Analysis on Holden Caulfield in the Catcher in the Rye 英语专业毕业论文

Analysis on Holden Caulfield in the Catcher in the RyeThesis statement: Holden Caulfield is in many ways a typical teenager of the complicated and paradoxical youth. He has a nave and kind heart with a great ideal, and he is willing to pursue the wonderful life. He only wants to be a catcher in the rye to be the guardian of innocence and the protector of innocents. I demonstrate his honesty, generosity, and kind from the descriptions and the incidents in some chapters.Outline. Introduction.The personality of Holden CaulfieldBrief introduction to the prospectus of The Catcher in the RyeA. Holdens honesty and sincerity1.His thoughts on Selma Thurmer2.His deeds to others3.His deeds comparing with that of the adultB. Holdens generosity1.Contribution of his time to accompany others2.His tendency to try to find some good in most people3.His donation to the nunsC. Holdens kindness1.Consideration for others2.His unwillingness to make life difficult for people3.His desire to protect the children. ConclusionAbstractThis paper analyses the personality of the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, who is a controversial character. In this paper, the author mainly figures out the positive character of Holden Caulfield. Then the author analyses the personality of Holden Caulfield from three aspects: Holden Caulfield himself is a sincere person, and he tends to espouse is authenticity, disgusting falsehood. Holden Caulfield can not help being generous. Holden Caulfield is a very kind boy. Key Words: honesty, sincerity, generosity, kindness内容提要本文主要对麦田里的守望者一书中的主人公霍尔顿考尔菲德这一人物性格进行分析。这是一个颇具争议的人物，本文主要从正面理解的此人物。首先大致介绍当时美国的历史背景以及作者J.D.塞林格本人的生活经历。接下来本文从三方面分析阐述霍尔顿考尔菲德的性格：一是霍尔顿考尔菲德他本人的正直和他对真实的追求和对虚伪的厌恶。二是霍尔顿考尔菲德帮助他人的慷慨大方。三是霍尔顿考尔菲德发自内心的善良。关键词：正直， 真实， 慷慨大方， 善良 IntroductionHis creator is not without his legend either. Jersome David Salinger, man of mystery and conscientious alien from all things connected with the society that his youthful hero laments over, has progressively withdrawn from the company of all but a select few of his fellow human beings, and upon these he appearsto have imposed a vow of silence. The facts of his earlier years, consequently, heavily outweigh the information we have later.He was born in 1919 to a well-to-do merchant family in New York City. The only other child in his family, a sister, was eight years older than he. His father was a prosperous meat importer who tried unsuccessfully to groom his son for the trade. An average student with an average I.Q., Salinger attended both public and private schools in Manhattan. Finally he was sent off to a military academy in Pennsylvaniaperhaps a partial model for Holden Caulfields Pencey Prepwhere he receive his only diploma. Aside from the typical extra-curricular activities, at school and at a Maine summer camp, such as acting, fencing, writing for the yearbook and the like, he was remembered for no dramatic escapades of the kind that characterize Holden Caulfield, and left no record of unusual accomplishment. After putting in his time in the military academy he spent less than a month trying out college at New York University and completed his academic career taking a short-story course at Columbia University. This course, given by the editor of Story magazine, resulted in the publication of his first short story in the same magazine in 1940.Drafted in 1942, Salinger spent the next four years in the Army. Apparently the young Salinger never stopped writing, since he is described by himself and others as writing in hotel rooms during weekend passes, in tents by flashflight, and even, if we can accept the more amazing aspects of the legend, in the foxholes. Certainly, if he was not writing all the time, he was alert to the artistic possibilities of his experiences, for many of them turn up in one form or other in his later stories. Biographical information becomes less available at this point, being based more on hearsay and conjecture and less on the small body of fact that Salinger has been willing to provide.What is so important about the facts of Salingers life? Certainly his work stands or falls on its own merits. But the mystery surrounding his life is elaborated because he is at once the most artistically established young American writer and the one about whom the public knows least. Unlike Hemingway, whom Salinger met during his military sojournHemingway thought he had a “helluva” talentSalinger does not have an affinity for dramatic experiences. He is not an activist living openly in the public eye; he is a practitioner of the cult of secrecy.However, some of the details about his life often have a fictional counterpart in his works.For example, both Salinger and his creation, Holden, attended prep schools and were members of the fencing team (although Holden is merely the teams manager). During the prep-school career of both Salinger and Holden