The Characterization Of Holden In The Catcher In The Rye

The Catcher in the Rye, the only novel ever written by Jerome David Salinger, is widely acknowledged as a representative of American initiation story in the 20th century. Since its publication in 1951, it has won continuous critical attention and admiration. The novel portrays an adolescent Holden Caulfield who is trapped in identity crisis, and describes vividly the process of his self-searching journey. In so doing, Salinger reveals the universal spiritual crisis among the adolescents in postwar America. It should be noted that Salinger's initiation novel has taken on different characteristics from its literary predecessors, most probably due to the fact that it is set in a time when World War II had exerted negative effect upon human life. Salinger shows more interest in probing into the psychological growth of his character.The thesis makes a detailed analysis of Holden's identity crisis and his awkward journey of searching for self-identity from the perspective of Erikson's theory about the forming of adolescents'identity. It first traces the sources of the identity crisis. Then it proceeds to analyze the concrete identity crisis faced by the protagonist Holden, which is reflected in the characterization of character's language, psychology and point-of-view. And the characterization fully displays his identity crisis of struggling against the adulthood. At last, the quest for self-identity ends with failure embodied in the characterization of an anti-hero. The initiation of Holden varies from other classic initiation stories. Holden is still tortured by his identity crisis after a three-day wandering. On one hand he ceases wandering and achieves maturity both mentally and physically. On the other hand, he does not make compromise with the cruel reality but breaks down in spirit and becomes all the more isolated. He is then sent to a mental hospital afflicted with spiritual torture. The paper concludes that it is the combined force of the hypocrisy of social reality and the disharmony of family that eventually leads to Holden's identity plight and his failed search for self-identity. More importantly, Holden's experience not only represents adolescents'search for self-identity in the 1950s, but also reflects the commonly existed issue of quest for identity of young people in different countries and different period.