Theme 2 – the individual and society
Most of the conflict in ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ is internal conflict within the main character of Holden Caulfield. Much of the story concerns Holden’s reactions to the values of the society he lives in: a post- war materialistic society in which status, connections and wealth are supremely important. Holden is disillusioned with this privileged world he lives in and rebels against it. This is typical of teenagers who seek to find their own identity, beliefs and value system within the world they live in.
Holden is seen at odds with his society’s values at Pencey, in chapters 1-7, as he rejects the attitudes and values commonly held there. At the start of the novel Holden is standing alone at the top of Thomsen Hill looking down on a school football match. Salinger gives him a superior position over his peers. Right from the start of the novel he is perceived as an outsider. Holden criticises the school’s values as trivial:
‘---you were supposed to commit suicide or something if old Pencey didn’t win.’
Holden sarcastically rejects the school’s community values. He also notices the hypocritical way the school is run, despite claiming to ‘mold’ students into valuable citizens: the headteacher, Mr. Haas, spends longer talking to the wealthier parents, and he mocks the former pupil, Mr. Ossenburger’s, words of wisdom to Pencey pupils because he realises he was invited to speak only because he had made a lot of money. Holden calls these people ‘phonies’.
Holden feels guilt and anger in his privileged situation and tries to make amends for his wealth by disguising it: he puts his expensive suitcases under his bed to avoid the shaming comparison with his room-mate’s cheap ones, only to find his room-mate puts them on display again in the hope they will be thought of as his. He lends his clothes to others, he gives generously to the nuns. Often people take advantage of Holden’s generous and good nature. He feels guilty that an old man should carry his bag to his hotel room.
Holden is alone on Thomsen Hill because the fencing team ostracised him but he is alone frequently because he is at odds with the values of the other pupils. The other pupils accept the values of their society and struggle to understand Holden’s point of view:
‘No wonder you’re flunking the hell out of here. You don’t do one damn thing the way you’re supposed to.’
Stradlater likes Holden but we see his frustration in trying to understand Holden’s actions. Most of the characters like Holden - they just don’t understand him. Holden has ‘flunked’ out of all his schools showing his inability to come to terms with his society’s values.
When Holden goes to New York the social and moral values are portrayed as corrupt or petty and snobbish. In chapters 9 – 14 the bars Holden frequents are full of people only interested in themselves: the piano player at Ernie’s bar, Lillian Simmons, the girls from Seattle have no desire to talk to Holden. Sunny the prostitute and Maurice illustrate the corrupt side of society. Holden mistakenly tries to act like a sophisticated adult by hiring Sunny but this backfires and leaves him humiliated. He is very cynical about the theatre audience who want others to overhear their clever and witty remarks. New York is full of ‘phonies’. Holden can only find goodness in the two nuns who live to do charitable work for others, which highlights Holden’s idealism. He perceptively contrasts this with his aunt’s charity, whose only motive is for others to praise her.
Later Holden meets Sally Hayes, ‘queen of the phonies’ and attempts to explain to her his criticisms of society:
‘I hate living in New York --- being introduced to phony guys that call the Lunts angels ---‘
And of school he says:
‘—study so that you can learn enough to be smart enough to be able to buy a goddam Cadillac some day –‘
He also criticises the networking groups at school:
‘--- and everybody sticks together in these dirty little goddam cliques . The guys that are on the basketball team stick together --- the guys that play bridge stick together. If you try to have a little intelligent conversation ---‘.
Here we see Holden’s frustration at being unable to fit in and communicate with groups he finds shallow and self-interested. Later he tells Phoebe that he is disgusted with himself for joining such groups;
‘Everybody was always locking their door when somebody wanted to come in. And they had this goddam secret fraternity that I was too yellow not to join.’
Holden does not want to be part of an exclusive, privileged elite but feels the pressure to comply. His rejection of his society’s principles and values is making him ill: he is frustrated that people don’t listen to or understand his point of view. Most of the people he associates with are happy to conform to society’s norms, like Sally and Stradlater.
He turns to a former teacher, Mr.Antolini, for help. He respects Mr. Antolini because he admires his brother DB’s writing, he’s an intellectual and because he was respectful of the corpse of James Castle, a pupil Holden met at Elkton Hills. James Castle committed suicide at school because he refused to retract an insult made against a fellow pupil. Holden admires James Castle’s integrity but fails to see James lost his life because of something trivial. Mr. Antolini attempts to give Holden advice:
‘This fall I think you’re riding for – it’s a special kind of fall, a horrible kind. The man falling isn’t permitted to feel or hear himself hit bottom. He just keeps falling and falling. The whole arrangement’s designed for men who, at some time or other in their lives, were looking for something their own environment couldn’t supply them with.’
The reader suspects Holden doesn’t know he is about to hit rock bottom emotionally or physically. Mr. Antolini continues:
‘I can very clearly see you dying nobly, one way or another, for some highly unworthy cause.’
As Holden has been digressing about James Castle, the reader sees the juxtaposition clearly and imagines that Holden could be tempted to make a similar futile gesture, that Mr. Antolini may be right. Ironically, despite the fact Holden has been searching for someone to talk to throughout the novel, someone to take him seriously, when the opportunity arises Holden is too exhausted and tired to listen to Mr. Antolini’s advice;
‘The thing was, though, I didn’t feel much like concentrating.’
Holden is an idealist, as is common in young people, and he is disillusioned by the corrupt and selfish values of the society he inhabits. Although he is an intelligent character he finds it difficult to articulate his criticisms. By the end of the novel the reader is not reassured that Holden really understands himself any more clearly, despite the psychoanalysis:
‘I mean how do you know what you’re going to do till you do it?’
Holden can’t make sense of his experiences during his two days in New York:
‘If you want to know the truth, I don’t know what I think about it.’
We are left with a picture of a mixed up teenager still grappling to make sense of his world and his role in it.