Holden Caulfield's Recovery

The Catcher in the Rye is the American writer J. D. Salinger's first and his only published novel, which is one of the most controversial novels in American literary history. The novel makes the protagonist Holden Caulfield one of the most remarkable characters in American literature as well. At the same time, the complicated character created by Salinger has also aroused great interest and critics among the readers and in the academic world. By scrutinizing the whole passage of The Catcher in the Rye, we find that the protagonist Holden has very complicated characteristics of both rebellion and kindness, of mischievousness and benevolence, which seems to be a conflict in his growth as a child. By elaborating the unique characteristics of Holden through the employment of Holden's distinctive colloquial expressions and idioms and his behaviors in his daily life, this thesis aims to cast light on the factors of the society and the underlying factors which account for the formation of Holden's characteristics and his traumatic psychology. Lastly, the thesis proposes the tactics of Holden's psychological recovery from the trauma he has undergone during the process of his growth.This thesis is tended to consist of an introduction, four chapters and a conclusion.The opening is the introduction to the author J.D. Salinger and to the novel and states the literature review on the novel. Besides, this part also proposes the layout of the thesis.The first chapter is a brief overview of the "trauma" theory, which consists of the understanding of the trauma theory, the research of the previous and the contemporary development of the trauma theory, the application of the trauma theory as a critical method in the literary criticism as well as the interpretation of the novel by the means of the trauma theory.The second chapter makes an analysis of the traumatic symptoms of Holden Caulfield through his complicated characteristics.The third chapter concludes the main factors leading to the psychological trauma of Holden, which include the social factors and the internal factors of Holden himself during his growth.The last chapter analyzes the tactics of Holden's recovery from trauma through the elaboration of Holden's traumatic symptoms and the different measures Holden has taken to recover from the trauma he has encountered.The last part concludes that the protagonist recovers from his mental confusion and breakdown with the helpful psychological therapy of retelling and compromising. Therefore, the thesis tries to put forward measures for those traumatized people to awaken from the confused mental state on the foundation of the trauma theory.