Grant Welge
8/28/08
Th 300-8
Holden Caulfield’s Lack of Faith
Holden Caulfield was not a person of faith. His lack of faith was shown by his beliefs that children needed special help and adults were phonies, and his own fear of change and of the complexities of life.
Holden did not have faith in the ability of children to live good lives and take care of themselves, believing that they all became corrupt as they matured into adults. He believed that children needed someone to help them stay pure and innocent like the catcher in the rye would keep them from wandering off the cliff in his fantasy. He did not have faith that the children could stay in the field of rye by themselves. If he was a person of faith, Holden would realize that the children would not need someone to catch them.
Holden thought that adults were inevitably phony. His feelings about people being phony were the result of his lack of faith that people could act genuinely towards him. Holden admitted that he was a great liar, and he was constantly deceiving people, including himself. One of his greatest fears was becoming a phony adult, but as he deceived himself he became that which he despised: a phony. Holden had no faith in himself, because he did not believe that he could become an adult without becoming a phony. He was so critical of people and their appearances that he believed they were phony just by looking at them, judging them when he clearly knew nothing about them. Holden had no faith that some people might have been sincerely honest. He does not have the faith to have an emotional relationship with anyone, because he feared that this would lead to the complexity of adulthood and eventually corruption.
Holden did not have faith that even though things change, they could still turn out alright. He could not deal with the reality of natural changes like him growing older and the ducks at the pond migrating during winter. Rather than adapting, he wanted to isolate himself from the world and remain as a child forever. If Holden had faith, he would not have been so afraid of change. Holden did not have faith in himself that he could make it through the challenges of the world and become an adult.