“I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing I’d really like to be. I know it’s crazy” (Salinger 104). The field of rye is a safe place where children play. However, the field leads to a cliff, and the catcher is there to prevent their fall. In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye Holden Caulfield believes the adult world is a cynical place. He yearns to be the ‘catcher in the rye,’ in order to save children from the cliff that eventually leads to adulthood and a world filled with angst, pessimism, and cynicism. In The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger uses repetition, colloquialism, the passive voice, and arrangement to support his argument that the world is a cynical place.
First, Salinger uses repetition to protect Holden from the reality that surrounds him. The word ‘phony’ appears in the novel 35 times. This word is used to describe the world’s superficiality, hypocrisy, and shallowness, “…I can usually even read one of those dumb stories in a magazine without puking. You know. One of those stories with a lot of phony, lean-jawed guys named David in it, and a lot of phony girls named Linda or Marcia that are always lighting all the goddam Davids’ pipes for them” (Salinger 34). Instead of admitting to himself that the real world frightens him, Holden uses ‘phoniness’ to create a superficial reality where the world is ingenuine. The use of ‘phony’ helps the reader to feel as though the world is cruel and evil by revealing the supposed shallowness of it. Salinger makes Holden’s disillusionment blatantly obvious and causes the reader to question the reliability of Holden’s perspective:
The ability for the audience to relate to Holden slowly deteriorates as the book goes on. One can understand the frustration of forgetting the fencing equipment more than the inability to compose oneself in a museum. The reality given by Holden is what pushes the audience away. The use of words such as ‘phony’ give off clear signs of self-denial. (Dewey 29)
Holden provides accounts of events that are inconsistent. As a result, the reader doubts his explanations. He begins to lose credibility with the reader. The more fragile he becomes, the more the reader understands not to take his word as fact. Holden’s pessimistic outlook is illustrated through the repetition of the word ‘phony.’ Salinger uses this word to highlight the cruelness and cynicism of the world Holden hides himself from.
Salinger also repeats the phrase ‘sort of’ to show Holden’s insecurity. The phrase ‘sort of’ appears 179 times in the novel. Holden adds the phrase when describing minor details, “She was sort of muckle-mouthed. I mean when she was talking and she got excited about something, her mouth sort of went in about fifty directions, her lips and all” (Salinger 48). Holden will also add the phrase when describing something major, “When I was coming out of the can, right before I got to the door, I sort of passed out. I was lucky, though. I mean I could have killed myself when I hit the floor, but all I did was sort of land on my side” (Salinger 122). The use of ‘sort of’ makes Holden seem unsure of what he is thinking. It is as though he is constantly trying to downplay the significance of his experiences. His desire for human contact obviously matters to him, but he constantly tries to pretend that it doesn’t. Over time, the reader sees through this charade and begins to sense that it is all an act. Holden is a fraud. While it may be appropriate to describe someone’s mouth with ‘sort of,’ using ‘sort of’ to describe losing consciousness is inappropriately understated. The reader sees through the phrase and notices that the narrator is playing it off as a minor detail. Salinger uses phrases like this to highlight Holden’s lack of confidence. Mabel Gelter writes, “Throughout the novel, Salinger shows Holden to be exposed and vulnerable time and time again. It is truly a pathetic picture, a teenager with no self-confidence and no direction who can find no place for himself in the world” (Gelter). Holden’s confidence is nonexistent because of the world around him. The traumatic experiences in his childhood followed by a lengthy period of loneliness stripped away his confidence. Salinger brilliantly emphasizes Holden’s insecurity and hints at why he is so fragile by highlighting traumatic and lonely experiences from his past. By repeating ‘phony’ and ‘sort of,’ Salinger is able to show Holden’s hiding from the true reality and incapability of expressing with confidence. The hostility and cynicism of the world are to blame for Holden’s fragile state.
