Pursuit of Happiness
“Desperation is the raw material of drastic change. Only those who can leave behind everything they have ever believed in can hope to escape. ”
In J.D. Salinger’s “Slight Rebellion Off Madison”, the plight of Holden expresses a theme of deviance and the individual’s incompatibility with the predestined life he’s been set up for. He is not passionate about his education and feels school is not where he’s supposed to be. His feelings bubbling up during his date in the city, shows just how strongly he feels about this. He relates to his date, Sally,
“Boy, I hate school! You oughta go to a boy’s school sometime. All you do study, and make believe you give a damn if the football team wins, and talk about girls and clothes and liquor, and-”
Holden does not find the bland conversations and seemingly pointlessness of going to school. On one hand, school and traditional paths to becoming an established adult aren’t for everyone. There is some merit to his complaints about his school life and the discomfort he feels. In contrast, his solution- running away, is definitely not one that shows his smarts or that he is thinking logically. We find that Holden’s dissatisfaction with his life has completely taken over his thoughts. He drunkenly relates to Carl of how his mental health has been declining because of his unhappiness. In an effort to find understanding he says, “Supposing you were fed up. Supposing you were going stark staring mad.”
Looking at the core of his plight, Holden is seeking a place where he doesn’t have to go through unnecessary conversations and pursue something he was actually passionate about. Rather than viewing him as a lazy, ungrateful and privileged youth, some critics see more than the face value of him as a character.
“This Holden may be naïve, but he is not shallow. There is a moral seriousness to the choices he makes and in his constant defense of the vulnerable. Holden’s description of all that he dislikes as phony is not, Salinger shows, groundless, and when Holden asks Sally to run away from him, he is desperately hoping to have someone beside him in a world he can’t fit himself into.”(Mills)
Salinger, upon the success of his works, became a recluse and moved to live away from society. He tried to isolate himself from the media and most people. Perhaps Holden as a character was a way for Salinger to express his emotions. Based off sentiments he has related in interviews, journalists think,
“He seemed to be fulfilling Holden’s desire to build himself “a little cabin somewhere with the dough I made and live there for the rest of my life,” away from “any goddam stupid conversation with anybody.” ” (Mcgrath)
Salinger used his writings as an outlet for his frustrations living in society, thus creating the feel of incongruence and a need for self actualization.
Works Cited
“J.D. Salinger.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 22 Jan. 2020, www.biography.com/writer/jd-salinger.
Mcgrath, Charles. “J. D. Salinger, Literary Recluse, Dies at 91.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 28 Jan. 2010, www.nytimes.com/2010/01/29/books/29salinger.html.
Mills, Nicolaus. “Holden Caulfield's Christmas Prequel to 'Catcher in the Rye'.” The Daily Beast, The Daily Beast Company, 25 Dec. 2016, www.thedailybeast.com/holden-caulfields-christmas-prequel-to-catcher-in-the-rye.
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