To Be or Not to Be a Catcher The Character Conflicts of Holden in The Catcher in the Rye.doc

本科毕业论文 (设计)to be or not to be a catcherthe character conflicts of holden in the catcher in the rye 13论 文 摘 要自麦田里的守望者发表以来，对主人公霍尔顿形象-特别是对他想成为一个守望者的理想的失败的讨论从未停止过。霍尔顿想要保持孩子性的天真，但最终被社会成人世界的狡诈，虚伪和冷漠逼疯。本文试图从分析霍尔顿性格的冲突和查找影响其性格形成的原因 (包括内部原因和外部原因) 的角度入手，更全面深刻地理解主人公的失败。关键词：麦田里的守望者；性格冲突；理想；霍尔顿abstractsince the publication of the catcher in the rye, the argument of the principal character holden have never been cooled down, especially the argument of holdens failure of his catcher ideal. holden wants to retain a childs innocence, but is ultimately driven crazy by insincerity, phoniness and callousness of the adult world. this paper attempts to make an analysis of the character conflicts of holden and to find the reasonsincluding the exterior reasons and the interior reasons-of his character formation, ultimately getting a better understanding of holdens failure.key words: the catcher in the rye; character conflicts; ideal; holdentable of contentsabstract（chinese）iabstractiitable of contentsiii1. introduction12. character conflicts of holden22.1 charity vs. poignancy22.2 self-discipline vs. self-indulgence32.3 determinedness vs. indecision43.analysis on holdens character formation63.1 exterior reasons63.1.1 impacts from american society63.1.2 impacts from pencey school73.1.3 impacts from holdens unhappy family83.2 interior reasons94.conclusion10references11acknowledgements12to be or not to be a catcher: the character conflicts of holden in the catcher in the rye1. introductionthe catcher in the rye was written by the american writer j.d. salinger. the novel had brought him a great reputation and it is still one of the best-sellers today. the writer set the historical background after the second world war that had changed america into the strongest power in the capitalist world. the post- war prosperity had produced a sense of optimism to american people. but after a short time, it suffered the “cold war”. during the 1950s, a phenomenon known as the “generation gap” developed in america. many young intellectuals refused to accept the standards of behavior of their parents. many of these young people became social “dropouts” and created a movement called “counter-culture” movementa way of life unrelated to, and opposite in every way to their parents ideas. they lost their dreams and became unsatisfied with the society. they had become spiritually empty and psychologically unbalanced. they also lost their values of standards. under salingers pen in the catcher in the rye, the protagonist holden lived just in such a “phony” society. he viewed the society as a phony, callous one in the adult world. people lost their innocence and their kindness in their adolescent age. on one side was the hopeless reality, the other the dreaming world. holden wanted to keep his purity and he was affected by the phoniness and rural reality (龙森祥，2008：28). the story began with holdens drop-out of pencey school. then holden was forced to wander in american society for three days and two nights. he had found the hypocrisy and ugliness of the world around him unbearable. meanwhile, he is a person who is full of dirty words when speaking, and he is always telling lies, and he takes nothing serious. he is one of “the lost generation”. but he has a pure and innocent dream:“and im standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. what i have to do, i have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliffi mean if theyre running and they dont look where theyre going i have to come out from somewhere and catch them. thats all id do all day. id just be the catcher in the rye and all.” (salinger, 1989：189)with the label of “the lost generation”, with the physical indulgence of drinking, smoking, sex, how can holden carry out his innocent catcher dream? can these opposite qualities in his character join together to guide holdens way in life? this paper will also attempt to find out reasons to be responsible for those questions mentioned above, considering the factors contributing to holdens character conflicts from his family, school and american society. 2. character conflicts of holden2.1 charity vs. poignancyholden is eager for love, and he is also full of love. holdens kindness can be seen in his expression of his ideal, “id just be the catcher in the rye and all.” he plants this kindness deeply in his heart. he wants to protect childrens innocent life from the harsh, hypocritical society（初青艳，2004：70）. and also holden is kind to others. in the story, he even shows his kindness to people whom he doesnt like, for example, his history teacher mr. spencer. to some degree, mr. spencer is a good teacher and he is kind to holden. it does show the teachers consideration to a student that when he has met holdens parents to have a chat with headmaster dr. thurmer. and the teacher is “trying to help” holden of sending a note to see him before holden leaves school. but this kind of “helpful” activity actually means nothing to the pitiful student for that he is not caring about what holden really wants. however, holden shows his kindness to this “superficially” likable teacher generously. during their conversation holden is bearing the smell of the nose drops, picking up the magazine for several times and staying patiently to hear the unconcern lecture and behaving as he was grateful for what the teacher lectured. in holdens eyes, he tolerated these awful things only for mr. spencer was old, and teacher was somebody who should be respected. the very deep kindness is to make the teacher feel less bad when mr. spencer is going to flunk him and holdens charity fully revealed by his kindness to the old teacher.holden is still kind to stradlater, another person he doesnt like. on saturday evening stradlater asked holden to lend a jacket for dating and to write a composition