Brandon Eversgerd
Mr. Scuito Theology
August 28, 2008
Was Holden Caulfield a Person of faith?

Holden Caulfield is a man as they say “bounces to the beat of his own drum” as he is always doing whatever he wants whenever he wants. On numerous occasions Holden is doing so as he makes random phone calls to people such as Sally Hayes or Carl Luce and even has a prostitute come to his hotel room at night. Through these Holden is trying to pass the time before he has to go break the news to his parents that he got kicked out of school and not thinking about the possible effect they might have on him.

Many examples contribute to the fact that Holden believes in his own ideas and maybe thinks what he wants or does is always right. Unfortunately though, his ideas bring him down and unravel his personality and characteristics to show his lack of faith in himself. He gets kicked out of Pency Prep because of his lack of work and just not striving to succeed, thus showing his lack of trust in himself that he is smart enough to succeed. Like wise, he doesn’t believe in his right judgment and belief that his parent will support him either way by not breaking the news to his parents before winter break begins that he got kicked out of another school. Finally he doesn’t have the guts to talk to Jane Gallagher’s mom and more than that, even go talk to Jane herself all because of his lack of self confidence. While Holden thinks he’s got himself figured out he is sadly mistaken because, what it boils down to, he just doesn’t believe in himself and that he can prevail through to what appears to be an eminent fall.

Throughout the book Holden is also often tempted or put to the test on various occasions by constantly embodying the theory that the world is a dangerous place and that he needs to avoid it. He is afraid to “live a little” and just have fun in his life as so many people seem to be encouraging him to do. So, through this example you could say Holden has no faith, in this case trust, in the world and the people in it that they can get through the good and bad times of life. “Life is a game” according to Mr. Spencer and Holden just simply refuses to play.