Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is a classic American novel about Holden Caulfield, a teenager struggling with the realities of life. Holden has strong opinions, a point of view that differs from the general population, and seems to be mentally distant from his own life. He is an iconic existentialist character. Existentialism is a philosophical school of thought that focuses on the importance of the individual in his/her own life.
Existentialists believe in the value of forging one’s own path in life by finding your own meaning in the seemingly meaningless human existence. They are highly aware of their own death and the death of others. Many philosophers of existentialism talk about the anxiety and depression of existence and how if you were to choose between the two, it is much better to choose anxiety over depression because it is better than wallowing in the inevitableness of death. They all maintain the opinion that human existence only has meaning if one puts meaning onto it.
Holden serves as an existentialist narrator that is struggling with finding his own meaning, as many young adults do when they are the cusp of adulthood. Holden Caulfield is a classic existentialist. He is alienated from his own life. He has no school friends, minimal interaction with his family, and no one to call. He is deeply concerned with authenticity and calls others phonies.
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This concern is rooted in his own anxiety over following the status-quo. He wants to forge his own path, like many other existentialists, but is deeply concerned with the reactions of others. He is in the midst of an existential crisis throughout the book, one that plagues many kids his age. Although he is extremely judgemental of other people, he fails to recognize his own shortcomings. He is often the phony he claims to despise. His own anxiety over reality causes him to hide his true self. He is terrified to show others his own fear and struggles with his internal questioning.
He evades his responsibilities to school and relationships out of anxiety and desire to exercise his own free will in his life. He heads to New York City where he attempts to hire a prostitute, Daisy, even though he only wants someone who can not judge him to talk to. This proves his loneliness and anxiety over others’ opinions of him. He thinks that since Daisy is a prostitute, she is in no position to judge him. He also decides to get drunk at a hotel bar where he encounters women he finds rather obnoxious. He is wallowing in the depression that existentialist claim will not solve his crisis.
Through these actions he learns that it can’t change the inevitability of death. The one person Holden seems to care about, at least a little bit, is his younger sister Phoebe. He goes and visits her when he runs away from school. She seems to be his soft spot, perhaps because she is still innocent and not yet corrupted by the process of growing up. This is seen when he rubs out the graffiti at the school that has swears (Salinger 222). He doesn’t like that at a school for children something so corrupt and dirty could be on the walls.
In the book, Holden talks about why he loves the song, “if a body meet a body comin’ through the rye,” except he thinks that it says “catch,” instead of “meet,” so he imagines a bunch of children playing in a field of rye on the edge of a cliff with no one “big,” there except him (Salinger 191). He says that if they don’t look where they are running and fall over the edge he would jump out and catch them, and that is all he would do all day, be a catcher in the rye (Salinger 191).
In this he shares the meaning he finds in his own life. He wants to protect Phoebe from the evil and wrong ways of adulthood and the real world. Of course if he thinks rationally he knows that eventually Phoebe will have to grow up, but he can protect her until that point.
Works Cited
- Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye. New York City, Little, Brown, and Company, 1951.
