Holden's Fear of Time and Corruption of Innocence
Holden's character is first introduced in his critiques. His critiques of others' speech, thoughts, actions, and even smell. His critiques of himself as well. His negative outlook on life is what dictates our opinions of him. But he also very well uses the usage of the second person to draw us to his own morals and beliefs causing us to think the very same ideals as him. He later on finally shows his likes for people in which he appreciates the trivial characters of kids in this story. Their intellect and ability to form their own thoughts without being compressed by societal expectations. The very trait he values so deeply in youth and what he dreams of doing to "save" these kids from the corruption of modern society.
But what is that corruption? Is it Sally's inability to think of a future away from home in which she and Holden live secluded from society? Is it Mr. Spencer's critique of Holden's attitude and his plea for Holden to apply himself in school? Is it that even on the final page of The Catcher in the Rye, Holden's psychotherapist asks him if he will apply himself come next school year? I would argue it's all of these aspects.
Holden's character is one where the reader can barely keep up with his grievances but one common thread is his distaste for society as a whole. We see this in his pleading deal with Sally and in his talk with Phoebe where he talks about his "plan" for the future. His constant need to run from not only his problems but the most inescapable of all, time. Time is objectively Holden's fear because with time means growing up which is a whole different version of what society expects you to do and children will no longer be bright intellectuals but cogs in the societal machine that keeps spinning and throws their innocence away.
In reading this story, Holden's mind deteriorates at a very rapid pace from the time that he is kicked out of Pency to him watching Phoebe ride the carousel. He goes from a judgemental person to a manic individual filled with loneliness and fear of what is to come. His breakdown points to his belief of how society has stripped him of his innocence. His continued grievances in societal norms in such as he cannot fathom how Sally can just disregard his ideas and not see the issues with how society runs. We also see his morals in the very few of what he does like about society. Youth.
Youth to Holden means many things. It’s what he admires about Phoebe from her ability to respond and read a situation from her short quips back to Holden or her passionate speeches about her daily life and special occasions for her. Youth is also what he holds onto with Jane. His emphasis on their experiences together as children and also his unwillingness to see that she has possibly changed and now chose to go out with Strandlater compared to her behavior of breaking societal rules like not moving your kings out of the back row. His final thoughts showcase his loss of youth due to his mental health issues and how tightly he clings onto the idea of youth in his view of life and anything that takes away from that or conforms with the society that aims to shred that youth is corrupt.
Hi Emmie, I think that the ideas of what actually is social corruption in Holden's views are quite complicated, and you did a great job unpacking the wishy washy definitions of it. I hadn't really thought of it, but I realized after reading your blog how important it is to analyze Holden's actions through the lens of him being corrupted and wanting to keep other people from falling into the same pit that he has.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that Holden view time and corruption as synonymous, especially in his own life experience. I think its interesting that its not innocence he likes about youth, but the distance from society and its control. I also think that normally, corruption could have many meanings but to Holden he feels that there is one very clear cut meaning.
ReplyDeleteI really liked this blog! I agree that holden views youth as something that is pure and separate from real life, and that growing up is actively tarnishing that purity. The thing that makes this so terrible is that time is always moving, and it is inescapable, which, to Holden, means that everything pure in this world is bound to be messed up by society. This was a really good blog!
ReplyDeleteHi Emmie! I think the ideas you bring up about youth and how society corrupts Holden the more he ages definitely makes sense as to why he fears time passing by so much. I like how you present a lot of these examples where Holden might just look crazy and how it connects to his deeper fears about his reality. It's definitely something that isn't surface level. Great post!
ReplyDeleteHi Emmie, great post! I completely agree that part of what makes Holden such an interesting character is the way that he views society in comparison to the youth. He really has such a romanticized idea of child’s innocent and aims to protect it. And yet, this is because of the hardships that he experienced as a kid, which isn’t reflective of all of society.
ReplyDeleteHey Emmie! I liked how you pointed out that Holden views corruption as intrinsically linked with time and adulthood, which is a central part of his character and a recurring theme throughout the novel. It's interesting how his view of growing up as corrupted has kind of corrupted him, and ultimately led him to his mental breakdown towards the end of the book. Overall, good job!
ReplyDeleteHeyyy Emmie! I liked how you highlighted Holden's consistent character traits throughout the book, his will to protect what he has left before he goes to adulthood. He 100% takes it so seriously and worries himself about the impeding doom upon him- but he can't escape it. Time is constantly moving and he sees this as impure. Great blog!!
ReplyDeleteThis post makes a number of excellent points about Holden's obsession with "corruption of youth" and his vague inclination to try and "save" others from going over the same "cliff" that he is apparently in the process of going over. The question "what is corruption?" leads to a related question: What would it mean to "save" a child from the inevitable corruption or compromises of adulthood? It seems as if "preserving innocence" indefinitely is not an option, and Holden doesn't seem to see many models of what it might look like to maintain innocence (or authenticity, a lack of phoniness) into adulthood--not to mention the utter lack of job opportunities for a would-be cliffside rye-field tender. It does seem like Antolini perhaps starts hinting at one potential lane for Holden--to be a writer, or a teacher, or some combination of the two. He tells Holden he needs to read more widely, and find solace and community in the previous generations of writers who have felt the same way about society. And he pretty much tees up the idea that Holden could potentially share his own experiences in a positive way, through writing. For many readers of Salinger's novel, this description of finding someone to relate to via literature evokes the experience of reading _Catcher_ themselves: Salinger as that rare kind of author you want to "call up on the phone" after reading his book. Unfortunately for Salinger, too many readers had exactly that reaction. Holden's final admonition in the novel is instructive--he wishes he'd never told anyone anything.
ReplyDeleteHi Emmie! I really like the topic of your blog as I think it hits a really important topic of Holden's persona and inner mind. I think it's really interesting (in a sad way) that Holden has come to associate the loss of youth with corruption due to the events in his life which have shown him that growing up means becoming corrupt. It totally makes sense that the fear behind this all is time since his whole journey throughout the book could be seen as the effect of his fear of time.
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