Holden Caulfield

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Holden Caulfield is a fictional character created by J. D. Salinger. Holden is the sixteen year old teenage protagonist of Salinger's 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye; Holden also appears in some of Salinger's other literary works.

Physically, Holden is gangly and tall. He is also described as having several gray hairs on the right side of his head. These two qualities contribute to Caulfield's appearing to be older than his age, yet his mannerisms and behavior contradict that impression. One of Caulfield's most striking and quintessential qualities is his powerful revulsion for "phony" human qualities. Qualities such as narcissism, hypocrisy, and superficiality embody Holden's concept of phoniness and Holden is adept at realizing these qualities in other people. This serves to bolster Holden's cynicism and consequently contributes to his mistrust of other people. Interestingly, despite Holden's strong disdain for phony qualities, he exhibits some of the qualities that he abhors, thereby making him a somewhat tragic character.

Caulfield is the second of four children, with two brothers, D.B. and Allie, and one sister, Phoebe. (There is also a second sister, Viola, who is briefly mentioned in the short story "I'm Crazy," but is never referred to again.) Allie is deceased at the time of Catcher in the Rye. Their parents are left unnamed in Salinger's works.

Born into a life of wealth and privilege, Caulfield looks down upon the elite world he occupies. He questions the values of his class and society and sometimes appears to oppose conventions merely for the sake of opposition. He is widely considered to be the template for the "angry young man" archetype.[citation needed]

Contents

[edit] In The Catcher in the Rye

Holden Caulfield is the narrator and protagonist of The Catcher in the Rye. The novel recounts the days following Caulfield's expulsion from Pencey Prep, a university preparatory school based loosely on Valley Forge Military Academy, Salinger's alma mater. Caulfield tells his story in cynical and jaded language, often using disparaging language and uninhibited profanity, but he never uses "bullshit" but instead says "shooting the bull" perhaps because he has some reservations with use of obscenity.

[edit] In other works

The character, as Holden Caulfield, also appears in Salinger's "Slight Rebellion Off Madison", published in the December 22, 1946 issue of The New Yorker. An earlier version of this story, titled "Are You Banging Your Head Against a Wall?" was accepted for publication by The New Yorker in October 1941, but was not published then because editors found the tone to be too desolate for its readership. An edited version of this short story later became the basis of several chapters in the middle-late section of The Catcher in the Rye dealing with Caulfield's date with Sally Hayes, during which he confesses his desire to run away with her, he meets Carl Luce for drinks, and he makes a drunken phone call to the Hayes home. Unlike the similar sequence in the novel, Caulfield is on a Christmas break from school, and, in the story, the interlude with Sally is split into two occurrences. Also, the meeting with Carl Luce is considerably briefer in the story than in the novel.

Caulfield also figures as a character in the short story "I'm Crazy", published in Colliers (December 22, 1945), and other members of the Caulfield family are featured in "Last Day of the Last Furlough", published in The Saturday Evening Post (July 15, 1944) and the unpublished short stories "The Last and Best of the Peter Pans" (ca. 1942) and "The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls" (ca. 1945).

"I'm Crazy" is closely related to what would become the first chapter of The Catcher in the Rye. It begins with Caulfield standing on a hill at "Pencey Prep" watching a football game below, and develops as Holden visits with his history teacher, Mr. Spencer, for a talk about his expulsion from school and his future. Several other details match those found in the first chapter of Catcher, including a reference to the mother of one of Caulfield's schoolmates and to his own mother sending him a gift of ski boots, but the story ends with his returning home instead of running away from school. Once home, he is not shown confronting his parents, who, according to the maid, are playing bridge. Instead, he goes to speak to Phoebe. Their dialogue is similar to what appears in the later chapters of The Catcher in the Rye. Also notable is that sister Viola gets her first, and only, mention in the Caulfield saga.

[edit] Caulfield family in other works

"Last Day of the Last Furlough" relates the final day of Babe Gladwaller before he leaves to fight in World War II. Gladwaller spends part of the day with his little sister before Vincent Caulfield (later renamed D.B. in the novel) arrives. At that point Vincent is a fellow soldier about to leave for the war. Vincent announces that his brother, Holden, has been declared missing in action. Gladwaller's relationship with his younger sister can be seen as a parallel to Caulfield's relationship with Phoebe.

"The Last and Best of the Peter Pans" relates the story of Vincent's (D.B.) draft questionnaire being hidden by his mother. The events occur just after the death of Kenneth (later renamed Allie) and reveal the anxiety of Mary Moriarity, an actress and Caulfield's mother. The story is notable for the appearance of Phoebe and Vincent's statements about a child crawling off a cliff.