Next, Salinger uses colloquialism to help the reader relate to Holden and his struggles in the cynical world around him. When describing things, Holden often uses profanity and sees things in a pessimistic light. “He was finished cutting his damn toenails. So he got up from the bed, in just his damn shorts and all, and started getting very damn playful” (Salinger 27). In a situation where one roommate is angry at another, Holden feels the need to add profanity. Through profanity, the casual setting between narrator and reader is set. The profanity provides a relaxed environment where the reader can relate to Holden like a friend. This helps the reader empathize with Holden in his fragile states and rejoice with him towards the end of the novel. Author Clifford Mills explains how Salinger’s word choice highlights Holden’s insecurities:
His speech is repetitious, filled with exaggerations and “realistic” expressions, including profanities. This works to lessen the distance between narrator and audience, fostering the illusion that one knows Holden personally. In expanding this knowing, one is allowed to see the inconsistencies among what Holden is thinking, what he is feeling, and what he is saying to others, culminating in an ability to intuit the disparity between what he is telling and what he is not. (Mills 46)
Through colloquialism, the reader relates to Holden personally. This personal relationship gives the reader a better idea of what Holden is feeling. Knowing how Holden feels is extremely important when interpreting the novel. When Holden feels happy, his word choice is light and easygoing. When Holden feels sad, dark and at times crude words are used.
Because of Salinger’s use of profanity, the reader sees a pessimistic outlook from Holden when describing his surroundings. “There was hardly anybody in the lobby anymore. Even all the whory-looking blondes weren’t around anymore, and all of a sudden I felt like getting the hell out of the place. It was too depressing” (Salinger 50). When describing the lobby, Holden is depressed. He has been seeking human contact and has been unsuccessful. He is constantly searching for someone to talk to, or have a relationship with. Deep down, Holden fears loneliness, and the empty lobby triggers this fear. The sentence “It was too depressing” is misleading. The reader knows that Holden is the depressed one, and his depression carries over to his reality. When he says he needs to ‘get the hell out of the place,’ this really illustrates his urgency to leave the frightening scene. Holden fails to recognize or appreciate that his depressive outlook on his surroundings will follow him wherever he goes. The constant use of profane language can be explained by Holden’s constant depressive state. “Holden Caulfield’s depression is caused by his scorn for the false values he sees in adult life and his self-disgust about being unable to live up to the vision that he has for humanity” (Hassan). The scorn and disgust Holden feels is let out by profanity. Through colloquialism, Salinger highlights the depression and sadness of Holden and helps the reader understand Holden’s frustrations. The negativity behind his use of profane language gives light to the cynicism of the world that influences Holden’s mood.
In addition to repetition and colloquialism, Salinger also uses passive voice to bring out the disillusionment of Holden in his effort to distance himself from reality. When describing the first scene in the book, the passive voice is used. “…I was standing way the hell up on top of Thomsen Hill…” (Salinger 3). He could have said ‘I stood on top of Thomsen Hill,’ but the passive voice provides a distance from reality that Holden needs. Salinger uses the passive voice consistently throughout the book. In every use of the passive voice, the objective is the same: to distance Holden from his struggle to be a part of the adult world. Author and teacher John Green said, “I mean, the whole reason that writing teachers tell you not to use the passive voice is because it creates distance, whereas active verbs feel immediate and real. But Holden needs to create distance between himself and the reality of his pain” (Green). There are many things in reality that Holden does not want to face. He is not ready to leave Pencey Prep, but never acknowledges it. He is unsatisfied with the relationships he has with Jane, Sally, and Phoebe. The passive voice helps this reality seem out of grasp for not only Holden but for the reader as well. In creating the distance from rreality Holden tries to convince himself that everything is fine. In actuality, the cruel and hostile world has thrown him to the curb. Salinger is successfully depicts the world as an evil place by ruining the confidence of a teenager and stripping him of his grip on reality.
The passive voice is used in situations where one would expect the active voice. For example, “The funny thing is, though, I was sort of thinking of something else while I shot the bull. I live in New York, and I was thinking about the lagoon in Central Park, down near Central Park South. I was wondering if it would be frozen over when I got home, and if it was, where did the ducks go” (Salinger 9). The natural instinct for a writer would be to use ‘wondered’ instead of ‘was wondering,’ but Salinger uses the passive voice intentionally in order to create distance between Holden and his surroundings. The use of ‘was wondering’ is helpful in isolating Holden’s thoughts from the world. There are many parts of society that Holden wants to separate from. He is especially vocal in his animosity towards the educational system. “To him, institutional education is nothing more than teaching kids how to be phony, how to make money, how to live the kind of lifestyle where they go into an office all day and play golf all weekend” (Shmoop Editorial Team). Holden sees the world around him as corrupt, phony, and shallow. When he tries to escape from the phony educational system, he begins to use the passive voice. The separation of reality from Holden’s thoughts are shown through Salinger’s use of the passive voice. It is the cruel and cynical world to blame for Holden’s desperate escape from reality.
