Holden Caufield in Search of a Gesture

The Catcher in the Rye

D.J.Stalinger

-Holden Caufield in Search of a Gesture-

The Catcher in the Rye by D.J. Stalinger can be strongly considered as one of the greatest novels of all time and Holden Caufield distinguishes himself as one of the greatest and most diverse characters. His moral system and his sense of justice force him to detect horrifying flaws in the society in which he lives. However, this is not his principle difficulty. His principle difficulty is not that he is a rebel, or a coward, nor that he hates society, it is that he has had many experiences and he remembers everything. Salinger indicates this through Holden's confusion of time throughout the novel. Experiences at Whooten, Pency, and Elkton Hills combine and no levels of time separate them. This causes Holden to end the novel missing everyone and every experience. He remembers all the good and bad, until distinctions between the two disappear. Holden believes throughout the novel that certain things should stay the same. Holden becomes a character portrayed by Salinger that disagrees with things changing. He wants to retain everything, in short he wants everything to always remain the same, and when changes occur; Holden reacts. However the most important aspect of Holden Caufield's character can be attributed to his judgment of people. Holden Caufield the 16 year old protagonist and main character of The Catcher in the Rye narrates the story and explains all the events throughout three influential days of his life. A prep school student who has just been kicked out of his second school, Holden struggles to find the right path into adulthood. He does not know what road to follow and he uses others as the scapegoat for his puzzlement in life.

Holden encounters many different people, and experiences many adventures throughout the three days that this story occurs. He becomes involved with a variety of people, including taxi drivers, two nuns, an elevator man(pimp), three girls from Seattle, a prostitute, and a former teacher from whom Holden thinks he should flee from, in the middle of the night. He can never hold on to anyone he cares about; so he always finds a way to ruin the relationship by escaping, or destroying it. Nash Burger says that, "Holden's mercurial changes of mood, his stubborn refusal to admit his own sensitiveness and emotions, his cheerful disregard of what is sometimes known as reality are typically and heart breakingly adolescent"(New York Times 14). He also easily mocks certain people and the way they act. On teachers Holden feels that, "You don't have to think to too hard when you talk to a teacher"(Salinger 13). When his sister asks him if he would want to become a lawyer like his dad, he replies by saying, "Lawyers are all right, I guess-but it doesn't appeal to me. All you do is make a lot of dough and play golf and play bridge and buy cars and drink martinis and look like a hot-shot"(Salinger 172). Many would think that after all of Holden's experiences and tragedies, he would go to his parents for help. However he does not, which shows that he must not have a good relationship with his parents if he can not talk to them. It seems as if he wants to reach out to them but for some reason he can not.

He is immensely frustrated by his repeated attempts to fit into adult society, foiled by his saying something wrong, or simply being seen as an adolescent by the adults around him. Having been rejected, Holden's response is an even stronger rejection of the people with whom he was trying to fit in. This resentment, combined with his observations of "phoniness" in many of the people around him, cause him to be repelled by adult society and to sometimes view himself as a loner with outsider status.

Holden’s quest is of different kinds:a quest to preserve an innocence that is in peril of vanishing-the innocence of childhood; a quest for an ideal;a quest for relationship, for communication.It can be outlined form the entire novel that holden is in search of a gesture to change his life.

When he visits his former teacher, Antolini, all that he really wants from him, in fact, is some kind of a gesture.Instead, Antolini lectures Holden at great length about not dying nobly for a cause, but living humbly for it-especially by applying oneself in school.Holden has come for understanding and receives instead the kind of lecture that Polonius delivered to Laertes in Hamlet before the son leaves home.Holden takes his advice as ‘the bull his father was always shooting.’Antolini does make a gesture, but an unfortunate one:he wakes the bot who has at last gone to sleep, by stroking him on the head.Holden runs thinking that the sign of affection may be ‘something perverty’ and spends