Catcher In The Rye The Quest For
Catcher In The Rye: The Quest For Love Essay, Research Paper
Catcher In the Rye: The Quest For Love
In many novels in J.D. Salinger & # 8217 ; s library of books, there is a repeating
subject of the loss of artlessness of kids, the falling and the confusions of
childhood, and many other thoughts that apply to the thoughts of adolescence and the
life of the mean adolescent turning up. Many of his subjects occur in a short
period of clip in a kid & # 8217 ; s life that affects him/her in a really profound and
important manner. The thought of love is besides a major subject that arises in many of
his characters and that indicates the character of the person. He uses love
in the context of being a device that is used to protect and to care for people
who need protecting and caring. In the novel, Catcher in the Rye, by J. D.
Salinger, love is used by a character, Holden Caulfield, who struggles
urgently to happen a certain person or anyone to apportion his love to, but
realizes eventually, that this love is non needfully expressed through economy?
the kids in the rye? from the clip of test, but really caring for them
and being their friends, during the clip of test.
The quest of happening the true love of people is an on-going quandary in
the lives of many people all throughout the universe. The changeless demand for love is
overwhelming, and the calamity of this great universe is the fact that some people
make non happen the proper love that they deserve. Holden Caulfield is a perfect
illustration of the nisus to get a love sought all throughout his life.
Harmonizing to this quotation mark, ? He is merely showing an artlessness incapable of
genuine hatred. Holden does non endure from the inability to love, but does
desperation of happening a topographic point to confer his love? ( Heiserman and Miller 30 ) , Holden
Caulfield has the demand for apportioning his horn of plenty of love for people. His
pursuit is really simple. He wants to make good. As compared to tragic heroes in the
yesteryear,
& # 8220 ; Holden seeks Virtue 2nd to Love. He wants to be good. When
the small kids are playing in the rye-field on the drop
top, Holden wants to be the 1 who catches them before they
fall off the drop. He is non driven toward award or bravery.
He is non driven toward the love of adult female. Holden is driven
toward love of his fellowman & # 8230 ; . & # 8221 ; ( Heiserman and Miller 25 ) .
In other words, he is non a tragic hero, but instead a misfortuned hero that
battles to happen a individual to give his love to. There is nil tragic about
his life.
Holden besides seeks disk shape in his life. Harmonizing to this quotation mark,
I felt so bloody happy all of a sudden, the manner old Phoebe kept traveling
about and around. I was bloody near wailing, I felt so bloody happy,
if you want to cognize the truth. I don & # 8217 ; Ts know why. It was merely that
she looked so damn nice, the manner she kept traveling about and about,
in her bluish coat and all. God, I wish you could & # 8217 ; ve been there & # 8221 ;
( Salinger 213 ) ,
Holden revels in the virtuousnesss of softness of the borders, a rotundity that can & # 8217 ; T
injury anyone. He finds a comfort in the round gestures of the carrousel.
& # 8220 ; All the childs kept seeking to catch for the gold ring, and so was
old Phoebe, and I was kind of afraid she might fall off the
blasted Equus caballus, but I didn & # 8217 ; Ts say anything or make anything. The
thing with childs is, if they want to catch for the gold ring,
you have to allow them make it, and non state anything. If they
autumn off, they fall away, but it & # 8217 ; s bad if you say anything to
them & # 8221 ; ( Salinger 211 ) .
This illustrates the pure artlessness of kids, and the gold rings portray a kind of
unit of ammunition end that kids seek and reach for. This quotation mark is subsequently on in the narrative
and the true symbolism is realized toward the terminal of the novel.
Holden besides seeks the truth from people in general, making for the 1
subject left in the universe, artlessness. One sort of acrimonious truth he does non seek is
phoniness. In this, he means the people losing artlessness or people who already
lost artlessness, or has? fallen from the drop? . He is led to believe from his
early old ages that maturity is a signifier of bogus adulthood. That is why he seeks to
discovery striplings, to catch them from falling into the sort of bogus adulthood that
they are destined for. He seeks kids, free of drosss. At Phoebe & # 8217 ; s school,
& # 8220 ; & # 8230 ; .I saw something that drove me brainsick. Somebody & # 8217 ; vitamin Ds written
& # 8216 ; Fuck You & # 8217 ; on the wall. It drove me darn near loony. I thought
how Phoebe and all the other childs would see it, and how they & # 8217 ; vitamin D
inquire what the snake pit it meant, and so eventually some soil child
would state them-all cockeyed, naturally-what it meant, and how
they & # 8217 ; d all think about it and possibly even worry about it for a
twosome of yearss & # 8221 ; ( Salinger 201 ) .
