J. D. Salinger and His Works Essay Example

The protagonist, a 16-year-old boy named Holden Caulfield, is expelled from school due to his failure in classes, and leaves for New York City before returning home when his parents will be notified of his expulsion. During his two days’ adventure in that fashionable city, Holden is confronted with his own perplexing relationship with the adult world which comes to challenge his precarious childhood innocence.

At the hotel he checks in the night he arrives at the city, Holden is swindled by a prostitute and beaten up by an elevator operator for a claim of five dollars. At midnight the next day he gets drunk at a bar and puts his head in cold water when being seized by a fit of extreme depression. Overwhelmed by frustration, he wanders to Central Park, where, with no one to be found around, he is seized by the thought of dying from pneumonia. During his stay at Mr. Antolini’s home, he is frightened by his respectable teacher’s intimate gesture toward him and makes a rash leave which he later regrets.

When he goes to visit his sister Phoebe at school, he is shocked to see some dirty words scratched on the wall of the school building, afraid to imagine what would come to his sister’s mind if she sees them. Throughout his stay in New York City, the only moment when Holden feels “nice and peaceful” is to be in the Museum of Natural History, in which he is shut off from contact with the adult world. Having vented out his cynicism against his environment, he makes a decision to spend the rest of his life in the

wilderness, being a deaf-mute in order to protect himself from the pain and disappointment of growth weighing on him.

Finally, it is the profound affection he finds in his sister Phoebe that releases him from his cynical and alienated mental armor.

The Inner Child Concept

Related to the Novel Many readers may feel empathy with Holden. On one hand, they, like Holden, are drawn to the reminiscence of their carefree lives of childhood. On the other hand, they share more or less Holden’s bitter criticism of society and people. For this reason, in the novel Holden does not necessarily create a bad image of himself. He is neither a juvenile delinquent nor an offender of social rules.

Even more, he is likely to derive sympathy from those who identify with him as a social misfit. From another perspective, however, Holden’s cynical tone reveals a darker aspect of his character: the “crazy” aspect. Throughout his narration Holden manifests discontent and hatred of almost everything around him: he cannot name one thing he likes when Phoebe asks him the question; he is mired in the pain of his brother Allie’s death; he dreads the idea of senseless disappearance, which provokes his intention of committing suicide.

All these abnormalities of a teenager are related to the concept of the problem inner child. According to Prend, the inner child concept includes two aspects in relation to childhood: the magic of the inner child, and the wounds of the inner child. The former comprises such inherently positive childhood qualities as joy, freedom, innocence, vulnerability, sensitivity, lack of inhibition, enthusiasm, playfulness, and so on. The latter, the wounds of the inner

child, refers to spiritual wounds from one’s past, including pain, abandonment, fear, confusion, powerlessness, or feelings of being lost, afraid, and unloved. 19-21) During the process of growing up, no one is immune to various levels of wounds emotionally. This past hurts in childhood will continue to impact one’s life to a certain degree even when they are grown-ups. When the wounded inner child is not reparented in a sensible way, it can develop into the problem inner child, that is, one willingly allows his/her wounded inner child to dictate his/her behavior and thoughts when it is retriggered by certain circumstances or events in his/her later life.  The concept of the problem inner child extends beyond the wounds of the inner child. Prend further divides the problem, inner child, into the “dark side” and “shadow side”. The dark side refers to such unattractive childish traits that were developmentally appropriate yet unpleasant aspects of ourselves even when we were young, and are even more unpleasant when we are grown up, such as narcissism, blame, jealousy, rage, envy, fear, and dependency. These emotional illnesses are responsible for a great deal of adult pain and misunderstanding.

On the other hand, the shadow side of the problem inner child refers to “those traits that are seemingly positive inner child qualities (such as fun, freedom, carefreeness, and play) that when taken to the extreme can lead to problems”. Contrary to the inner child concept, the inner grown-up refers to “your highest nature, your best self, your essence that is responsible, mature, loving, and spiritual”. In The Catcher in the Rye, as the story unfolds, the problem inner child inside of

Holden rises to the surface from his connections with different circumstances and people both at school and in New York City.

Holden narrates in the first person, describing what he sees and encounters, along with which he provides his commentaries. Holden is considered as an unreliable narrator because his tone varies from cynicism to bitterness. How does the reader get a genuine picture of Holden’s personality, apart from his cynicism and discontent toward a society that is immediately felt by the reader? Salinger skillfully weaves a variety of symbols, including objects, characters, and settings into the protagonist’s subjectively prone narration so as to shed light on the underlying problem child of Holden.

These three symbolic elements are emblematic of the values of the protagonist, and they enrich both the depiction of the character and the story’s theme. In discussing literature, the term “symbol” is applied only to a word or phrase that signifies an object or event which in its turn signifies something, or has a range of reference, beyond itself. (Abrams 311) In other words, a symbol, when it relates to the context of a literary work, must be connected to a greater idea or concept that is important to character depiction and in leading to the theme.

As far as The Catcher in the Rye is concerned, it is symbols that the author employs to reveal the darkness and shadows of the problem inner child inside of Holden. They add layers of profound meanings to Holden’s seemingly frustrating experiences and cynical mindset that are associated with the painfulness of growing up. In the following part, the thesis focuses on analyzing how these three

types of symbols in the novel represent the problem of inner child hidden in Holden’s cynicism.