I've been thinking a lot about the assignment Mr. Mitchell gave us about writing a reflective response paper in Holden's voice responding to Portrait. It's a really interesting assignment but I think it would be really difficult because of the nature and style of the book. The closest thing the readers get to Holden's actual writing is the note he leaves to Phoebe and leaves in her school, and even then we get very little about how he actually writes.
Throughout the entire book it's like he's speaking to the readers directly, with a lot of asides to the audience and in general very casual. I wish Salinger included Holden's essay about Allie's glove or something for any reference on what academic writing would sound like. For me, there's a huge difference in the way I would write an assignment and the way I would tell someone a story.
Anyway, to switch topics, at the end of class we were talking about whether or not Holden really comes of age in the book and I don't think he does. He slowly notices changing is inevitable and takes place slowly over time and decides to stop resisting for the sake of the people he cares about. People like Mr. Antolini told him exactly what he should have needed to hear but he spends most of the conversation thinking about how much his head hurts and not really absorbing the message.
The events of the book are really just a low point in Holden's life and the end of the book is just coming out of a slump. With a little more exposition it wouldn't really seem like a coming of age novel as much in my opinion. I'm curious what other people think though.
I think this was a coming-of-age novel. Holden's acceptance is growth is what is very significant to me when evaluating this. Although things like growing physically and acquiring knowledge are important, they are more passive things. I think that the kind of attitude shift that we see with Holden is what is more significant with the coming-of-age process. I'd be curious to hear back from Holden a week after this novel took place -- I think that would really confirm or deny the lasting impact of these events.
ReplyDeleteI sort of agree with you in that he doesn't come of age, but disagree in that he's coming of age. He is no way at the end of the journey and probably never will be. I imagine that when Holden is a bit older, and out of the institution, he might approach like in a more artistic way... like rather than ivy leagues and conformist schools, he'll choose some unknown school in the middle of nowhere. I think the book ends on a relatively good note considering the events leading up to it. He's getting help instead of isolating himself. This isn't the best ending, but it's good enough for Holden.
ReplyDeleteI agree that, at the end of Catcher, when Holden is watching Phoebe ride the carousel round and round, it seems like a movie ending. But they way the books basically ends with only a few text after disappoints me. It seems as though Salinger could have driven Holden's coming of age moment home a little more. But that's just my opinion.
ReplyDeleteIt might be too neat to decisively conclude that Holden has in fact come of age by the end of the novel (in part because it would mean reading the whole narration as produced by this "adult" Holden, when in fact we can feel him getting riled up all over again as he launches into these rants--the guy telling the story is still very much the same guy going through it the first time). And Holden's stated indecisiveness about whether or not he actually will "apply himself" when he goes back to school serves to underline this point.
ReplyDeleteBut maybe we can see him as having turned in an important and positive direction? He sees that his impulsive behavior is influencing Phoebe, and this leads him to take responsibility, to talk to *her* in the guise of the "adult" who implores her not to be "crazy" and to "go back to school." But these things don't necessarily happen all at once. We might be witnessing a significant epiphany at the end of the novel, as Holden watches Phoebe circle around on the carousel, but (with Joyce in mind) we might view that as one in an anticipated series of such epiphanies. Significant, but not decisive.