Nick Wallner
Jr.Theology/Faith
August 22, 2007
Holden has faith, sort of
Though within, “The Catcher in the Rye,” Holden Caulfield seems to have lost his faith in the world after his brother’s death, he does have a faith of sorts, though it is a misguided faith in a world that he wishes existed, not the world that does exist. Throughout the novel we see Holden attempting to live in a world that does not change, and he puts his faith in this world, this is represented by his faith in his little sister, Phoebe, whom he never wants to change and expects to always be little old phoebe. We also see Holden’s faith in his various academic endeavors. Most recently at Pencey Prep, Holden has faith in his schools to all be the same and for himself to flunk out of them because he doesn’t fit in. Though it could be argued that these things are a result of Holden’s lack of faith in the world, a lack of faith in success leads to an abundance of faith in failure, meaning Holden has faith in himself to fail, there is no proof that he will fail, but he still believes he will. At times however Holden does appear to have no faith in people or the world. This is shown in his opinion of his roommate at Pencey Prep, Stradlater, whom appears to be a clean and good looking fellow, but Holden calls a secret slob. Here Holden just has faith in the idea that even though something appears to be nice, it is really dark and ugly underneath. Later we see Holden’s same lack of faith when he asks Stradlater what he did on his date with Holden’s crush, Jane Gallagher. Here Holden assumes that they had sex because Stradlater won’t tell him what happened. Assuming the worst proves to be a common trait of Mr. Caulfield, though at times he also has hope which could be defined as a faith that there is a chance of him succeeding in what he wants to do. This is shown when he is in the club at the Edmont Hotel, and flirts with a group of girls. At first they reject his offer to a dance, but he is persistent and confident in his chances and eventually gets to dance with them. Also showing that Holden has faith is the fact that he gets truly upset when he sees the offensive words written in the museum and in his old school and phoebe’s current school. The fact that Holden is so upset at theses writings shows that he does have a faith in the world to be good sometimes, and doesn’t always expect the worst of everything. So, though Holden Caulfield may not be a “Person of faith” because his faith may be twisted and hidden under his cynical view and fear of the ever-changing world, it is still apparent that he does possess a certain faith in some things such as his sister, his schools, and even himself. back to faith page