Tim Hunt

Jr. Theology/Faith

August 23, 2006

Holden Caulfield, a Person of Faith

 

     Holden Caulfield was a person of faith, because throughout the book, “The Catcher in the Rye,” he believes in himself and in the world around him, but only to a very slight degree.  Holden may have a negative disposition towards the world and the people that he knows and meets along the way, but as we see when he tells us what he is thinking he truly does have faith in himself.  Holden may think that the world can not be trusted, but he still has faith in his own ideas and beliefs.  He believes in himself to be the catcher in the rye, and to save all the children who are about to fall over the edge of childhood into adulthood. 

     Although Holden thinks the entire world is full of “phonies”, he still has faith in it even if it is negative.

Holden has faith that the person who wrote the bad things on the walls of the school would come back and right it again if Holden was to wipe it off of the wall.  When Holden encounters Maurice after innocently spending time with the girl, Holden sticks to what he knows to be the truth which is that he was only told to pay a certain amount even though Maurice asks him to pay more.  He comes to the realization in the end that the world is a corrupt place and there is nothing he can do about it, but he still has faith in the world.  His little sister shows him that even though there is nothing he can do to stop her from growing up and becoming corrupted by the world, but he can see that she is still innocent now, and that is all that counts.  Holden has faith that the world will corrupt ever one no matter what any one does to try to stop it, and that he can not be “the catcher in the rye” for every little child in the world as he believed once. 

     To conclude, Holden does have faith no matter how small an amount it is.  Holden has Faith in himself, in his own personal beliefs, and in his own innocence which he has protected through out the story.