"The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls" is told by Vincent (D.B.) and relates the final day of Kenneth (Allie). The story, set at the Caulfield summer home on Cape Cod, is a reminiscence on the part of Vincent. Caulfield is away at camp on what will be Kenneth's final day. Several details make their way from this story into Catcher, including the characterization of Allie; Allie's poetry-inscribed left-handed baseball mitt; Vincent's girlfriend, Helen, who keeps her kings in the back row (like Jane Gallagher); and Caulfield's critical view of others. Unlike Allie, who he says died of leukemia, Kenneth is described as having an unspecified heart condition. As the story nears its end, Kenneth and Vincent are on the beach. Kenneth decides to go swimming and is overcome by a wave. Vincent races home with Kenneth's unconscious body and Kenneth dies later that night. Holden is waiting on the porch with his suitcases when Vincent arrives with Kenneth's body. This story was reportedly sold to a magazine only to be taken back by Salinger before publication.

Another short story of note with relationship to Caulfield is "The Boy in the People Shooting Hat" which was submitted to The New Yorker sometime between 1948 and 1949 but was not published. It focuses on a fight between two characters named Bobby and Stradlater over Bobby's feelings about Jane Gallagher. This story likely forms the basis for several key scenes in the first several chapters of The Catcher in the Rye.

[edit] Cultural impact

Holden Caulfield is one of the most enduring characters in 20th century American fiction.

  • The Catcher in the Rye is required reading in many high school English courses today, although it has been banned from some school libraries by parent and teacher groups opposed its use of profanity and perceived glorification of rebellion.
  • Holden was influential in the lives of, among others, Mark David Chapman[1], the former mental patient who murdered John Lennon in 1980. Chapman occasionally considered Lennon a "phony", akin to Holden's accusations, and had reenacted prominent events in the novel.[citation needed]

[edit] Quotations

"The boy himself is at once too simple and too complex for us to make any final comment about him or his story. Perhaps the safest thing we can say about Holden is that he was born in the world not just strongly attracted to beauty but, almost, hopelessly impaled on it." — Original jacket copy (Salinger?)[2]

[edit] Popular culture references

  • Holden Caulfield is referenced in many songs, including "Holden Caulfield" by Piebald, "Trinity" by Jedi Mind Tricks, "Get it Right" by The Offspring, "Save Yourself" by Aesop Rock, "SuperPowers" by Five Iron Frenzy, "Here's To Life" by Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution and Streetlight Manifesto, "Magna Cum Nada" by The Bloodhound Gang, "Waiting for the Great Destruction"[3] by Matthew Good and was the subject of "Who Wrote Holden Caulfield" by Green Day, "I Wrote Holden Caulfield" by Screeching Weasel, "Old Love" by Mike Posner and "The Disaster March" by The Lawrence Arms. Too Much Joy combines the character's name with another symbol of disaffection, the actor William Holden, in the song "William Holden Caulfield". There was also an alternative-pop band called The Caulfields between 1992 and 1997.
  • Before joining the band My Chemical Romance guitarist Frank Iero was in a band called Pencey Prep, a reference to the name of the school which Holden Caulfield attends in "The Catcher in the Rye".
  • Jake Gyllenhaal's character in the 2002 film The Good Girl lives his life by The Catcher in the Rye, to the point that he refers to himself as "Holden".
  • In a third-season episode of the TV series Aqua Teen Hunger Force, entitled "Frat Aliens", the question "Are you Holden? Did William Holden come to the party? You got...Holden Caulfield in there, man?" is used as a code phrase for finding out if anyone present is in possession of ("holding") marijuana that can be used to "wake and bake."
  • David Levithan's The Realm of Possibility includes a free verse poem entitled "My Girlfriend's in Love With Holden Caulfield."
  • In the episode of the Dilbert TV series titled "The Return", a call-center operator gives the fake name "Holden Callfielder" (reading the word "Hold" from a button on his phone and referring to himself as a "call-fielder").
  • Timothy Hutton's character in the film Ordinary People is influenced by Holden Caulfield.
  • One of the main characters in the syndicated comic strip Frazz is Caulfield, a troublesome young boy who is also highly introspective.
  • Rockstar Games used The Catcher in the Rye as an inspiration to set up the boarding school environment for the game Bully. The main protagonist of the game, Jimmy Hopkins, calls his stepfather a phony at the beginning of the game, most likely as an homage to Holden Caulfield.
  • Track 11 on the Green Day album "Kerplunk" is a meditation on pot-smoking entitled "Who Wrote Holden Caulfield."
  • Holden is referenced in the Japanese anime series Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex multiple times. The central crime investigated by the characters in the series centers around a young man who is attempting to expose the "phonies" of the current government before fading into the background as a "deaf-mute". His appearance and virtual logo also references Salinger's work The Laughing Man.

[edit] External links

Salinger's uncollected short stories

Fan sites

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Larry King Live Weekend: A Look Back at Mark David Chapman in His Own Words Retrieved May 12, 2006
  2. ^ Cover blurb from Catcher in the Rye
  3. ^ Lyrics to "Waiting for the Great Destruction"
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