Myth And Religion: Salinger 's Self - Pursuit Of "Young Wise Man"

This paper mainly discusses self-quest of the young wise men image in J.D Salinger’s later fiction.Myth can usually be a manifestation of religion, so Archetypal Criticism Theory is an important clue of this article. We can easily find repeated mythological element in Salinger’s works:the hero experienced similar sense of alienation in society and started their journey about self-quest. They all experienced fall, darkness and enlightenment. These heroes’mental state is a special product of the social and historical surroundings, and their journey can also be found in other myths in different culture and nation. So Salinger’s hero is the archetypal hero and their journey is a kind of archetypal journey. Also, Salinger’s protagonist are always teenagers, and these " child prototype contains profound meaning and reflects the author’s unique aesthetic pursuit.This paper mainly analyzes three important heroes’complete journey of self-quest, getting an important conclusion that religion has different effect in the enlightenment session of the journey, from which we can summed up that Salinger’s view of religion is a kind of mix of Eastern religion and other related religion. His view of religion is the foundation of his archetypal journey and it can apply to other characters’actions and choices in Salinger’s works, and the commonality in this circular pattern as well applies to other literature works in different historical periods, which means the eternal value of Salinger’s works.