Moderation in Portraying Holden and Creon

Youtube sensation CollegeHumor once posted a video called “Everything That Will Kill You“. From A to Z,” which named one of the causes of death as “Z: Zealotry”, the fanatical and uncompromising pursuit of ideals CollegeHumor’s assertion of the consequences of stubbornness and of the importance of moderation is supported by both Salinger’s portrayal of Holden from Catcher in ME and Sophocles’s portrayal of Creon in Antigone. The rigidness and extremity of the beliefs held by Holden and Creon, which ultimately lead to their misfortune, illustrate the importance of embracing moderation in life.

Salinger uses Holden’s innate stubbornness to depict that a refusal to compromise can result in calamity, whereas an accepting attitude helps avoid such catastrophe. While Holden talks to Phoebe in her room, he tells her a story about James Castle, “a skinny little weak-looking guy, with wrists about as big as pencils and had on this turtleneck sweater [Holden] had lent him, Instead of taking back what he said [to Stabile and his friends], he jumped out the window”.

James Castle’s refusal to weaken his resolve for an unimportant cause and his resulting death convey the dreadful implications that emerge from holding a rigid standpoint The simile “wrists about as big as pencils” illustrates the physical weakness of James Castle, further emphasizing the recklessness of James Castle’s stubbornness, as he has no chance of winning a physical confrontation against Stabile and his six friends, In addition, Salinger uses Holden’s turtleneck sweater, worn by James Castle, to suggest that James Castle is a likely representation of Holden and is a precursor to Holden‘s fate if Holden continues to be stubborn, Luckily for Holden, this is not the case, When Holden sits on the bench watching Phoebe on the carousel, he mentions how his “hunting hat really gave [him] quite a lot of protection, in a way, but [he] got soaked anyway, [He] didn’t care, though”.

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That Holden is indifferent when the rain passes through his red hunting hat, a symbol of childhood innocence and purity, alludes to the idea that Holden is finally able to accept change, and escape the fate of James Castle. Holden’s ability to escape the fate of James Castle demonstrates the importance of embracing moderation as a means to avoid disasteri Similarly, Creon can be used to illustrate the inevitable downfall that can occur because of an unwillingness to change one‘s perspective During a conversation between Creon and Haemon, Haemon mentions various logical points as to why Antigone should not be executed, but Creon responds that “should [they] that are [his] age learn wisdom/ from young men such as [Haemon] is?” Instead of listening to what Haemon has to say, Creon proclaims that he is correct solely because he is older and therefore wiser and should not “learn wisdom,” turning a blind eye to what is objectively right.

Creon similarly refuses to listen to Teiresias, the blind disciple, declaring that “the whole breed of prophets certainly loves money”. Creon uses diction such as “loves money” to imply that Teiresias is being bribed, which allows Creon to close his mind to other suggestions. Consequently, Creon’s life falls apart due to his uncontrollable stubbornness, Unlike Holden, who eventually concedes and becomes more flexible in his beliefs, Creon tenaciously holds on to his beliefs until it is too late, thus resulting in the death of all his loved ones around him Sophocles uses Creon’s resistance towards certain ideas and eventual downfall in order to express the importance of holding a flexible viewpoints Both Holden‘s and Creon‘s refusal to change their ideals result in disaster.

However, while Creon remained stubborn until it was far too late, Holden was able to change his perspective in time and avoid disaster. Holden and Creon are clear examples that mirror what happens in the real world: those who embrace moderation succeed, whereas those who do not, fails Moderation, which sometimes might require extensive change in one‘s beliefs, is essential to living a successful life. “M: Moderation” wasn’t in CollegeHumor’s “Everything that Will Kill You” for a reason Moderation may be “the spice of life”, but thank god it‘s not a Carolina Reaper pepper.