SLUH Junior Theology Course '07-'08
Faith and Morality...
Was Holden Caulfield a Person of Faith?
Although Holden Caulfield, the main character of J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, rarely, if ever, seems to openly express faith in a god or anything else, I do believe that he has an unconventional form of faith. Throughout the novel Holden is almost constantly criticizing the ways of others and the world as a whole, and as the story develops he increasingly does the same to himself. He often ends up in situations where he acts contrary to what he believes is right and moral, such as when he calls for a prostitute in his hotel room or hooking up with Sally and her corrupt ways, and these situations only bring him further down into a pit of hopelessness and despair. Overall, he sees everything as changing for the worst and decaying more and more with time.
Yet throughout all of this, even if it can only be seen in small instances or tiny amounts, sometimes even unrecognizable, Holden is always holding onto an inkling of hope. There are times where, until the end of the story when Holden renounces his fantasy of being the “catcher,” this hope is hard to see, but in the end it eventually prevails. Although Holden misinterprets the meaning of it and how he should respond, he has this strong idea that life lived in the wrong way will lead to corruption and an absence of innocence. He therefore goes about unsuccessfully trying to fix this and, even though he does it in all the wrong ways, he is at least still trying.
Holden keeps trying and he keeps failing, but even as he seems to spiral downward at an increasing rate he never quite lets go of the idea that somehow things could be better. His conviction in this, however subconscious, stays with him until he finally comes to a crucial and powerful realization at the end of the story. So despite not looking towards God almost to the point of being atheistic, and despite not even realizing the hope he was holding onto throughout the novel, Holden knew there was something unknown yet better he could move towards, and he moved toward it despite inward and outward struggles. To me that shows faith in something, even if we are not sure what that something is.
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