“I couldn’t think of anybody to call up….. My kid sister Phoebe
goes to bed around nine o’clock – so I couldn’t call her up. She wouldn’t’ve cared if I’d woke her up, but the trouble was, she wouldn’t’ve been the one that answered the phone. My parents
would be the ones. So that was out.” Ch 9, Pg 53
The last two sentences of that quotation lead me onto my second point. Holden is struggling to be understood by nearly all of society and especially his parents. I think that he sees himself fighting against a world full of phonies alone except for his “kid sister Phoebe”. Unfortunately that is how he sees Phoebe when he first leaves Pencey Prep. As the novel progresses, however, Holden goes to her when he needs help and treats her as more of an equal who can support him when he is in difficulties. He has many difficulties in life, which is why there may be evidence to say that Holden is a “sad, little screwed up hero”.
Society has taken everything from him, both his brother’s presence and his parents. Stradlater borrows all he owns, his clothes and even his girlfriend. His possessions are stolen at school and so is his identity. As a result of all \of this he feels he must reject society. Holden is a loner both at school and in life itself. Most people who he takes into his confidence and confides in reject him; few bother to try to understand what motivates him. When he stands up for what he believes in he is knocked down. Throughout the novel we see him pondering over talking to people; at the start of the novel (before he leaves Pencey Prep) he goes to talk to his history teacher. Here he can’t decide how much to say and settles on not letting the old man into his head:
“I didn’t feel like going into the whole thing with him. He wouldn’t
have understood it anyway.” Ch 2, Pg 12
Again, on the train this trait is displayed when he is talking to Mrs Morrow, Ernest’s mother. She is a very nice lady but Holden tells her a string of lies not only about why he is on the train but also about his life up to that point. He doesn’t want her to know who he is, why he is on the train or why he isn’t still at school. This shows his lack of confidence in society as a whole to be supportive to him. He could have done with a helping hand at this point and if he had told Ernest’s mother the truth then she could well given him the help he needed. I doubt Holden is a hero but “screwed up” he may well be. Instead of going home to face the consequences of his actions he decides that it would be far better to spend a couple of days in New York and not return home until the end of term despite the fact that the school are bound to contact his parents when they find that he is missing. Under these circumstances anyone in their right mind (if they hadn’t stayed at school in the first place!) would go straight home so as to cause their parents as little worry as possible and so minimising the anger that will ensue.
However, I have at times felt rather sorry for Holden. He doesn’t trust anybody, as I have said, he only confides himself to one other person, his sister, Phoebe. Phoebe seems to be his best (and only) friend. In fact, Holden seems to be deeply attracted to his brothers and sister yet he comes across to the reader as being detached form his parents. Many of his actions he excuses as being linked to his brother, Allie. He tells us how deeply affected he was when his brother died:
“…they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all,
because I broke all the windows in the garage…I slept in
the garage the night he died and I broke all the goddam
windows with my fist, just for the hell of it.” Ch 5, Pg 34
This experience gives us a glimpse of how easily Holden can lose his grasp on reality and right and wrong. Even someone who is grieving would not go so far as to break their hand smashing windows unless there was a deeper problem that had been uncovered by the death of a loved one. It is not a normal thing to do.
In conclusion I can say that I agree with part of Maxwell Geismar’s statement in that we have had it proved to us that Holden is “screwed up”. However, he may have become a hero in the eyes of certain American teenagers who lack someone to look up to but he does not see himself as a hero and he definitely fades into the background when it comes to the public in New York in the novel itself.
In the cool breeze the grass doth sway to and fro
The seeds are given life and ride the wind to the farthest corners of the earth
And the spirit of the lord doth take them in his gentle hand and doth plant them in his garden of love whence they shall go forth and grow and prosper.
In the days that follow these wonderful happenings the planet and the stars form a bond
And a union that shall guard and protect god’s special ones
Who are fulfilling his great plans for his mighty kingdom
And those that do this shall live forever in eternal love and stewardship on his right hand
And they shall know peace and love.
Of this love there will be no comparison and no end.
No human will rival it for god’s love for his children knows no bounds
And when the time comes for him to reclaim those closest to him
They will learn to love the paradise that they enter into.
Here they shall wait for the time to come
To be reunited with those special to them in the living world.
God’s kingdom shall never end.
It is eternal and so are its people and angels and archangels.
Each has its special job
And when it is done they will live with him
In eternity and fellowship.
