Imperfect Society in The Catcher in the Rye

In his novel The Catcher in the Rye, JtDt Salinger describes Holden Caulfield’s acceptance of the imperfect society to show that it is impossible to avoid undesirable aspects of the world, and that acceptance of society is crucial to survival. From the beginning, Holden claims to loathe phoniness, he comments on the facades rampant in the society, such as his boarding school’s advertisement. Holden states, “They advertise in about a thousand magazines, always showing some hotshot guy on a horse , as if all you ever did at Pencey was play polo”.

The school sells itself and tailors an ideal to their audience. Right after, Holden points out the irony, saying, “I never even once saw a horse anywhere near the place.” Through enticing advertisements, the school presents itself inaccurately to increase enrollment. Holden is annoyed that his school wears a facade to achieve superficial goals.

By detailing Holden‘s sentiments, Salinger makes it obvious that Holden dislikes insincerityi Despite loathing phoniness, Holden finds himself acknowledging that he cannot fit in without being insincere.

One example is when he parts ways with someone he refers to as Commander Blop. Even though he associates that person with a ridiculous nickname, he still says “glad to‘ve met you” to him, “somebody [he is] not at all glad” to meet. Then, Holden points out, “If you want to stay alive, you have to say that stuff, though,” referring to common expressions that people insincerely say. This shows that Holden accepts that he has to be phony in order to blend in.

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He is doing something that he does not want to do, but justifies his disingenuity, claiming that he is only trying to “stay alive,” or survive in society. He is accepting a phony aspect of society, even if he does not want to In addition to ingenuine phrases, Holden also exhibits acceptance of vulgar graffiti, one of society’s impurities.

He describes, “I saw another ‘Fuck you‘ on the wall. I tried to rub it off, but, [i]t wouldn‘t come off, Holden tries to cleanse the world by attempting to remove the graffiti but does not succeed. Then, he comments, “If you had a million years. you couldn’t rub out even halfthe ‘Fuck you’ signs in the world.” After failing to clean up the graffiti, he admits that a pure society is unrealistic, since there is too much vulgarity. He gives up and acknowledges that his effort is futile. Like Holden‘s awareness of his helplessness towards saying unauthentic phrases, he recognizes that profanity is simply pan of civilization. Although Holden despises the acts of vulgarity, he eventually accepts that society is flawed. Deep-rooted social norms and inerasable vulgar graffiti imply that Holden’s fantasy of being “the catcher in the rye” is impossible In a conversation with Phoebe, Holden states, “I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff.

I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all that‘s the only thing I‘d really like to be”. As someone who continuously supports innocence, Holden’s dream is to be able to save children from society’s impure reality. Thus, falling off of the cliff symbolizes losing childhood innocence and moving into adulthood, Essentially, Holden wants to maintain a pure society. His fantastical civilization is one without the adult world‘s phoniness and corruption Holden’s goal is only an ideal, though, because it is impossible to purify the entire world, given the inevitability of insincere phrases or vulgar graffiti, Holden’s resistance of impurity causes him nothing but misery, so he needs to learn to participate humbly in society When Holden refuses to accept imperfections, he destroys himself in the process. He flunks out of schools and distances himself from others because he views the institution and other people as nothing but phonies.

Also, in his fight with Maurice, Holden persistently criticizes Maurice’s actions rather than prevent himself from getting punched He refuses to back down from his beliefs, even if it means harming himself While his choice might seem righteous, he is threatening his life, Thus, Mrr Antolini, one of Holden‘s previous teachers, shares a quote from William Stekel that states, “The immature man, wants to die nobly for a cause, while the, , . mature man. . . wants to live humbly for one”. The immature man is unwilling to live in a flawed world. He would waste his whole life resisting society, such as tail out of school or hurt himself for a cause in a one- sided fight. In contrast, the mature man is someone who continues to live alongside a flawed world. He would say polite phrases to “stay alive” and not spend years rubbing off graffiti Holden, torn between the two ends of the spectrum, is told to be mature and participate humbly in the world.

The Stekel quote encapsulates the idea that one needs to accept the society to survive It criticizes Holden for wearing himself to death with the unrealistic, unsustainable cause of rejecting the world’s imperfections Piecing the Stekel quote and Holden’s unachievable fantasy together, Salinger implies that people must accept society’s corrupt aspects instead of waste their lives trying to resist them. Holden undergoes situations that require him to play along with insincere social norms, as well as accept that the world has inescapable flawst His experiences show that society‘s conditioning is inevitable. There are facets of civilization that are impossible to alter, so the only opLion is acceptance. By describing Holden’s character development, Salinger suggests that people should try to live in harmony with the world instead of wrestle endlessly with its imperfections.