Helen Frangedis describes Holden as a troubled youth。 So does Zhen Zhen。 In their eyes, Holden is an anti-hero, a troubled hero。 While Han Xiaomei regards Holden as a spokesman for the alienated American youth whose transition of adolescent is really painful。 In The Psychological Structure of The Catcher in the Rye, Bryan mentions that a fair number of critics take Holden as a psychopath, “The narrative, after all, was written in a mental hospital with Holden under the care of a ‘psychoanalyst guy’。” (1974)
Then what causes Holden’s growing pain on earth? Some scholars have done researches on the factors shaping Holden’s negative personality。 Yuan Xuesheng believes that the society plays an extremely important role in shaping Holden’s negative personality。 After World War II, America had become a society filled with hypocrisy and vulgarity, disorder and ugliness。 As an adolescent living in such a complex cultural environment, Holden refuses to accept the realities and wants to escape from where he lives。 So Yuan believes that Holden’s disgust for the society embodies his strong desire of returning to the beautiful nature which has no room for the phonies or the deceivers。 Contrary to the adult world, the child world means innocence, sincerity and beauty。 So Yuan also believes that Holden is really eager to go back to his childhood。 In addition, Danielle M。 Roemer tells his understanding of Holden’s dream—being a catcher in the rye, “He places himself in the transcendent role of the catcher in the rye。 Here, nature is grotesque but miniature。 This is the domain of the child and other innocents—Phoebe, Ernest Morrow’s mother, the ducks in Central Park 。” (1992:8) Holden wants to be the catcher in the rye because he regards children as representatives of innocence and hopes to protect them from being pulled into the adult world。 In the depth of Holden’s heart, though he knows that he can no longer go back to his childhood, he still intensively dreams to alienate from the indecent and stay along with the innocent only。
1。3 The Structure of the Paper
From above, we can find that all of the scholars have presented their points of view clearly with reasonable supporting details。 In addition, we know that there are many aspects we can choose to analyze this novel。 Although many researches have done on the protagonist Holden, there are still some aspects which have not been covered and need deeper analysis。 Therefore, this paper aims to explore Holden’s rebellion from three aspects。 And the paper will be pided into five parts。
Chapter One is an introduction to the paper, including the background information of the writer and this novel, providing researches about the novel both at home and abroad, and listing the structure of the paper。来*自~优|尔^论:文+网www.youerw.com +QQ752018766*
In Chapter Two, we will discuss the reasons for Holden’s rebellion, including family, school and social factors。
After knowing the causes of his resistance, we will further analyze Holden’s ways of resistance in Chapter Three。 There are three subsections in this Chapter。 The first subsection talks about Holden’s lies。 In the second subsection, it concentrates on his alienation。 The last subsection focuses on Holden’s unconventional behavior。
Then we will discuss the significance and the results of Holden’s rebellion in Chapter Four。
Chapter Five summarizes the essay。 Furthermore, it also analyses the value of this research and the shortcomings of the paper。