Was Holden Caulfield A Person Of Faith?
 
            To have faith is to put complete trust in others and in oneself.  Up until the very end of Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield displays a great lack of faith in himself, his peers, and even his family.  Throughout the novel, Holden is continuously pointing out flaws in others, some of which he is ironically guilty of himself.
            Holden shows his lack of faith when his roommate, Stradlater, takes his friend Jane out on a date.  Upon returning from their date, Holden asks Stradlater if he “gave her the time,” to which he does not answer.  Holden takes his silence as a “yes” and attempts to hit Stradlater.  If Holden had more faith in Jane, he would not have to assume she would have sex with Stradlater on their first date. 
            Not only does Holden have a problem trusting others, he also has very little faith in himself.  After leaving Pencey and going to New York City , Holden calls prostitutes and older women asking them to get a drink with him.  When they reject, he tries to talk to women at the hotel bar, but they simply laugh at him.  Holden is not taken seriously when he tries to mingle with these much older people, and his little faith in himself prevents him from befriending kids his own age.  Holden turns to abusing alcohol as he becomes more depressed and alone.
            When Holden returns to his house briefly, he talks to his sister Phoebe about a Robert Burns song called “Comin’ Through the Rye.”  Holden takes the lyric “When a body catches a body, comin’ through the rye” somewhat literally.  He pictures himself standing near the edge of a cliff in a rye field, catching and protecting any child that wanders too close to the edge of the cliff.  He does not have faith that the children can mature on their own.  By obstructing the natural process of growing up, he is set up for failure and suffering in his own life.  When Holden sees “Fuck You” written on a wall at Phoebe’s school and at the Museum of Natural History , he worries that it will affect the children if they read it.  Again, Holden is trying to prevent children, specifically Phoebe, from being exposed to the real world. 
            Finally, some hope is restored when Holden takes Phoebe to ride the carousel.  Holden shows faith in his sister and other children when he says that she might fall off the horse, but he can’t stop her.  He is finally letting Phoebe grow up and has given up on trying to be a “catcher.”  Holden is somewhat saved when he does this.