Cite a literary or cinema character whose story illustrates well the "process of knowing." Identify each with an endnote explanation.
Source:The Catcher in the Rye
The process of knowing is illustrated well by Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye. Holden does not trust anyone at his school especially authority figures. He regards many of them as phonies that have nothing to offer him. Holden does not even trust his parents in making the right choices for him. Holden is not able to trust his fellow classmates at his preparatory school.
Through prior experiences with authority figures Holden is not able to trust them. He has had prior experiences with his parents that lead him to not believe in the goodness of the human heart and more commonly the goodness of the adult heart. Holden is able to trust childlike figures, for example, his younger sister Phoebe. He has made conclusions to all authority figures with the exception of Mr. Antolini. Holden uses the authority way of knowing through one of his former English teachers, Mr. Antolini. Mr. Antolini has provided consul and guidance to Holden in previous experiences. He even houses Holden when he leaves school early to return home. Mr. Antolini is seen giving advice to Holden as to how to get his life back on track. Until a certain event that leads to mistrust with Mr. Antolini, Holden sees him as one authority figure he can count on.
Mr. Antolini is a former teacher thus he has knowledge Holden maybe does not have. Although on average Holden cannot bring himself to even give the time of day to any authority figure, Mr. Antolini is able to spread his prior knowledge and wisdom onto Holden and help inform him of certain aspects that would be beneficial to Holden’s situation. Holden Caulfield is able to use the way of reason to distrust many people and even labeling them as “phonies.” He has preconceived notions about people that he is unable to get over and thus he must label or relate all people into one group known as phonies. He thinks a certain way about all people. He only knows bad, rough experiences with people and has made assumptions from those bad experiences.
Holden has two premisses. One premiss is that all people are fake. His second premiss is that all people cannot be trusted. By those two premisses he makes a judgement, reason, on people and that is that all people are phonies and are not to be trusted.
