Holden Caulfield, Master of Deflection
The most memorable characteristic about Holden Caulfield is that he complains about almost everything. He is the character that created the stereotype of “teenage angst,” simply because of the sheer amount of time he spends detailing his elaborate complaints with almost every person, social setting, or societal norm that he comes across. What struck me about the things that he complains about, though, is how he makes sure to carefully avoid all of the truly traumatic things that he has experienced. The thing that I found most shocking about Holden’s account of waking up to Mr. Antolini patting his head is that he admits that this kind of “perverty” thing has happened to him “about twenty times since [he] was a kid” (Sallinger 193). This isn’t necessarily a surprising admission, considering that Holden has been in all-boys prep schools for his entire education, but what is surprising is that he has never once brought it up before as one of the many things he finds institutionally messed up about the prep school environment. He instead chooses to focus on how little authority these teachers have over him and how often they try to give him lectures, making a joke of the teachers to avoid talking about the actual bad things they've done.
This isn’t the only time that Holden glosses over something truly traumatic to talk about something less important. He briefly mentions James Castle, the boy at Elkton Hills that, while getting beat up by other students, chose to jump out of the window to his own death instead of taking back his comment that another student was “conceited” (Sallinger 170). Holden mentions this surprisingly late in the book, considering the fact that he has spent the last 170 pages talking about how terribly mean boys at these prep schools can be. While Holden mentions the more petty things that these boys have done, like their secret fraternities that don’t admit boys who are “too pimply,” and their general mistreatment of women, he chooses to wait to mention the time that this bullying directly led to a boy’s death. He doesn’t describe this event as tragic or traumatic, though, instead choosing to see it as heroic and noble, setting James Castle as some sort of martyr for a good cause. In reality, James Castle’s story is not heroic at all, it’s just tragic. There is nothing heroic about being beat up so badly that the best option is to fall to your own death; but Holden doesn’t see it that way.
Holden can’t grasp the gravity of some of his experiences. He doesn’t acknowledge that predatory older teachers are dangerous, not just another annoying thing that he “can’t stand.” He doesn’t choose to see James Castle as a tragic suicide at the hands of the abusive and dangerous nature of the all-boys schools he attends, choosing instead to view him as an iconic hero who stuck to his morals until his final breaths. Holden’s grievances with his world are not trivial; he might present them that way, his main problem with the system that he has grown up in being the amount of “phonies” that he has surrounded himself with, but the problems that he attempts to gloss over should actually be taken much more seriously. He might present his issues with boys his age as being annoyed with their phony antics and their elitist attitudes, but under that is a valid criticism that being a person who strays away from this norm can be very dangerous, and, as we’ve seen with Holden and James Castle, choosing not to conform to these norms can lead you to be a target for extreme violence at the hands of your peers. He might act like his only grievance with teachers is that they try too hard to demonstrate their authority over you, but under this is a reality that an alarming amount of adults in Holden’s life seem to have used their authority to take advantage of him. Holden actively glosses over the more real and traumatic experiences he has had with the institutions he is a part of, choosing instead to focus on surface level complaints with the way people act and dress, chalking it all up to a general sense of “phoniness” emanating from the people surrounding him.
Hi Ruby, I think that it's quite interesting how many of these traumatic experiences are only noted in the text as something that happens. This could possibly be related to how he loves to hyper-fixate on tiny specific details rather than the underlying problems such as with the bullying. The scene with Mr. Antolini also makes one question if he's had other teachers make advances on him.
ReplyDeleteI think it's really interesting to analyze some of Holden's unawareness as him trying to push his ideals onto things other people do. He definitely seems to avoid his trauma a lot during the book, putting important stuff on the backburner (probably because its too intense for him to really grasp). I think there's a level of optimism he tries to push onto the bad events in his life that he doesn't apply to the normal events in his life (ei. James being a martyr not a suicide, Mr. Antolini being perverty not a predator).
ReplyDeleteYou did a good job highlighting some of the things that are even hard to notice as a reader since our narrator is so quick to gloss over them. It's definitely true that Holden is a deflector, of both his attention and ours, towards less-important issues in Holden's life and the groups of people he's surrounded with. It is interesting to think how unique Holden's voice is in that he brushes off seriously traumatic events as much less than the mild annoyances he so often complains of. Great job!
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that Holden ignores his trauma because of how he chooses to focus on his "phony" radar, and I think that's a really interesting trait Salinger wrote into the book. I was thinking as I read the blog how Holden probably doesn't see James' situation as tragic, and thinks of him as not a phony. His habit of focusing on the superficial problems probably stems from how his worldview has changed from his trauma as well as his aversion to change.
ReplyDeleteHey Ruby! I really liked how you made the connection between Holden's constant complaining and his avoidance of things relating to his trauma. It shows another layer to his character, and makes him more three-dimensional as that is something that people do in real life too. Also, your point about Holden being unable to acknowledge the gravity of his experiences is a very interesting and also accurate interpertation. Good job!
ReplyDeleteHi Ruby! While during class we talked about Holden being able to control the narrative and what he tells us, I think this important dynamic about Holden leaving out traumatic events is SUCH a great topic! Your blog did a great job diving into the parts that Holden tries so hard to hide. He sort of has this sterotypical trait of most teen boys: something uncomfortable is happening or something they don't want other people to know is happening, so they try to take the focus off of it. Great blog!
ReplyDeleteHiya Ruby!! This is honestly an aspect of Holden that I never really noticed. I think there's some truth in that it's easier to complain about things that are black & white rather than a more deep and serious issue (and with Holden's personality, I would expect him to pick the former). You did a really good job at connecting this concept to other events in the book, especially considering how most of this seems to be rather internal and indirect. Great work!!
ReplyDeleteIt's true that Holden saves the most striking and surely traumatic experiences he's had at these elite prep schools until the very end of the novel, and I agree that it has an interesting effect--contemporary readers especially might be inclined to see his complaints as trivial and subjective, the kind of thing everyone else is easily able to "get over and move on," and there seems to be something WRONG with Holden because he can't let it go (and he starts to think this about himself, calling himself "crazy" with increasing frequency as the novel unfolds). Your generation is MUCH more aware of and attuned to the dangers of predatory behavior toward children in schools and churches, and one effect of this is that you all have a ready vocabulary for talking about things like "grooming." I guarantee that Holden and his friends have never heard this term used in this context, and he has to resort to the vague teenager frame of "perverty" to describe what he has no words for. I also guarantee that he and his friends have NEVER spoken about any of the things he's referring to--but it is likely that Holden's experiences with "perverty" adults has played some role in shaping his general disgust with adult phoniness and corruption of innocence. And also in his ambivalence and anxiety about the onset of mature sexuality. The more we look at it, the more Holden starts to resemble a textbook victim of abuse. The scene with Antolini is ambiguous in its implications, and Holden himself considers the possibility that he overreacts, but there's a context for his overreaction--the "twenty times" that similar things have happened to him. There are no avenues for Holden to report these incidents, and it is very unlikely that the school administration would take action (other than perhaps to expel HIM to ensure his silence). When he's upset about how the right people never get punished in this system (James Castle's tormentors), he could be referring to his sense of powerlessness in the face of all of these incidents.
ReplyDeleteSo I suppose we are saying that perhaps Holden's complaints about the system aren't so trivial after all.