Shawn Moore

Jr. Theology Faith

22 August 2006

“Was Holden Caulfield a Person of Faith?”

In the book The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield in his attempt to become an adult was not a man of faith. Caulfield, through this book, seemed uncertain about what he believed and called most things that he describes to be phony. He tried so hard to be an adult, but most of the time he seemed childish and did not know what being an adult mean.

Caulfield has failed out of three schools already and was about to flunk out of Pencey. The reason he flunks out of theses schools is not because he can not do the work, but he refuses to try and he thinks he can not do the work. When he talks to Spencer, he gets Caulfield’s final essay, he reads the end where Caulfield say he knows the paper is horrible and to just flunk him. He talks with Spencer about whether or not he is concerned about his future and he says, “Not too much, I guess” (14). This lets us know he really does not know what he wants to do in the future, but he does not care too much about it either. He has no hope for himself and he does not have much faith in himself.

Many things in this book often cause him to be depressed. He mentions it a lot as he describes things that he usually sees. When he left Pencey and was staying at a hotel, he was put in an awful room where he did not have a window to look out, but he said that he was “too depressed to care whether I had a good view or not” (61). He also feels depressed when he goes by the museum and park and he saw the merry-go-round and exhibits that he used to go by when he was younger. He also goes into bars and gets into things to try and seem more adult, but they usually turn out to cause him trouble.

When he goes to the lavender room, he attempts to act like an adult. He tries to get some rum in his coke when he is only seventeen. He also dances with some older women who did not seem to care too much about and buys them drinks. He pays for a prostitute, in which there was no sex involved, and he only wanted to talk. When the guy who sent the prostitute to Holden wanted his money came and started hurting him he tried to act tough and manly and would not let them have the money until they eventually got the money from him. Also when he goes to the Wicker he gets real drunk and started acting crazy. He tries to act like he is an adult when he still is not mature.

There are also times when Caulfield acts really childish. When his roommate Stradlater came to his room after he went out with Jane, a girl that Caulfield admired deeply, he began to annoy him with silly questions like did you “Give her the time in Ed Banky’s car” (43). He also fights with Stradlater and tells him to go give Mrs. Schmidt the time. He did all this because he was jealous of Stradlater and Jane. Another childish thing he did was when he was leaving Pencey he said, “Sleep tight, you morons!” (52)

Holden does not know what to believe in. He does not even believe in himself. If Caulfield had faith he would not have flunked out or 4 different schools. Caulfield would not have gone to the clubs and bars trying to act as if he was an adult. He would not be feeling depressed all the time and calling things phony. Instead he would try and make things work out for him in his life. He would not be feeling depressed or uncertain about things in his life. He would not be trying to act adult when he is not even mature enough to be one. He would care about what is ahead in his future and work toward making his future better.