He realizes so, that artlessness is a really difficult portion of one & # 8217 ; s psyche to salvage. This
finally leads him to his concluding realisations.
Holden has a few facets and ideas that help him to pacify him somewhat
of the thirst for love. ? In childhood he had what he is now seeking- non-
phoniness, truth, artlessness. He can happen it now merely in Phoebe and in his dead
brother Allie & # 8217 ; s baseball hand, in a ruddy hunting cap and the stamp small nuns?
( Heiserman and Miller 26 ) . Phoebe is a hope that Holden holds in his bosom. Her
infantile artlessness gives him a true and pure mentality that lets him experience secure
in her presence. Besides, the memories of his long dead brother, Allie, remain in
his head, giving him comfort in the ideas of the wholly guiltless nature of
his small brother who was so wrongly murdered by the unjust lethality of
malignant neoplastic disease. The lone stuff staying to remind Holden of him, seemingly, is a
baseball hand. He cherishes this baseball mitt and even makes a whole composing on it.
It is the lone true memory of his brother. A ruddy hunting cap is really symbolic in
Holden & # 8217 ; s life in the novel. Harmonizing to this quotation mark, ? I got reasonably soaking moisture,
particularly my cervix and my bloomerss. My runing hat truly gave me quite a batch of
protection, in a manner, but I got besotted anyhow. I didn & # 8217 ; t attention, though? ( Salinger
213 ) , it is his lone protection from the conditions. It is symbolic of a changeless
in his constantly altering life. It is something definite that can non be
stripped of him. The stamp nuns who Holden brushs are symbolic of true sodiums?
vet? and weakness. They ever appear to be outside, roll uping money. They
are the ether of love, being sent Forth by God to love, and chosen to
steer the stray and to assist the hopeless. These assorted facets of Holden & # 8217 ; s life
give him a comfort unmeasurable to him. They somehow give him a ground to populate,
literally.
Holden & # 8217 ; s pursuit of happening a pure and guiltless adolescence to give his love
thrusts him to woolgathering of being a? backstop in the rye? . This dream is of salvaging
kids who are falling off a drop of a rye field. This symbolizes the demand
for Holden to care for kids and to salvage them from the loss of artlessness. In
his narrations, Holden reveals many persons who need catching, and many that
hold already fallen. He went to the house of an old instructor, Mr. Spencer,
& # 8220 ; & # 8230 ; .But I merely couldn & # 8217 ; t hang around there any longer, the manner we
were on opposite sides of the pole, and the manner he kept losing
the bed whenever he chucked something at it, and his sad old
bathrobe with his thorax screening, and that grippy odor of Vicks
Nose Drops all over the topographic point & # 8221 ; ( Salinger 15 ) ,
and he was sickened by his visual aspect. The cheerless atmosphere of the room,
along with the sheer rotting-outlook of the room merely apparent disgusts Holden.
This is the first realisation of the fact that maturity made Mr. Spencer the
manner he is today. Holden wonders how it would be different for these assorted
people if person had loved them through their artlessness. These ideas
finally lead him to the longing to be a backstop in the rye.
Another kid that has fallen, and still is falling is a neighbour of
Holden & # 8217 ; s, Old Robert Ackley. He has atrocious hygiene and an bothersome wonder,
in that
& # 8220 ; He started walking around the room, really slow and all, the manner he
ever did, picking up your personal material off your desk and
commode. He ever picked up our personal material and looked at
it. Boy, could that acquire on your nervousnesss sometimes & # 8221 ; ( Salinger 20 ) .
This is the first symbolism of an senior holding domination over him. It is merely
another dejecting sight of maturity. Holden believes that if there had
been person to catch such isolated kids from the rye, their lives would be
slightly different.
Another character in Holden & # 8217 ; s life that has fallen from the drop, Ward
Stradlater, is his ain roomie. Stradlater is an older single than Holden
and is more mature in certain facets. Holden invariably describes him as? sexy? .
? I kept believing of Jane, and about Stradlater holding a day of the month with her and all.
It made me so nervous I about went brainsick. I already told you what a sexy
bastard Stradlater was? ( Salinger 34 ) . This illustrates the sexual adulthood of
Stradlater. Later, Holden tries to see his ain heightening of sexual
adulthood with a cocotte, but he realizes that he is non ready for it. He is
non ready to fall off of that specific drop merely yet. Stradlater is besides a really
conceited single. In a conversation, Holden addresses a idea of Jane, ?
