Michael Huggins

Jr. Theology/Faith

August 23, 2006

A Man Without Faith

A man without faith is like a fish out of water; nothing to believe in, no hope for the future and a life that will have its short-lived pleasures but will miss true happiness because true happiness requires faith.

Holden Caulfield was not a person of faith, he showed this numerous times throughout the book by acting as if there was nothing worth working for, living in a constant state of velleity, by having numerous problems at all the schools he has been at, and lastly by committing acts of kindness with the only purpose being to show off.

Holden’s main problem in life is that he has had nothing to work for, no car, no toy that he wanted and couldn’t have, and no opportunity that he couldn’t buy. He has constantly had everything in his life either handed to him or paid for by his parents to the point that he has not realized that eventually he will be out in the world on his own in a few years without money or a job in order to support himself. He has failed to look toward his own future and has thereby failed to plan for it. Holden has had the opportunity to attend some of the finer schools in the nation and end up in a good college with good job prospects so that he could afford to live a very comfortable life, however he has not seen the value of education or the reality that one day he will want and need to support himself. This problem has caused him to fail classes for no real reason other than laziness, get kicked out of school due to poor behavior and overall give up any hopes or dreams he ever had because he nor anyone else ever placed any responsibility on his shoulders so that he might learn the value of hard work and if he sets his mind on something he can accomplish it.

Poor behavior on any person’s part is almost always linked to the fact that they want attention whether it is positive or negative. Holden’s getting kicked out of schools for no real reason is because he feels ignored by the world, particularly his parents who have shunned him out of their lives by sending him to a boarding school and failing to correspond with him. This behavior is intentional on Holden’s part whether he knows it or not, his subliminal reasoning seems to go a little like this: get kicked out of a school by not doing work and behaving badly, go home and stay with his parents for a time, cause enough trouble to be sent back to school and then repeat the whole cycle over again in a downward pattern until he eventually hits rock bottom. Part of this behavior is caused by the fact that he has no real role models that are constantly a part of his life, no one to show him how to live a life of faith or how normal people behave in this world.

Holden commits random acts of kindness throughout the book such as by giving money to the nuns because he felt bad that while they ate coffee and toast he ate a full breakfast of meat, eggs and so on. In order to make himself feel better about his wealth and how he squanders it he gives a small donation to the nuns as a way of “giving back” sort of like a publicity stunt by a professional athlete who gives money to a certain foundation.

All in all Holden could be a man of faith were it not for all of the factors that are so screwed up in his life.