for him. as a student who had been flunked out, holden had no reason to help stradlater; but as a roommate, holden did help him without much complainments. it is the only possible way to explain holdens action that he is so kind to others.on the other side, holden behaves poignancily, opposite to his charity. he is cynical and critical of everybody he meets. on the train to new york, he encountered mrs. morrow who was the mother of his one classmate. “her son was doubtless the biggest bastard that ever went to pencey.” (salinger, 1989：61) but holden told her “well, he is a very sensitive boy.” “sensitive, that killed me.” (salinger, 1989：62) after making up the “election story” of ernie, “but i (holden) will bet, after all the crap i shot, mrs. morrow will keep thinking of him now as a very shy, modest guy that wouldnt let us nominate him for president.” (salinger, 1989：62) he made up a story to show his mother the bastards “modest quality” to make fun of them. it is a kind of irony to the kind mother. when the mother found the truth, she would be strongly hurt and embarrassed. this indicates that when holden is trying to judge other people he shows his poignancy character and he doesnt concern others feelings at all. this poignancy exists in his character with his charity.2.2 self-discipline vs. self-indulgenceit appears that holden is a bad student with a really bad discipline. the most serious problem is that he is going to call a prostitute to relieve his sexual desire in the hotel. beside whether it breaks the law or not, it is a matter of morality. it is a kind of self-indulgence like drinking too much wine to satisfy ones physical desire. holden is eager to indulge him. “it was against my principles and all, but i was feeling so depressed i didnt even think.” “the thing is, most of the time when youre coming pretty close to doing it with a girl, they tell me to stop, so i stop. i always wish i hadnt.” (salinger, 1989：101) as a teenager, it is forbidden to drink wine; while holden tries every opportunity to drink and smoke. he just breaks the rules to have fun in such an irresponsible way.but in another way, holdens ideal of being a catcher requires him to be self-disciplined. everybody shouldering some responsibility needs to be responsible at least to oneself. this is what holden wishes himself to be and he has tried to be a good person. to a girl jane gallagher, who always keeps her kings in the back row when playing checkers, he has many chances to go further but he just kisses her on the head. he thinks that he really loves her. it can be seen that holdens love is a love with responsibility and self-control. he hates the sexual relationship as stadlaters; he wants to keep his own field clean. and to have a good conversation with teacher spencer, it also needs to show some emotional self-control when one is bearing the ironic talking, ugly-looking dressing and intolerable picking up of books. 2.3 determinedness vs. indecisionwhen holden is going to do something, he does it immediately and always completely, no matter what difficult situation he is going to face. holdens bad appearance and the dirty words he has said cant cover the shining point of his real determinedness he shows on the way of pursuing his dream. when holden finished his fight with stradlater, he thought that there was no need to stay in the dormitory. then he went out to new york right away. fortunately he had enough money at hand. it was supposed that if holden were not leaving pencey that night, everything related to the hotel, the prostitute, the phoniness of the society would not be seen by holden and the readers, at least not so thoroughly and impressively. it means that holden had no need to suffer the experience of the society, he just needed to eliminate the bad feeling the phony school gave him. when holden determined to leave school to isolate himself from the phony school, he totally knew nowhere to go, but unconsciously holden gave the cab driver his home address. home is a safe port for people who have lost themselves or who are frustrated in other place to find comfort. it indicates that holden is unconsciously seeking protection from others. considering it was not a right plan to go home before wednesday, holden made up his mind to spend time in new york city anyway. to a teenager, doing this needs bravery and strong mind to face this unplanned, social survival adventure. so, this decision holden makes tells that holden owns some bravery to break up with the outside world. he carries out his ideal with determinedness and without fear of difficulties.leading an independent life seemed very hard for holden. he firstly suffered the cab drivers misunderstanding. holden asked where the lagoon ducks were in winter. he got a rejection of answer and was taken as a psycho. then he called a host trying to make a deal with the host and got cheated, or rather a robbery. and holden was going to make a conversation with the three girls in lavender room or any one he knew by a telephone. lonely holden desperately needed human contact and love, but his alienation prevented him from looking for such interaction. at last he went home secretly to have a talk with his sister phoebe. “old phoebe didnt say anything, but she was listening. i could tell by the back of her neck that she was listening.” “i kept talking about pencey. i sort of felt like it.” (salinger, 1989：183) at home, to a trusty person, holden dismissed his pressure. then he made another decision of finding a job in colorado. through this way, holden realized what he was going to do and ended his indulgence life in society.some scholars compare holden to hamlet. they get the conclusion that both holdens and hamlets failures are due to their indecision of taking resolute action. holden is a teenager and he cannot move forward steps without hesitation. he is not mature and as a