& # 8216 ; & # 8230 ; .If she & # 8217 ; d known ( about Stradlater & # 8217 ; s? amorousness? ) , she likely would & # 8217 ; ve
signed out for nine 30 in the morning. & # 8217 ; & # 8216 ; Goddam right, & # 8217 ; Stradlater said. You
couldn & # 8217 ; t annoy him excessively easy. He was excessively conceited. ? ( Salinger 34 ) . This is
still another illustration of an grownup & # 8217 ; s self-importance and a possible success if he was
caught at an earlier age.
There is, eventually, another illustration that personifies the sheer being of
a troubled psyche, who has fallen manner past a drop, but into the deep, steeping
abysm! ! This character is Old Maurice, a procurer, ready to victimize anyone, manipulate
anyone, and do any impure act possible to anyone. Holden, with his ignorant
folly, accepts a con for him to kip with one of Old Maurice & # 8217 ; s
cocottes. Subsequently, Holden realizes that he is being conned out of an excess five
dollars. When he argues about the money, Old Maurice, with his ain sense of
high quality beats up on hapless, guiltless, small Holden. Holden retaliates,
& # 8220 ; I was so damn huffy and nervous and all. & # 8216 ; You & # 8217 ; re a dirty idiot, & # 8217 ;
I said. & # 8216 ; You & # 8217 ; re a stupid chiseling idiot, and in approximately two old ages
you & # 8217 ; ll be one of those boney cats that come up to you on the
street and inquire for a dime for java & # 8221 ; ( Salinger 103 ) .
This is when Old Maurice & # 8217 ; s self-importance starts to shed blood and he beats up on Holden much
more. Old Maurice is the ether of a bully, holding fallen off a drop
at an early age, likely holding been beaten at place, holding lost his
artlessness excessively early, and many other bogus grownup symptoms. Holden realizes
that Old Maurice is non excessively different from Stradlater, who besides beat him
senseless in another meeting. These are illustrations of a deficiency of love through
their adolescent old ages.
Finally, there is one facet in Holden & # 8217 ; s life that pushes him over the
drop of realisation, giving him a new visible radiation of seeing the many contours of his
life. This subject was suggested in an earlier transition in Phoebe & # 8217 ; s school,
Holden & # 8217 ; s old school, where there is a certain profanity that is unacceptible to
younger kids. Holden tries urgently to rub off the word, and finally
succeeds in making so. However, this leads him to an undistinguished realisation
of the futility of seeking to rub off all the expletives in the universe, or? catching
kids in the rye? . Subsequently, at a museum, he experiences a dual dosage of
gross outing sickness. ? That & # 8217 ; s the whole problem. You can & # 8217 ; t of all time happen a topographic point
that & # 8217 ; s nice and peaceable, because there isn & # 8217 ; t any. You may believe there is but
one time you get at that place, when you & # 8217 ; re non looking, person & # 8217 ; ll mouse up and compose
& # 8216 ; Fuck You & # 8217 ; right under your olfactory organ? ( Salinger 203 ) . He catches a glance of this
phrase carved into a memorial inside the museum. The museum that he depends on
to be sacred and ever pure, turns out to hold such a horrid word! ! Besides, the
word is carved into the rock, so it is really impossible for Holden to
really rub it out. This scene, with Holden about fainting and nauseous, is
the turning point of Holden & # 8217 ; s life, conveying an terminal to the dream of being the?
backstop in the rye? . It gives him a crisp and acrimonious realisation that everyone
in the universe can non be caught, and it is ineffectual to seek to catch a kid from
the drop of grownup adulthood.
Holden Caulfield is a really concerned and caring single, thrust into a
universe of? phoniness? and? grownup immatureness? . This universe gives him a force per unit area so
great that he does non cognize how to respond to the assorted facets of his life. He
feels an overpowering impulse to love people, seek others & # 8217 ; love, and to care for
people that do non hold the love that he has. This leads to his dream of being
a? backstop in the rye? . However, as his life advancements, many occurences drive
him to a province of confusion and mental convulsion. He does non cognize how to manage
the extremist alterations in his life. The rough realisations in theses few yearss of
his life give him a new position in his one time unafraid universe. He realizes that
lovingness, non catching, is needed in the saving of artlessness. Catching some
kids in the rye simply saves a choice figure of persons, for a small
period of clip. It is Holden & # 8217 ; s realisation that kids are destined to fall
from artlessness and it is ineffectual for him to seek to alter it otherwise.