Finally, the arrangement in The Catcher in the Rye provides many opportunities for the reader to better understand how the cynical world has tormented Holden. A commonly used device that relates to arrangement is the anecdote. This is a short story used to describe something. Throughout the novel, anecdotes interrupt the story, but are absolutely essential to the development of the characters. When describing his thoughts on calling someone late at night, Holden tells a short anecdote about a summer day with Jane Gallagher:
Anyway, old Jane wouldn’t answer him when he asked if she knew where the cigarettes were. So he asked her again, but she wouldn’t answer him. She didn’t even look up from the game. Finally the guy went inside the house. When he did, I asked Jane what the hell was going on. She wouldn’t even answer me…a tear plopped down on the checkerboard….I went over and made her made her move over on the glider so that I could sit next to her—I practically sat down in her lap, as a matter fact. Then she started to cry, and the next thing I knew, I was kissing her all over—anywhere—her eyes, her nose, her forehead, her eyebrows and all, her ears—her whole face except her mouth and all (Salinger 49).
This anecdote reveals to the reader that Jane was not simply a friend, which Holden had suggested before. Essential character development would be lost without anecdotes. Jane would still just be a friend, and Holden would seem less charismatic without the single anecdote on page 49. The surplus of anecdotes scattered throughout the novel give life to the emotions Holden is feeling and provide helpful insight to many of his past experiences with the characters in the novel.
While an important aspect of the anecdotes is to provide character development and context, Salinger also uses them to highlight the idolization and admiration Holden gives to the past. While explaining something that is relevant to the progression of the plot, Salinger often interrupts the flow and makes Holden reminisce the past, “‘C’mon answer me,’ I said. ‘One thing I like a lot, or one thing I just like?’ ‘You like a lot.’ ‘All right,’ I said. But the trouble was, I couldn’t concentrate. About all I could think of were those two nuns that went around collecting dough in those beatup old straw baskets….And this boy I knew at Elkton Hills” (Salinger 102).
Holden is unable to focus on the present or the future, so he hides in the past. His thoughts about Jane, Sally, or friends from Elkton Hills prevent Holden from seeing reality. Salinger arranges his writing to highlight Holden’s inability to see the cruel and unaccepting world around him.
Salinger’s use of repetition, colloquialism, the passive voice, and arrangement in the form of insightful anecdotes throughout The Catcher in the Rye support his argument that the world is a cynical place. Repetitive phrases like ‘phony’ and ‘sort of’ are Holden’s way of disguising the fact that he is scared of the real world. Colloquialism serves two compelling purposes. While it allows the reader to empathize with Holden, it also helps the reader to understand that he is not always truthful. The passive voice is used to distance Holden from his impending entrance into adulthood. Salinger’s arrangement and the various anecdotes provide character development and highlight Holden’s idolization of the past. Is the real world as cynical as Salinger makes it out to be, or has Holden’s depression clouded the innocence in life?
Works Cited
- Dewey, Joseph. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger. Salem Press, 2012.
- Gelter, Mabel, “The Best Notes: The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger.” http://thebestnotes.com/booknotes/Catcher_In_The_Rye/Catcher_In_The_Rye01.html
- Green, John, director. Language, Voice, and Holden Caulfield: The Catcher In the Rye Part 1. YouTube, YouTube, 10 Jan. 2013, www.youtube.comwatchv=R66eQLLOins.
- Hassan, Ihab. “Holden Caulfield Is Depressed by the World and by His Own Failings.”
- Depression in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, edited by Dedria Bryfonski, Greenhaven Press, 2009, pp. 68–79.
- Mills, Clifford. “A Critical Perspective on the Writings of J.D. Salinger.” J.D. Salinger, edited by Harold Bloom, Chelsea House Publishing, 2002, pp. 45-65.
- Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown, 1951. Print.
- Shmoop Editorial Team. “The Catcher in the Rye Tone.” Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 18 Nov. 2018.