Catcher In The Rye Romanticism

Colin Geraghty
Becker
English 11
May 25th, 2017
Holden on for Dear Life Realism and Romanticism have a history of conflict in American History, whether it be stopping Gatsby from finding his one true love, Tom Sawyer and his romantic conflictions to Huck, these opposite ideals never fail to become themes of our stories. In J.D Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye the protagonist seems to be taking a different approach and far more extreme in his romantic beliefs than any of our other analyzed characters. Holden is a small Romantic fish swimming in a sea of Realist sharks. He is a fearful piece of prey running from his predators, trying to suck all of the romanticism, childhood, and happiness out of him. On the other hand, in Huckleberry Finn,
Romanticism is a movement beginning in the 18th century and still topical today that focuses on the individuality and subjectivity of people and the lives they live and fights against conformity. Holden is a character that portrays romanticism due to his widespread discontent for the social norm and also his fights against conformity. However, looking deeper, Holden just seems lost. He wants to fit in, he wants to fulfill goals that he has, he just doesn’t have the proper motivation and qualities to fit into the social and educational expectations of the realistic world around him. Holden seems to handle his uncomfortableness in this world by seeing himself as a victim of the world himself, and rather than fighting to change is views and position, he just continuously expresses his discontent. . As he talks to Mr. Spencer about how life is a game, he says “If you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then it's a game, all right--I'll admit that. But if you get on the other side, where there aren't any hot-shots, then what's a game about it? Nothing. No game” (Sallinger 11). This shows that Holden feels like he’s almost stuck on the wrong side of life and how he continually attempts to find his way in a world in which he feels he doesn’t belong. As the novel progresses, however, we begin to see that Holden’s self-alienation may be his way of creating a wall, a wall saving himself and his individuality, from the horrors of maturity. Ironically, Holden uses his alienation to divert from having to conduct personal interactions with the people around him, by portraying arrogance and seeing himself as too good for these types of interaction. However, the true motive behind using his alienation is due to his inability to interact with people on personal levels and the awkwardness that he feels when trying to fit into the social