Holden’s good wish and mental agony

I. Good wish and the reality

In Holden’s inner world， he not only just had cynical and rebellious spirit， but also had his own unconscious wish. In his eyes， sincerity is the only standard value of society.Holden thought just only the children and the childishness adult have the emotion and treat each other in the way if love.For that we can obviously know that in Holden’s inner world， he wants to communicate with others in a sincere way， and help other people. Though he said all the people in the bar were jerks， but in fact he really liked the one who played at a stage. That made him connect with the true aspects of humanity—he liked it.

Holden’s potential wish was that all the people would treat each other just like the children’s way—sincerity and innocence. Holden cherished the time when the innocence had lapsed， but he rejected coming into the phony adult world. At last he wanted to chose the edge way of life， Just as Utopia， it was an illusion， full of love and sincerity. There was no doubt that in here J.D.Salinger uses metaphor way to show us that rye symbolized as the kind-hearted innocent children world； The edge of cliff symbolized as the transfer station between the child world and the adult world； Falling from the cliff symbolized the children were coming into the adult world and becoming phonies. But in this modern society， juveniles were obsessed between their thoughts and the real society. Their thoughts had a long distance with the reality， so the distance made Holden want to rebel against. So Holden was to be called as the first appearance anti-hero imagery in the American contemporary literature. But his good wish of the society was great different from the society. That at last made him crazy.

II. The inner world of Holden

Why was his psychology on the edge of collapse？ That was because he was still a young boy—only 16 years old. All he connected with was adult world. The rule of game to the adult was different for young. A literary commentator Hans Bungert in Germany wrote that： “Holden was separated by the society， the most important reason was that he was so young， he had just moved out from the children world where the rule was relative stable. He should come into the adult world to find way of life. He was in the puzzled transition of life now.”（Salinger， 2002：146-147） In school， the teachers inculcated him the values of the adult’s way， but he did not want to accept that. In his sub consciousness he was still a child and did not to want to swallow in the mire with the adult. From that we know that Holden is in the period that still do not competent mature， so he can’t face the way that everything developing on， he hope that everything would develop in his own subjective desire way. He lives in his wish world.

The reality was out of his idea he would fall into anguished， terrified， desperate or even schizophrenic. We could find out that Holden’s self-centered tendency from his behavior distinctly. He wanted to be a teacher in the rye and to protect the children； he hoped that every child would grow up forever. But certainly every child would grow up at last， so his thought obeyed the rule of human beings. After all， ever child would be out of the protection from school and family and mixed into the adult world.If Holden wanted to overcome the self-centered tendency， what he needed to do was to be mature like a man. Only when his ration reach the level of complete mature， he just would recognize the aspects of life and give up his self-centered explain to the reality， the society and throw all his mental agony away. But just like some comment actors said that Holden’s unfortunate was because of his age—just 16 years old. He absolutely would not adapt himself to the adult world， and as a sensitive boy， he could not stay in harmony with the classmates. So Holden’s depression was easy to understand. Both of his experiences and his observed abilities were so limited. That was why he could not explain and accept the unhealthy social phenomena.Holden was so young and so naive when he was standing at the edge of the cliff， he would fall into the cliff at any time. At this moment， he could make fall into of the cliff and become despair and also he could realize the pure world would not exist actually from his practical connected with this world， just only realize the pure world would not help him from falling into the cliff.

【作者簡介】郭力菁，湖北民族學院。