Caulfield, a suicide and a nervous breakdown of a fellow student occurred. Thus the students biographical examination is not without relevance, for it illuminates some of the techniques by which Salingers experience are transformed into works of art.J.D. Salinger has some other famous works. Following The Catcher in the Rye publishing in 1951, Nine Story was published in 1953, and Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters, and Seymour, an Introduction was published in 1963. All subsequent works listed after The Catcher in the Rye are short stories, most of them published prior to collective issuance. The reason I cho ose to analyze The Catcher in the Rye is that this book is J.D. Salingers first and the most successful works. In the late 40s and the early 51s, while the pieces from Nine Stories were being published separately, Salinger was undoubtedly trying to work into a novel his earlier stories about Holden Caulfield. The Catcher in the Rye became upon publication in 1951 an almost immediate success. As a midsummer Book-of-Month Club selection, for example, it certainly exposed Salinger to a larger audience than he had hitherto enjoyed. If, indeed, “enjoy” is the proper word, since the degree of popularity was enough to disturb Salinger, who directed that his picture be removed from the third and subsequent issues of the book. He remarked later to a friend that “I feel tremendously relieved that the season for success for The Catcher in the Rye is nearly over. I enjoyed a small part of it, but most of it I found hectic and professionally and personally demoralizing.” Reviews of the novel were mixed, from out-and-out approval to questions about Salingers attitudes, the colloquial style, the focus on an adolescent boy, and of course, the issue that has since attracted attention, whether the book was fit for young readers. Thus, The Catcher in the Rye, especially since issuance as a paperback in 1953, has been, curiously, both stipulated for and banned from high school and college reading lists.The theme of The Catcher in the Rye, in its broadest sense, would be the difficulty of growing up, the lonely and arduous voyage from innocence to experience. Perhaps because the American nation and traditions are so young, many prominent American novelists have used the theme of a young persons initiation to experience. The rebellion against genteel language and the subjective, individualistic way of telling the story also are very American. Although Holdens sensitivity and intelligence are heightened for the purpose of dramatizing his character, he shares, to a considerable extent, the problem of all American youth. Holdens main problems are honesty and egotism. Holden can not really accept the death of his brother Allie. He idealizes Allie to the point where it interferes with his ability to make new friendship. He desires to be honest, which demands facing the problems of life, but he wants to protect all other children from having face them. His sincerity leads him to lie, which beclouds his honesty, and forces him to wonder about his ability to be honest. This general pattern, i.e., a self-conscious examination of himself, leads him to doubt all his motivations, as when he dismisses the notion of being a lawyer. Holden feels that self-gratifying motives cannot be separated from any good intention. Holden, preoccupied with self, has a confused vision of the real objects in life. One of the evidences of Holdens growth is stated in the last chapter when Holden finally learns how to miss people. When studying a piece of literature , it is meaningful to note the historical background of the piece and the time at which it was written. America became very rich after the War. After the War, the standard of living and consumption were both developed, so the number of middle class was increased fiercely. At the same time, the spirit of most of the people was more and more vacuous and necessitous. In the early 1950s, the government of America pursued Reds with holding back communism. Internationally, the cold war was being more and more serious. Interiorly, everyone was involved in the horrific atmosphere by the nuclear war and progressive people suppressed. Some people enjoyed the luxurious life, having a muddleheaded life; while others were eager to resist the vulgar and deceptive world, but they were lack of long-range ideal, so they could not find out a correct way. Some youth resisted the reality by negative way such as drinking, freak-out and cohabitation. As a result, some historians of the time regards the young Americans as the beat Generation in America.Although Ever since its publication in 1951, J.D. Salingers The Catcher in the Rye has served as a firestorm for controversy and debate. Some critics scolded the novel as being too pessimistic or obscene, too harsh for the society of the 1950s. Others, however, nominated Salinger himself as the top-flight catcher in the rye for