Perception/Expectation and Reality
Holden Caulfield is a tragic hero or some could say a "pathetic" hero. His character in The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger is riddled with flaws in logic. He's the anti-hero of his own story because he lacks the ability or traits of a hero, yet he wants to be one for all the children about to "fall off the cliff" into the adult world.
His psyche is about helping others away from the phoniness of growing up. He tries to do this by claiming that he would like to preserve children like in a museum, he also wants to personally eradicate all the "Fuck you"s written around the city. |
You could view the "catcher in the rye" idea as this: a typical stalk of rye would be taller than, say, a toddler, it does grow pretty tall. Holden is much taller than a toddler, and he could presumably see over the stalks of rye (representing the veil of innocence on childhood). So, when the children get too close to the cliff, before they fall down (into the abyss of adulthood), Holden could catch them. Holden's fantasy is similar to other fantasies like Willy Loman and Walter Lee. This is why Holden is a tragic hero, his motives are selfish (he wants to disrupt the natural order of maturity), the reality of the situation is that Holden fell over the cliff of adulthood too early (the death of his brother Allie and possible sexual assault) and this is what makes him the way he is. Allie was Holden's hero, he is dead now, showing that Adam Gnade's statement is true. Holden looked up to Allie, making him more than a person.
Allie's baseball glove with poems written on it is the only concrete way that Holden can remember him by. When he writes his roommate Stradlater's English essay on the glove, his roommate doesn't understand. Holden feels completely alone in the world. How Holden perceives the world is completely different from the reality. He hates "phonies", people who act fake or not like their real selves, then in reality, Holden is a phony. He lies left and right and acts completely immature most of the time. Instead of surrounding himself with people that could be considered "real" he decides to pursue more phonies, a prostitute, three women in a club, and others. He should have looked for help with people like Jane Gallagher or his sister Phoebe.
In the end, Holden is able to see through his flawed logic. He and Phoebe go to a park with a carousel and Holden thinks, "The thing with kids is, if they want to grab the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it's bad if you say anything to them," (211). The gold ring now represents adulthood, and the carousel is life, going round and round, and at some point, the kids will reach out for the gold ring, and if they do, you just have to help them back up again.
Gatsby |
Fade |
7 Years |