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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
HE Wei
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DOI:10.17265/1539-8072/2017.01.010
Sichuan University of Arts and Science, Dazhou, China
Holden Caulfield, hero of the novel The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, occupied the center of many critics after its publication. Holden, as a sixteen-year-old teenager, is full of confusions on the threshold of adult world, and really needs his parents and the society’s guidance but nowhere can he get it; therefore, he gets lost on the threshold of adult world. This thesis tries to analyze Holden Caulfield’s spiritual dilemma based on the theory of American Character developed by David Riesman. America turned into an “other-directed” society after the World War II, which highly advocated personal achievements. Everyone at that time was deeply influenced by that social character. Holden failed to acquire the social character in “other-directed” society in his childhood; consequently, he became the outcast of his society, and stuck in the spiritual dilemma with no way to get out.
The Cather in the Rye, other-directed society, Gaze, spiritual dilemma
Riesman, D., Glazer, N., & Denny, R. (1966). The lonely crowd—A study of the changing American character (Abridged edition with a new foreword). America: Yale University Press.
Rosen, G. (1990). A retrospective look at The Catcher in the Rye. America Quarterly, 5(Winter 1977), 547-562. In J. Salzberg (Ed.), Critical essays on Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: G.K. Hall.
Rowe, J. (1991). Holden Caulfield and American protest. In J. Salzmann (Ed.), New essays on The Catcher in the Rye. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Salinger, J. D. (2008). The catcher in the rye. Nanjing: Yiling Press.