Throughout the book “The Catcher in the Rye,” Holden Caulfield continuously shows to me and to the people that he comes in contact with that most of the time he is not a person of faith. This means that all too rarely does he exuberate the two qualities that make up faith, which are belief and trust. Towards the end of the novel, he begins to change for the better and experience a metanoia of the heart and mind in the way he interacts towards others. This metanoia he experiences finally converts him into a person of faith.

One of the main reasons that Holden isn’t a person of faith is that most of the time he lacks belief in his fellow man and most importantly, he does not believe in himself. He fails out of Pencey Prep because he doesn’t trust that he owns the skills necessary to apply himself and succeed. He finds that taking the easy way of just leaving is the way for him, when in fact it just shows that he is a very confused, faithless young man. He doesn’t trust Stradlater when he goes out on the date with his childhood friend Jane Gallagher to do the right thing with her and treat her correctly. Holden keeps the opinion of Stradlater, the same opinion he has of most people, that he in unable to be trusted and most of all, will be unable to act like a gentleman around his date. This side of Holden also shows that he is capable of acting like a person of faith as well in the way that he cares for and thinks about Jane so sweetly. He wants to make sure that Stradlater doesn’t take advantage of her because he has a history of breaking hearts. This caring side of Holden shows that he is also a person of faith.

Another time where Holden displays his lack of trust and belief in his fellow man is when he goes home to try to say “hello” to his sister Phoebe and is afraid that his parents will catch him being there. He doesn’t believe that even though he has done a terrible thing in dropping out of school, that his parents will still take him back. But this incident also begins the change in Holden, the metanoia of his thoughts and actions.

Holden wants to spend time with Phoebe and trusts her enough to tell her his plan for leaving. He is becoming more open and is reaching the realization that not all people are phonies and out to get him. Holden uses his better judgment and tells Phoebe that she cannot come with him even though she begs and pleads. Even in her pouting and bribing towards him in a last ditch effort to convince him to let her come with him, Holden doesn’t budge in his resolution. He knows that if she comes with him she will end up just like him or worse and decides that he couldn’t put his parents through that again or let Phoebe, herself, suffer through that grief. His person of faith attitude shines through when it is most needed and allows him to keep a lasting bond with Phoebe without doing anything that would cause harm to her or the rest of his family.

In the beginning of the novel, Holden is hardly a good representative of what it means to be a person of faith. After some life-changing encounters and decisions, he experiences a metanoia in his life, allowing him to gain two extremely important values. Finally Holden has gained trust and belief in himself and his fellow man. Finally Holden is a person of faith.