Holden Caulfield: Sort of a Christian
Many critics have remarked on the deeply religious character of J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye; the novel has been discussed, for example, in terms of Zen Buddhism and Gnosticism. Catcher’s treatment of Christianity, however, has received little attention. This omission is regrettable given...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2014
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| In: |
Religion and the arts
Year: 2014, Volume: 18, Issue: 5, Pages: 653-671 |
| Further subjects: | B
Salinger
The Catcher in the Rye
Holden Caulfield
Christianity
Catholic
religion
literature
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | Many critics have remarked on the deeply religious character of J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye; the novel has been discussed, for example, in terms of Zen Buddhism and Gnosticism. Catcher’s treatment of Christianity, however, has received little attention. This omission is regrettable given the characteristic acuity with which its narrator, Holden Caulfield, addresses Christian sources and themes. The aim of this article, therefore, is to consider in detail Holden’s conflicted attitude toward Christianity. It contends that despite Holden’s biting complaints against Christians (e.g., that many are hypocritical, cliquish, or ostentatious), he manifests an affinity for Christ and an attraction to Christian forms of religious life. This approach to the novel makes much of Holden’s allusion to the story, found in the Synoptic Gospels, of Legion, the Gerasene demoniac. Holden, like Legion, seems ostracized, masochistic, and obsessed by death, but in the novel’s climactic scene at the carousel, he finds healing. Furthermore, in the carousel scene especially, one can detect parallels between Catcher and the Divine Comedy. Just as Dante is guided from hell, through purgatory, to the beatific vision, so Holden is led (principally by his deceased brother Allie and his sister Phoebe) from misery, through purgation, to a moment of ineffable joy. The novel therefore may be read, this article contends, as a religious quest in which Holden comes to perceive the fundamental goodness of the world and its Creator. |
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| ISSN: | 1568-5292 |
| Contains: | In: Religion and the arts
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15685292-01805003 |