Open AccessDisillusionment of Caulfield’s Self-salvation in The Cather in the Rye
Author(s) -
Wei He
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
theory and practice in language studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2053-0692
pISSN - 1799-2591
DOI - 10.17507/tpls.0806.13
Subject(s) - nobody , alienation , ideal (ethics) , hero , sociology , order (exchange) , law , criminology , environmental ethics , philosophy , political science , art , literature , finance , computer science , economics , operating system
Holden Caulfield, hero of The Catcher in the rye, caught in spiritual crisis before getting into adult world. After leaving his boarding school, he chooses to wander in New York City, tries to find someone to be connected in order to save him from alienation and depression. However, the modern science expels “God”, declaring the death of “Men”, together with the disappearance of Free Will. Therefore, no matter how hard Caulfield want to escape his fate, he can not find a place in his society. Then he turns to ideal innocent children world, wishing to be their protector, only to find that he can not prevent the growth of live. Watching his sister Phoebe and other children in the carrousel, Caulfield finally realizes that growing is inevitable, and nobody has the ability to stop the passage of life.