pre-catcher, he has received too many rejections from society, school even family. he has met frustrations in society; he couldnt bear the phony people in school; he couldnt get adequate love from family. then he has realized he couldnt be a catcher. “the thing with kids is, if they went to grab the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. if they fall off, they fall off, but its bad if you say anything to them.” (salinger, 1989：229) after all the things he experienced holden gave up his, undoing himself at the last moment.another indecision holden has made is delimitating the journey to west for phoebe. waking up on the park bench, holden planned a complete activity to leave and he even got ready for things that would happen in all prospects of his future life. learning that phoebe was going to follow him, he changed his mind dramatically. “shut up.” this was the first time holden shouted at phoebe and he used it four times to get rid of phoebes decision. holden knew that he would not let her pure sister do what he will doto lead such a harsh, suffering life. in fact, phoebe is the only one holden wants to protect now. he cant yet cancel the plan to west for the sake of phoebe. this is the conflict between ideal and real life. on the way of pursuing his dream, he is blocked by the real situation.（杜海燕，2007：135 ）there is a way of life holden enjoys in west, but he changes his mind at the last minute.3.analysis on holdens character formation3.1 exterior reasons3.1.1 impacts from american society holden lived in a society suffering the cold war after world war two. people in america were rich in prosperity but they lost their spiritual life. during holdens experience in society, he felt what the society was really like and this experience had deeply influenced him. the hotel holden checked in was filled with different kind of people. holden watched them from the window: the pervert dressing womans clothes, the lovers spiting water on each other etc. he found what hid behind the normal peoples life. it was a kind of twisted internal life. it also suggested that sexual indulge is a way to relieve ones pressure. to holden this was the burning point for him to call him a prostitute without a rejection. in the hypocritical society, “people never believe you.” on the saturday night when holden went to the movies with his roommate, he got on a bus with a snow ball in hands. “the bus driver opened the door and made me throw it out. i told him i wasnt going to chuck it at anybody, but he wouldnt believe me. people never believe you.” (salinger, 1989：41) and during holdens conversation with mr. spencer, “he wasnt listening. he hardly ever listens to you when you said something.” (salinger, 1989：14) when people communicate with each other in this way, they do not believe what other people said and they do not listen to what they will say. so, on the train to new york he made up a story to mrs. morrow. lying to others is also a kind of phoniness, a type of deception that indicates insensitivity, callousness, or even cruelty. lying to others may be common and holden enjoys himself without any moral anxiousness. under this circumstance, holden became just as guilty of phoniness as the people he criticized.3.1.2 impacts from pencey schoolin the 1950s, american economical rapid growing inspired peoples materialistic pursuing. despising the meaning of life, people were driven by material prosperity madly. in pencey school, “learning enough to be able to buy a god damn cadillac someday” was populated by everyone except holden. holden hated the money-worshiping people, especially mr. ossenburger who got profits on death. to holden, a cadillac life was so phony and empty. for pencey education, teachers as mr. spencer, dr. thurmer always told students the dull and boring life theory. “life is a game that one plays according to the rules.”(salinger, 1989: 12) different teachers lectures just always be the same. no wonder that holden didnt study hard. “the mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.”(salinger, 1989: 206) this point of view in life seemed too sophisticated and hypocritical to holden. mr. antolini disappointed him too much, because holden didnt want to lead a humble life without his catcher dream. in holdens eyes, the world is unequal from the headmaster in school. this sight put more weight on his back. then he left school, even the world he knew to be a mute in west.in all school stuffs, mr. antolini was a good teacher at first and holden thought he was worthy to trust (salzman, 1991:110). in the late night of sunday, holden turned to him for a shelter. holden knew that mr. antolini had helped students and was not a hypocritical teacher as other teachers. they talked about life theories. it seemed that mr. antolini could help holden get out of the growing difficulties. but mr. antolini “patted” holden on head. mr. antolini had overstepped a boundary in his display of concern and affection. holden found that the teacher was such a pervert. he couldnt feel more depressed about school teachers. he could not depend on anybody. by this time, holden had determined to leave new york to find a new life in west, isolating himself from the outside world.3.1.3 impacts from holdens unhappy familyholden lived in a rich middle-class family. holdens parents enthusiastic pursuing on material took their childrens time away. his father was busy in dealing with the lawyer issues and paid little attention to holdens growing education. he just used his money sending holden from this school to another from time to time. he even didnt ask questions of why holden was flunked out of school. lacking of caring communication has caused lacking of parental love. throughout the novel holden mentioned his parents not so many times. in chapter 16, when holden was walking on the street, he found a couple “were just walking alone, talking