that period in American history j. They argued that Salingers concerns represented an entire generation of American youth, frustrated by the phoniness of the world, just like Holden was. In the end, The Catcher in the Rye is accepted by the world. It devotes much to American literature and means much to both adolescence and adulthood in that time. The personality of Holden CaulfieldThe prospectus of The Catcher in the Rye: Holden Caulfield is a student at Pencey Prep School, being born in a middle-class family. Having been expelled for failing four out of his five classes, Holden goes to see Mr. Spencer, his History teacher, before he leaves Pencey. Holden returns to his dormitory where he finds Stradlater prepares for a date with Jane Gallagher, a friend of Holden from several summers before. When Stradlater returns, Holden asks about his date with Jane, and when Stradlater indicates that he might have had sex with her, Holden becomes enraged and tries to punch Stradlater, who quickly overpowers him and knocks him out. Soon after, Holden decides to leave Pencey that night and not to wait until Wednesday. He leaves Pencey to return to New York City, where he will stay in a hotel before actually going home. On the train to New York City, Holden sits next to the mother of a Pencey student, Ernest Morrow. Holden lies to Mrs. Morrow about how popular and well-respected her son is at Pencey, while he is actually loathed by the other boys. When Holden reaches New York, he finally decides to stay at the Edmond Hotel. Holden experienced two nights and one days vagrant life .Thinking that he may die soon, Holden returns home to see Phoebe, attempting to avoid his parents. He awakens her, when he complains about the phoniness of Pencey, Phoebe asks him if he actually likes anything. He tells Phoebe that he would like to be a catcher in the rye, and he imagines himself standing at the edge of a cliff as children play around him. He would catch them before they ran too close to the cliff. When his parents come home, Holden sneaks out to stay with Mr. Antolini, his former English teacher at Elkton Hills. Holden falls asleep on the couch, and when he awakens he finds Mr. Antolini with his hand on Holdens head. Holden immediately interprets this as a homosexual advance, and decides to leave. Holden spends the night at Grand Central Station, deciding to go to the West. At last, he comes to home.In essence, Holden Caulfield is a good guy stuck in a bad world. He is trying to make the best of his life, though ultimately losing that battle. Whereas he aims at stability and truth, the adult world cannot survive without suspense and lies. It is a testament to his innocence and decent spirit that Holden wouldplace the safety and well-being of children as a goal in his lifetime. This serves to only re-iterate the fact that Holden is a sympathetic character, a person of high moral values who is too weak to pick himself up from a difficult situation.Holden exhibits a cynical self-awareness as he retraces the events that led up to his present position. He has a good many strong opinions, yet he tries to look at both sides of an issue, and, what is perhaps most important, he feels and tries to express his feelings. Holdens view of what is facile, unreflecting and clich-ridden in the adult world is to figure largely in the novel. Holdens reactionamusement rather than resentmentto the circumstances that caused his expulsion, is another indication of his innate honesty.The one value that he tends to espouse is authenticity, although he has no concrete definition of what this entails. One of the most intriguing points in Holdens character, related to his prolonged inability to communicate, is Holdens intention to become a deaf-mute. So repulsed is he by the phoniness around him that he wishes not to communicate with anyone, and in a passage filled with personal insight he contemplates a retreat within himself: I figured that I could get a job at a filling station somewhere, putting gas and oil in peoples cars. I didnt care what kind of job it was, though. Just so people didnt know me and I didnt know anybody. I thought what Id do was, Id pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes. That way I wouldnt have to have any goddam stupid useless conversation with anybody. If anybody wanted to tell me something, theyd have to write it on a piece of paper and shove it over to me. Theyd get bored as hell doing that after a while, and then Id be through with having conversations for the rest of my life. Everybody would think I was just a poor deaf-mute bastard and theyd leave me alone . . . Id cook all my own food, and later on, if I wanted to get married or something, Id meet this beautiful girl that was also a deaf-mute and wed get married. Shed come and live in my cabin with me, and if she wanted to say anything to me, shed have to write it on a piece of paper, like everybody else . First, in Chapter