Luke Migneco

Jr. Theology

8/22/07

 

Limited Faith

 

            Though Holden Caulfield lost faith when it comes to trusting adults, he instead puts his faith in his kid sister Phoebe.

            Colden feels like every adult in his life has wronged him in some way or another so he does not trust adults in general. In Holden's mind, his brother is a prostitute and even his favorite teacher, Mr. Antolini is a sexual predator. At one point, Holden had faith in Mr. Antolini and actually came to him for advice, but then after Mr. Antolini started getting "flitty", Holden lost faith. It was the same thing with his older brother D.B. Once D.B. went to Hollywood Holden lost some faith in him. For a while, Holden tries to put faith into Carl Luce instead, but changes his mind when he does not like the advice or Luce's arrogance. Though both Luce and Antolini give him great advice, he ignores it and finds something to hate about them. If he could only get over his hate, he would listen to them.

            Holden can only put faith in someone he could never hate so he only puts his faith in Phoebe. Holden loves Phoebe; he is always thinking about her or what she is doing at the moment and calls all of her imperfections "cute" because she is a child and children are perfect in his eyes. At one point, Holden "almost hated" Phoebe but he never completely hated her. His lack of hate for her, along with his love, allowed him to actually listen to what Phoebe was telling him. She was telling him to stop being childish and running away from his problems and he actually listened because he loved her. Holden could only have faith in someone he loved and the only person he really loves is Phoebe. He had all these ideas for life in Colorado and living in the wilderness in Vermont, but he abandoned them because that was what Phoebe had asked him to do.