Matt Self
Jr. Faith
8/22/06

Holden Caulfield: Young Man without Faith

To have strong faith in something or someone, one needs to first develop firm trust and belief. Without either belief or trust, a person’s faith will waver and ultimately collapse. With the exception of children, Holden Caulfield did not trust people and certainly did not believe in the good of people. He disillusioned himself and came to believe fully that all children were innocent, primarily because they were ignorant to popular societal values. Because Holden failed to trust many people he then had trouble forming steady relationships with them. He rarely displayed a willingness to open up to other people because he didn’t trust them and, in turn, lacked the necessary faith for a strong relationship with them.
While Holden did believe that children were good-natured and that he could trust them, he didn’t trust their ability to make good decisions later in life nor believe that they could resist society’s values. Consequently, he was unable to have true faith in the children that he so adored and cared for. Holden always looked for happiness, but he never managed to comprehend that he would find it through opening himself up to someone that took a true interest in hearing what he had to say. It seemed that he also looked for something to have faith in, and then, hopefully, contentment would follow. He worried so much about everything bad 10 miles down the road that he never was able to stop and appreciate what he had and consider that happiness might be closer than he thought. Holden hoped that he would end up okay and at where he was supposed to be, but he never seemed to cross the line into having faith. He didn’t make the commitment of trust and belief that is necessary to have faith. His only strong beliefs were the ones that ran contrary to those of society. Other than those, he didn’t know what to believe in, but he kept searching for something to fill the void in his life. One could argue that he had faith that what he needed was in the world somewhere, but I think that he never came to fully believe that he would find it. He had too many moments of anguish and depression for it to be believed that he had strong or even weak faith. He failed to put his trust in God and simply go along for the journey. Holden couldn't bear the responsibility of making important decisions and living with the consequences of them. Ultimately, he didn't trust the good of people enough to have faith in them.
During those moments of depression when Holden needed to have faith the most, he didn't trust in God or even in other people. He tried to confide in Sally Hayes, but she rejected his ideas which then caused Holden to become even more withdrawn. His driving force throughout his whole life was hope- whether it was for happiness or something to believe in or, possibly, even both. However, hope should not be confused with faith. While both are good, faith requires much more than a simple desire for something better. Faith brings about peace and contentment, and hope is the force that leads us to faith. Holden did have brief moments of faith, but in the end, he lacked the essential elements of trust and belief to find the happiness that we should all hope to find.