霍爾頓的悲劇命運

Holden Caulfield tragic life

摘 要：《麥田守望者》是杰羅姆·戴維·賽林格發表于1951年的唯一的一部長篇小說。該小說也是一部頗具爭議的作品，曾經成為大中學里最為人們傳讀但又多次受到禁止的小說。本篇文章從社會，家庭和性格三方面分析導致霍爾頓悲劇命運的原因，并得出結論：他的悲劇命運是社會，家庭和性格三方面的沖突所導致的結果。

ABSTRACT：The Catcher in the Rye is Jerome David Salinger’s first single novel published in 1951. This thesis attempts to analyze the reasons of Holden’s tragic life from three aspects: social influence， family environment and his personal character and comes to the conclusion: Holden’s tragic life is caused by the conflicts of society， family and character.

關鍵詞：悲劇 社會 家庭 性格

Key words: TragicSociety Family Character

作者簡介：

于晨穎(1984- )，女，河北邯鄲人，河北司法警官職業學院基礎教育部，助教。

邢 娜（1981- ），女，河北保定人，河北司法警官職業學院基礎教育部，助教。

Introduction

The hero in Salinger’s novel， Holden Caulfield， a 16-year-old boy， who has a rich family and studies in famous schools， should have had a happy childhood and grown up healthily. However， he has been kicked out of four schools. He cannot accept the phony adult world and is ultimately driven crazy by worldly life and ends in the mental hospital. Holden’s life is tragic.

I Social problems made Holden cannot grow up healthily

Holden should have a promising future. However， he doesn’t apply for himself in the studies and does not try to have a secure job with high status in the future as his father hopes him to be. He has been kicked out of four schools. Holden thinks every teacher is phony and just pretends to be helpful to students. This is sarcasm to education. From Holden’s experience and criticism， one can see that education in school， which should have helped him grow up healthily， is incapable of facilitating Holden to adapt to the mature society. Holden is the sacrifice of the unsuccessful education.

After World War II， America became wealthier. Although material civilization is highly developed， the inner-worlds of American people are empty. Holden is a young， affluent teenager in 1950’s America who resents materialism. As a boy who wants to retain a child’s innocence and sincerity， he cannot adapt himself to the material society.

II His indifferent family decides Holden’s rebel character.

In one’s growing-up period， family is very import to form child’s character. Child can get warm and satisfaction easily if he grows up in a family full of love and understanding. However， child will feel void and distrustful if he lacks of family warm and love. Holden can get all he wants from his parents except moral requirement. His parents are absent when Holden appears in the whole novel and the only meeting of them is in a dark place.

Holden is the second eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. Caulfield. Mr. Caulfield is a lawyer. His wife works as a homemaker.Actually， Holden has an exceptional attitude toward his parents. The term “nice” is an extremely broad term Holden uses to characterize his parents. He does not want to disrespect them， yet he does not feel right praising them either. He wants to please them， but he accomplishes nothing and thus disappoints them.

III Personal character leads to Holden’s tragic ending.

Holden’s lack of ability to communicate and deal with people is his worst problem. Throughout the novel one can see how hard it is for Holden to admit to himself that he likes someone or how hard it is for him to have a normal conversation. Holden thinks in a particular fantastical way about almost everyone and everything. This unusual view upon the world actually restrains Holden rather than helps him throughout the story. By his fantastical view， his own thought and actions， Holden is hurting himself.

Holden has quite an uncommon way of loving people. Many times throughout the book， Holden begins having strong feelings for a particular person for no reason at all. This made him confuses seriously. He seems to have great problems with his life. The biggest internal conflict Holden has is his inability to focus. Whenever Holden starts talking about something， he always gets sidetracked. Another good example is the time Holden is lying to Mrs. Morrow. However， in most of time he realizes that too late. He has a problem， yet refuses to fix it. He cannot run away from his problems forever.

Conclusion

Holden’s growing-up environment and his family background decide his rebelling character and his inability to communicate with others. Moreover， some particular character made him feel uncomfortable in society， such as his fantastical and inconsistency personalities. All these personal characters lead to Holden’s tragic ending.

Bibliography:

[1]Alexander， Charlotte. J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. Simon Schuster; Beijing: Foreign Language and Research Press， 1997.

[2]Grunwald， Henry Anatole， ed. Salinger: A Critical and Personal Portrait [M]. New York: HarperBrothers， 1962.

[3]洪增流（Hong， Zengliu），王靜(Wang， Jing)．《麥田守望者》的悲劇性解讀．安徽理工大學學報（社會科學版）第5卷第4期 ，2003年12月．

[4]溫潔霞（Wen， Jiexia）．無地守望：霍爾頓的精神之旅．黃岡師范學院學報第22卷第１期，2002年2月．

[5]周霜（Zhou， Shuang）．麥田守望者的悲劇性命運解讀．渝西學院學報（社會科學版）第一卷第三期，2002年9月．