner and he is not 'morally pure 'admitting that he is the 'world ' s biggest pervert in my head '. He is immediately cynical at the opening of the novel, saying 'the first thing you ' ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like 'and all that David Copperfield crap ', the immediate impact on the reader is likely to be that Holden Caulfield is very cynical, the reader is likely to hold on to that sentiment for the entire book (I know I did!) but he really uncovers his naivety of the real world in chapters thirteen and fourteen when he hired a prostitute and then refused to sleep with her because he felt more 'depressed than sexy' and 'damn peculiar' was then unsurprised that her pimp extorted the remainder of the money Sunny (the prostitute) demanded. Holden seems to start to go mad towards the end of the book and has 'this feeling that I'd never get to the other side of the street. I'd just go down, down, down, and nobody ' s ever seeing me again.' This marks the start of a spiraling depression for Holden, which ultimately ends up with him in a hospital recovering for a number of months. The end of the novel is quite depressive which seems to reflect Holden's mental state and is quite cinematic when Phoebe is on the carousel in the rain, which is quite strange since Holden hates the cinema. Holden uses other movie imagery earlier in the book; * 'I pictured myself coming out of the bathroom 'then declares that he hates 'the god dam movies, they ruin you '. Holden ' s mental state is evidently fragile less than half way through the book when he declares that what he 'really felt like, though, was committing suicide. 'He 'felt like jumping through the window ', this elicits quite a strong reaction from the reader.
Holden is innocent for a number of reasons, but when one compares him to his fellow pupils at his various private schools, 'Old Luce' has the most colourful and revealing contact with Holden in the novel even though their conversation at the 'Wicker Bar' only really dealt with sex, which shows that not much had changed since Whooton school when 'Old Luce acted as Holden's mentor and 'gave all these sex talks and all', despite how 'immature' Luce insists Holden is. Luce is presented as an intelligent freethinker by Salinger; he has a Chinese sculptor girlfriend who is in her late thirties, he says he 'finds Eastern philosophy more satisfactory than Western' which suggests Luce is a beatnik; the beat generation often favoured Eastern philosophy over western (according to Wikipedia), it could just be Salinger attempting to accurately depict the cultural upheaval going on mainly in San Francisco but was to spread across America. Luce seems to Holden to be the least likely person amongst he school acquaintances he mentions to fit into a mainstream social clique found mainly in American schools; he fits Stradlater in with the 'Jocks', Brossard is dismissed as a 'bridge fiend' and Ackley as a 'loner'. At the end of their conversation at the Wicker Bar, Holden describes 'Old Luce' as 'strictly a pain in the ass ' ; this doesn't categorize him, as there is no specific social clique for 'pains in the ass'. The Beat generation tried to become far removed from society and this was recognised by Salinger. The Beat generation, founded by Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs and Gregory Corso was a movement that was famous for its visceral poetry, spiritual engagement, style of dress and the high rate of suspected mental illness in its female devotees. Holden is displaying signs of Beat culture although not explicitly, he yearns to be apart from society. This is shown in chapter twenty-one when Holden tries to explain his desire to escape mainstream society and its incumbent pressures, 'I might get a job out there (Colorado) '. 'Society 'also has other connotations for Holden since his family is wealthy; society is the upper classes and their social engagements and his parents seem very involved in the practice, they are in fact out of the house at a party 'in Norwalk ', Conneticut 'when Holden returns home. The conversation with Luce turns almost immediately to sex; Holden states that his 'sex life is lousy' and Luce replies that 'naturally, your mind is immature', I think that this too is the factor that stops Holden from having sex with 'Sunny' the prostitute. Holden had previously admitted to being unable to 'get real sexy' with a girl he 'doesn ' t like a lot'. Holden also seems to have rather immature ideas about sex in a relationship; he says that 'she was decent enough to get sexy with you all the time' referring to Old Luce's ex-girlfriend, 'the babe with the terrific....' and implying that it was more of a favour than a gesture of ay kind of loving feeling towards Luce. Holden clearly admires Luce, 'what a guy' but it's quite obvious that Luce doesn't admire Holden, he is merely slightly amused by him then bored by his incessant talk of intercourse and dismisses most of what Holden has to say as 'same old Caulfield'. I think that Holden admires Luce because he is more experienced than him in more than one respect, he is even prepared to ask him advice that doesn't involve sex; 'I need your advice' which is callously refused 'Listen Caulfield'. This could well be because it doesn't involve sex but it is more likely that he was bored with Holden. Despite an altercation with Stradlater that led to him leaving Pencey school earlier than he had planned over Stradlater's dalliance with Jane who Holden claims to know 'like a book', Holden seems to admire him; 'he was at least a pretty friendly guy' with a 'damn good build'. I think Holden also holds a grudging respect for Stradlater's ability with women. Holden admires Luce for his large vocabulary 'he certainly has a good vocabulary' and doesn't seem to be have ever been in direct competition with him unlike his school fellows at Pencey
Holden's sister Phoebe asserts a semblance of authority over Holden which indicates how innocent Holden really is when he complains that Phoebe is 'ostracizing the hell out of me'
Holden seems to feel guilty about outwardly small things such as having a smaller a breakfast than a couple of nuns, saying 'I hate it if I'm eating bacon and eggs or something and somebody else is only eating toast and coffee' This insignificant imbalance seems to have quite a profound effect on Holden, prompting him to donate ten dollars and offer to pay the nun's bill. These seemingly small things indicate that Holden is wracked with guilt and by donating money he might be able to rid himself of it. Almost like the rich man who wanted to go to heaven, Jesus instructed him to give away all of his worldly goods and become poor because 'it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man enter heaven'.** Holden is trying to sanctify himself by giving away his money, almost unconsciously. Continuing on the theme of parables, Jesus also said that you had to be like a child to get into heaven; we can interpret that as being innocent, or completely accepting, I'm in no doubt that Holden is innocent and by giving away his money he represents the rich man who can go to heaven! I think this it is probable that Salinger intended to represent Holden in this way. The conversation with the nuns reveals a little more about Holden's character than one would suppose after the detailed dissection above about implied religious imagery, it further proves his lack of cynicism; 'she didn't sound much like a nun' suggests that Holden has a rather innocent preconceived view of how nuns should behave, if he was cynical, he would immediately assume that the nuns in question were of questionable sexuality and possibly in a relationship with one another. He obviously thought that Romeo and Juliet was 'pretty sexy' for the innocent nuns. The fact that Holden felt 'sorrier' when Mercutio was killed in Romeo and Juliet than Romeo or Juliet suggests he likes the joker the most which could also further stress his innocence. Even Mercutio's final line is a pun, 'ask me tomorrow, and you should find me a grave man...'
In conclusion, Holden is definitely innocent. He is outwardly cynical but is naive * read up to and not including page 95 from the quote.