Was Holden Caulfied a Person of Faith?

 

            In Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye Holden Caulfied is a person of faith because he has strong beliefs and he doesn’t allow money or sex to corrupt him. Holden exhibits belief and trust, the two aspects of faith, in his own ideology and in a few other characters of the novel.  Holden’s ideology is that kids are perfect because they have not yet been corrupted by the world. Holden believes in this idea and his experiences have proven it to him, so he trusts the idea as well. In accordance with his ideology, Holden tries to save kids from being corrupted, and eventually wants to move out West and have a family away from corruption. 

Holden also has faith in his brother, Allie. Holden trusts Allie because he did not do things to try to impress people or because of money.  Holden also has faith in his sister, Pheobe.  Holden believes that both Allie and Pheobe are strong-willed people who are not trying to be someone else.

Holden’s faith in his ideology also leads him to dislike many things and people that go against it.  From the beginning Holden dislikes competition because it says that some people are better than others.  He despises the president of his school because Holden notices him kissing up to wealthy families and almost ignoring the poorer ones.  Holden also does not have faith in his brother, D.B., because he goes to Hollywood and writes there because of the money.

Holden’s faith enables him to resist the temptations of the world including money and sex.  Holden doesn’t even want to have sex with a prostitute that he paid for himself.  Holden sees the corruption of the world and not only resists it, but he tries to prevent the corruption from spreading.

At the end of the novel, Holden’s faith in his ideology diminishes, but he still has faith in Pheobe.  When she wants to go out West with him, Holden tells her to stay in New York.  His faith in Pheobe is stronger than his faith in his ideology because he realizes that kids do not want to be saved from corruption.  Even though Holden loses faith in his ideology he is still a man of faith because of the faith he once had in himself and the faith he has in Pheobe.