Holden Caulfield is really rebellious. He never does well in school, he leaves his parents without telling them anything and he does not care about anyone or anything around him. All he does is complain how everyone is a phony; especially actors. Holden rebels against anything he thinks is fake or not true. For example, when he watched Ernie playing the piano, Holden thought Ernie was a phony because after he was done playing, everyone that watched him clapped for him because he played very well. He can also be rebellious by trying to order a drink at a club he goes to, but the waiters can tell he is not old enough to drink so he just orders a coke. When he was getting lonely at his hotel, he wanted someone to talk to, but no one was around usually, so he watched to couple across from his room that was dressing in drag. Especially him being a teenager, it is pretty easy to be rebellious. It is even easier if your parents are not around to tell him what or what not to do which, in his case, is why he can get away with all these shenanigans. The effects that his actions take on him are being lonely and depressed. It just makes society look even worse when someone is not acting like they should be.
The core motivation for Holden’s rebellion and uncaring attitude towards other people and events or objects, is that his parents are not around to discipline or teach him how to behave. What’s more, he has no respect for money, since his parents are wealthy and tend to easily move on from Holden’s mistakes (such as being expelled from Pencey Prep, Whooton, and Elkton Hills School). This motivates Holden to continue behaving badly, since he knows he will not be severely punished and his family has the money to right his mistakes. This concept is especially shown when Holden leaves early from Pencey, and spends all of his money within the first two days on taxi cabs, clubs, and a prostitute. In effect, Holden feels lonely and depressed, as it seems to him that his parents do not care about his wellbeing.
ReplyDeleteSince Holden has no respect for people, due to his parent’s absence of authority, he seems to see true talent as “phoniness”. Your example of Ernie’s playing is a great example of this. Holden does not see himself as accomplished, or being capable of accomplishment (a side effect of his depression), so he is jealous of real talent.