Quand mademoiselle Levet nous a réappris (ou du moins a essayé) à lire... LE bon souvenir du lycée, The Catcher in the Rye. On était deux sur cet exposé, Mohamed et moi. Mohamed, c'était un gars super cool, qui dessinait bien, une vraie claque à chaque fois. Et il avait un putain de niveau en anglais. La note? 17...

Les passages en vert sont les remarques et corrections de mademoiselle Levet.

"After all that has been said, it is not an easy task to innovate as far as the analysis of Holden’s story is concerned. (but since we are very smart…) That’s why our paper can also be seen as a summary of the others.

We will talk about the obvious lack of understanding that has been surrounding the character since his young brother Allie’s death, starting with the numerous occurrences of this lack of understanding.

Occurrences :

- The first one is in the second chapter, which is about Holden’s encounter with mister Spencer, one of his teachers at Pencey. Holden is not interested at all in school, and lets it be known, that’s why he failed his exams, except english. But he is also aware of the fact that the others may not understand him ( page 10 : « it is all right with me if you flunk me out »). Spencer does not understand his behaviour : he thinks that Holden makes fun of him, while Holden says that Spencer is one of the only teachers he likes. He is not making fun of anybody : he does not fit in school, that’s all.

- The second occurrence is when Holden writes Stradlater’s composition, about Allie’s baseball mitt. This object is a very important landmark in Holden’s life, but Stradlater is not aware of it, and understands it as a vagary of Holden. He does not realize its importance, and he too thinks that Holden is making fun of him.

- The third occurrence happens in chapter 13, in the episode with Sunny. Holden is feeling blue, and would rather talk with her, but the latter cannot understand that anyone would want to do something else with her than having sex. Not only is she a prostitute, but she is also a moron. What’s more, she provokes his wanting to kill himself.

- In chapter 17, Holden meets Sally Hayes, and wants her to leave with him to Vermont, because he is fed up with school and society. But Sally cannot understand his proposal ; she is too attached to her family, to down-to-earth… She thinks he is becoming mad.

- Carl Luce is also a character who does not understand Holden. He is too conceited, and considers himself too intelligent and mature a person to discuss with a « child like Holden ». He thinks that Holden is nothing more than a pervert and a sex maniac ; when what Holden is looking for is his advice and understanding. This illustrates his desire to find somebody to relate to, but it does not happen.

- Even his « old sister Phoebe » cannot accept his views and thoughts on life and school. For her, her brother does not want to make any effort, when in fact he does not fit in school. When he explains his desire to become the « catcher in the Rye », she thinks he is fooling her.

And yet, in the end, she agrees to go away with him.

The obvious reason for this lack of understanding is Holden’s character. It all stems from Allie’s death, when Holden was thirteen. It was too much, too soon for him to handle. Holden experienced something he was not prepared to face, and this in his early teens : he was thus projected into adulthood, into the grown-up world, face-to-face with reality, far beyond people who are his age. He was not over with childhood yet, and was faced with the cruelty and the truth of life : this is something that has created a gap between the other teenagers – except Jane Gallagher – and him, because he is by far more mature than they are. (at least, as far as his awareness of death goes).

But the question is : does he want to fill up this gap ? ( or can he ?)

Holden probably wants to get along with people. Don’t forget he is only sixteen, an age that usually implies a search for affection. We can see it, as he always wants to have somebody stand by him : Sunny, the nuns, the three girls at the night club… Nevertheless, he does not manage to do so, to get along with people who are his age, because of that gap : he has a depth of mind, an experience, that the others don’t possess.

When he tries to get along with people older than him, he finds out that he is not considered as an adult, nor respected, although he has already gone through a lot of things.

Example :

Luce does not take him seriously during the conversation they have : for Luce, Holden is not mature enough to fully understand important things such as sex, whereas Holden really wants to share his opinions with him.

Sally Hayes, on the other hand, who is as old as Holden, does not understand him because she has not reached the same level of maturity that he has.

So, Holden is neither an adult nor a child : he is an « in-between ». He cannot really break away from childhood because of his age, and also because of his sincere love for children (he has not yet got over childhood), and because of his age, he is not an adult either. But in order to be understood, Holden must understand himself, which does not seem to be the case. Indeed, he appears to be too complex a character, even for himself. In the novel, he often does or says things without knowing why. He says that he does not want to to tell us too many things, and he tells a whole book about his story… It is understandable, then, that some people may misunderstand him. ( Holden needs other people’s help to understand himself and comes to terme with the trauma of Allie’s death)

Holden Caulfield is different from the others ; that’s why he can’t seem to get along with anybody. And since he appears not to make any effort to change, the situation does not get better, which engenders a real loneliness, and above all, a disgust for the others who don’t understand him : the « phonies » (although he too can be considered a phony sometimes, because he wants to act like an adult). This may be the case with Holden as a character but it is not exactly so with Holden as a narrator. He tries to adapt, but his conception of what an adult is, or should be, may be wrong.

We can notice that this kind of difference, of lack of understanding, is often shared by geniuses (cf the cliché of the misunderstood genius). Jonathan Swift wrote : « Quand un vrai génie apparaît en ce bas monde, on le reconnaît à ce signe que tous les imbéciles sont ligués contre lui. ». Then, if it is the case, it does not matter, if he is misunderstood, because that would mean that HOLDEN CAULFIELD is a « genius ». Don’t forget that the only subject that interests him at school, and by the way the only one he did not fail, is English (though he says he has a lousy vocabulary), which could imply that Holden could very well become a writer.

And last, isn’t it funny that a person who is so lonely and « misunderstood » still is considered by many teenagers as a symbol, which means that they understand him.

(You should try and express it in a more striking and convincing way

+ relate it to your idea of Holden as a would-be writer

hint at the fact that he may be or become a writer

story : -motif of the hand linked to Allie (Allie‘s mitt with poetry written on it + Holden breaking his hand at Allie’s death)

- all children are writer, in one way, so what about Holden ?

narrative : - reference to The Secret Goldfish which can be seen as a « mise en abyme » of Holden’s narrative

- use of the pronoun « you »

P.S : We noticed that Holden is definitely a « dark » character, because the only one who seems to understand him is Phoebe (moon in English), whereas Sunny (sun¹darkness, moon) does not understand him. It appears that he feels more comfortable with the moon than with the sun…

This may be linked to the fact that he has experienced the dark side/the other side of life."