Matt Vonderheide
Theology 300-7
8/23/06

Holden Caulfield: Man of Faith
In "The Catcher and the Rye," Holden Caulfiled displays tremendous amounts of
faith in children and the safety that the world they live in provided them.
Holden's faith in children stems from his belief that the world of adulthood
corrupts those who fall into it by changing them into "phonies" who live an untrue,
braggart and unjust lifestyle. Holden reveals his dream to be the proverbial "Catcher,"
who sits on the edge of the cliff leading to the pitfall into the valley of adulthood, to his
sister Phoebe (a dream which he was inspired to by a child). His dream to become the
"Catcher that keeps people from falling into the corrupt world of adulthood reveals
that he has faith in the confines of childhood to prevent the wilting of the goodness in
children. He cannot summon any faith in the adult world where corruption, money, sin,
and the ability to be a "phony are the most prominent factors. However, he is able to
find a reason for hope in the world of childhood where naivety and the general goodness
and trust in the pure heart of a child is important. Holden believes that the world of corruption, the
adult world; is more easily described in the rich, who flaunt their wealth, and the un-pure,
like Sunny, the prostitute that he hires one night in New York; because he believes his
perceptions of the adult world to be true he doesn't want to grow up. Holden maintains a
strong fait in the innocence that the world of childhood provides him, and he also
believes that he has been tasked to safely keep the other children from the pitfall into
adulthood.

Holden also believes that the world of childhood protects a child from falling into
a world of corruption and "phonieness" when he ventures into unknown places. He
believes that the safest and most comfortable thing to do is to return to a place that you
have been to repeatedly. For him this place is the museum where he often went with his
school. When Holden tries to go to new places and do new things he often has bad
experiences. When he decides to go into New York City alone all by himself for his
forst time he has bad experiences, like with Sunny and when he gets drunk. Theses
experiences have helped him to form his opinion that doing the same thing that you
have always done before is the safest. Not surprisingly, his favorite place, the museum, is
also a place that he admires because of the way it preserves things so that they never
change (the same thing he wants to do with children). He has total faith in these beliefs
will lead to a better life for people, and he cannot save the people that have
already fallen into adulthood so he must maintain his faith in the children he has left
to protect. Holden's faith in the naivety of children is especially important in his
relationship with his sister. When he decides that he is gong away from the city Phoebe
wants to come with him, but when he sees her hauling luggage to meet him he realizes
how unsafe it would be for Phoebe to come because he might corrupt the goodness left in her
in the process. Holden displays great faith in the fact that children like his sister, if they remain
untainted by the adult world, will be safer.