Holden Caulfield: A Man Without Faith

 
Holden Caulfield is a man without faith because he is so pessimistic about everything and is always judging those around him instead of putting his trust in them. He points out all the bad things instead of looking for the good in people.
Holden’s pessimistic attitude is one of his downfalls throughout the story. When all you see is the bad in everything it is hard to place your trust in anything. Trust is a major component of having faith in someone or something. Holden only looks at the down side change for instance. He talks about how he loves the museum because the Eskimos and the Indians don’t change there. Every time you go to the museum they are always the same. Change can be a very good thing though. Through change one can grow into a better person, a more mature and intelligent adult. Holden believes this world of older adults is a terrible place. He would much rather stay in that world of innocence and little responsibility. To have faith in anything you need to be open to growth. Through growth one transitions from the world of innocence to the world of responsibility and is able to question things around he or she without being criticized. Questioning things is another part of having faith in someone or something. When you question a belief you force yourself to look deeper into whatever it is that you are questioning and you gain a deeper respect for it. You put your faith into what you strongly believe in.

Caulfield has a hard time throughout the book believing in others around him and even believing in himself and the decisions he makes. For example he doesn’t believe in himself when it comes to Jane. He knows that his roommate took her out on a date and that they probably had sex. He can’t believe that she would do such a thing and he believes that it is wrong for two people who barely know each other to do such a thing. The problem is that Holden doesn’t believe in himself to do anything about it. He doesn’t have faith in himself to call Jane and tell her his feelings. When you don’t have faith in yourself it is hard to have faith in anybody else.

Holden is very judgmental of others. He feels that all adults are "phonies". He refers to them as "phonies" all the time and really he is the "phony". He criticizes people that are insecure and it seems that he himself is very insecure. He can’t call Jane, he is scared to go home early, and he can’t figure out Allie’s death. The death of his brother had to have been hard to deal with. This is probably the source of him losing a lot of his faith. He was confused at why it was Allie instead of himself because Allie was a good student and he has now failed out of four schools. He believes there is no place for him in the adult world so he feels he has to catch all the innocent kids from falling into this world that he has no faith in.

Holden’s lack of trust and belief in others and himself causes him to lose faith. When he only sees the down side of things you can’t put your faith in it because you’re not going to believe in it. The positive side of things are always more appealing to you and would be easier to place your trust in. When Holden alienates himself there is nothing for him to believe in. He can’t put his trust and belief into anything because it all seems negative to him and that is why Holden Caulfield is a man without faith.