How Holdens childhood relates to his actions throughout the book...
Holden is the perfect example of a Jerk.
At the beginning of the book, I did not think that I could like him. He is one of those people that are rude to everybody around them and that are not putting any effort into understanding other people. Throughout the book, Holden talked to us like we could relate to him but in all honesty, I was never able to relate to him. I was annoyed by his complaining, his not taking anything seriously, and his lies. He was behaving like he was mature, telling us as the reader how much he can drink and how wise he is even though he is only 16. For me, he always was an immature boy who was just rebelling. His flunking out of Pencey and then running away and drinking underage always just seemed like teenage behavior. Of course, it is not the classical behavior of most of us teenagers but there are a lot of teenagers out there thinking they know everything and Holden is one of them.
His character development was interesting to me because, until the last chapters, I still couldn’t stand him. I just noticed that he got lonelier throughout the book or maybe he was just more open about it and was telling us more about it. By the time I reached Chapter 20, I was sure I figured Holden out. An immature 16-year-old boy who just flunks out of school for fun and who does not care about anything. But after reading that Chapter I could not have been proven more wrong. During this chapter, a lot of his actions started to make more sense. I was able to connect actions from that weekend with his childhood trauma and while I think a lot of the scenes are worth looking at again after the knowledge that we gained in the last chapters I think one important Chapter to look back at is Chapter 13.
Chapter 13 stuck with me for the entire book. I couldn’t wrap my head around the 16-year-old Holden getting drunk in a bar and then walking back to his hotel and when you can’t think anything more could happen that he is meeting this elevator guy that asks him if he wants a prostitute. What stuck with me in this chapter was Holden telling us about his experience with women before and how he is convinced that his lack of aggression resulted in him not sleeping with any women before. Again, I noticed what I thought of him being immature. I noticed that he felt he was mature for accepting that when a woman says no he has to respect that like it is not something that should be known generally or how he talks about how he never was able to sleep with a woman even though he is just 16 years old.
After hearing about his sexual assault story I noticed that for him it was not normal that when somebody says no that it means no and that you do not have to lose your innocence before you are 16.
I am wondering if it was his lack of aggression that stopped him from ever sleeping with a woman like he claims, or was it something deeper?
Was he trying to hold on to his innocence? During his interaction with Sunny, he had the chance to sleep with her. And he seemed like the guy who it was really important too but then he said he couldn’t. My impression is that he wants to hold onto his innocence as long as possible and that he is not ready for this step. I think his trauma made him grow up faster than he wanted to and through that,he felt he had to take on all of those responsibilities but his innocence is one of the things he holds on to.
Holden is one of those characters that are jerks until you know their whole story. Without finding out that he got sexually assaulted as a kid I would have moved on under the impression that he just has a big mouth and wants to rebel, but knowing his story I feel bad for him. I feel sorry that he had to grow up that fast, that he had to live with this trauma during a period where topics like this were not discussed, and that he could have not known better than this. Holden is a strong character who had to deal with a lot of things in his life and when you know his childhood story a lot of his actions and reactions make more sense.
Great points! I agree that in the book Holden can act rather immature. He is quick to make assumptions and oftentimes does not think much farther than the next action. He has also suffered through some traumatic things as a child. While I think that if he had someone to guide him, he could find his way and make better decisions, because of these quick assumptions he wary about trusting anyone. Thus, he finds that he mostly has to suffer on his own, and in order to do that he has to make decisions for himself, which I think leads him to more snap assumptions and poorly planned decisions. Thus, I agree that on the surface, he may seem immature, but there is definitely unfortunate hidden side to him.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, Holden's backstory makes a lot of his feeling and actions a lot more understandable in the book. Especially his feelings towards sex and the adult world. Additionally, throughout the book Holden seems more drawn to younger kids because of a carefree innocence he see's in them and I think it makes sense that he cant see that in people who are older because he views adults as the thing that corrupt that carefree innocence.
ReplyDeleteHolden always pretends to be mature but is really immature at heart. He's almost caught in limbo between the innocence of a child and the actual maturity of an adult (or the phony maturity as he would see it). He realizes that he can never get back that childhood, but he also doesn't want to move on into the real world. He even acts phony at times but seems to hate it and himself for doing it. Those two sides are pulling him apart throughout the book, but I think at the end he finally realizes he can never return to that pure, childlike form. I definitely agree that he's a lot more than his surface. Even if he might seem immature, he has a lot of past trauma and anxiety that pulls him back. Nice post!
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the insight that Holden needs to be viewed within the larger context of his experiences, and that his less savory personality traits can maybe be traced to his own traumas and issues. But I always want to push back against the idea that he actually behaves like a "jerk" or is "rude" to everyone--it SEEMS this way, given how unfiltered his narration is. We recall the scene with Spencer as Holden just torching this guy over and over, in a cruel and agist way--but if you look at what he says and does throughout the scene, he is nothing but respectful and polite, and when he leaves, Spencer and his wife have no idea that Holden was thinking these mean thoughts about them. Throughout the book--with the ecxception of Sally, when he blows up and calls her a "pain in the ass" (and immediately starts to apologize)--his words and actions don't reveal much about his private running commentary. The "Andover jerk" at the play, who talks to Sally, never has any idea that Holden thinks anything about him one way or the other.
ReplyDeleteOf course, this vast disparity between his words/actions and his avowed feelings might make Holden just another "phony"--but I think he's fully aware of that, and he is not happy about the situation. He maybe even thinks he SHOULD be a little more rude ("real") to others. But generally the other kids at his schools seem to like him just fine. They have no idea what he's thinking.