one, Holden begins his story during the Saturday of the football game with Saxon Hall, which was supposed to be a very big deal at Pencey. Selma Thurmer, the daughter of the headmaster, is at the game. Although she is unattractive and a bit pathetic, to Holden she seems nice enough, for she does not lavish praise upon her father.For another example, Holden loathes to eat beefsteak at every Saturday night in Pencey School. At every Saturday night, they always eat the same dishesbeefsteak, which is a good meal. Why the teachers do so? Only because the next day is Sunday, when the parents come to meet their children, asking what they ate at yesterday evening, the children would say that it is beefsteak. What a good supper! Looking at the beefsteaks, it is hard and dry to chip. Besides, it often goes with many rigid potatoes and the dessert is bread pudding which is made from apple crumb. Secondly, compared with the adult, Holden is very honest, but his integrity is often questioned. For example, an adult world that does not trust Holden is seen in the incident of the snowball. In chapter five, after making a snowball, Holden looks around for something to act as a target for it, but the snow-covered objects outside his window all look so pristinely lovely that he cannot bring himself to destroy the symmetry of the beautiful scene. He carries the snowball to the bus, but when the bus driver refuses to believe that he is the soul of integrity and once again his integrity is questioned. Another incident that is revelatory of the unsympathetic adult world revolves around Allies death. Because Holden broke all the windows in the garage, and then tried to break the car windows, his parents spoke of sending him to a psychiatrist. The adult world does not seem to understand the deep sense of loss that can be felt by an adolescent. Holden contrasts his lovely and likable little redheaded brother with the less attractive people surrounding him; this sharpens his already keen sense of bereavement. The headmaster of Pencey School also a disingenuous man. On every Sunday, when the parents drive cars to take their children to go home, the headmaster always flatters the plutocratic men, while only handshaking with the pool people. Thirdly, the Cadillac-driving Mr. Ossenburger, after whom Holdens dormitory is named, is a typical representative of the status seeking, mealy-mouthed middle class. Holden cannot take seriously the wealthy undertakers sermon about God being our buddy, for he feels that the mans status and di gnity are false. The expensive automobile, the financial donation to the school, for which the dormitory in his name is a quid pro quo, and his career of profiting on death all underscore Holdens mocking picture of adult society. Holden accuses the adult sermonizer of being too preoccupied with financial gain and his own status to be worthy of instructing others on religious or moral matters. This indictment could, of course, be applied to the large number of people who have merited it. This is a theme of Salingers that recurs, in various guises, throughout his works. Salingers characters that he seems most to admire are those who do not wish to appear to others any different than they are. Holdens description and reactions to the undertakers inflated amusing, but they sever a more profound purpose. They deepen our appreciation of Holdens serious concerns and sharpen our vision of his abundant empathy. We can see just what it is that is contributing to turning Holden into the champion and protector of young innocence.Fourthly, in Chapter seventeen, superficial social engagements are repellent to Holden, but he continually makes and keeps them. He cannot understand why he blurt out that he loves Sally; he almost convinces himself that it is true at the time, but in his heart he knows that it is not. His desire to be sincere is forever trapping him and leading him to be quit insincere. What is more, the conversation at the theater annoys him greatly because it seems to contain cultural involvement and great significance; in reality, as Holden knows, it is hollow and trivial. The audience at the theater is like a large portion of the audience at an open or concert; they go not to hear the music but to engage in a contest to see who can be the first to destroy an emotion-filled moment with premature applause. The lack of true warmth in social relationship disturbs Holden because he desires to love, to be an adult, to be a person who is committed emotionally and psychologically to another person.Although Holden has certainly told more than his share of lies, he has a very definite code of honor; he lives up to it and he expects other people to live up to theirs. When Holden faces up to Maurice, it is not for the sake of the money, as we have seen, Holden does not know the value of money, but because Holden cannot abide that kind of dishonesty. Salinger has taken great pains to prepare the reader f