Holden Caulfield's failure in becoming a young adult in J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye

Hidayat, Stefani (2008) Holden Caulfield's failure in becoming a young adult in J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. Bachelor thesis, Petra Christian University.

Abstract

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger is a best selling and controversial novel during the 20 th century. This novel makes Holden Caulfield become a hero for many people for criticizing the adult's world as something phony. However, in this novel, Holden Caulfield experiences failure in becoming a young adult. Thus, I am interested in studying and analyzing this issue. I focus my analysis on Holden Caulfield as the main character and the narrator of the novel. Through this thesis, I will reveal the causes and effects of Holden Caulfield's failure in becoming a young adult. In order to analyze this, I use the psychological approach and Erik H. Erikson's theory of Psychosocial Development stage 5: Identity vs. identity confusion as the main theory for this thesis and the regression concept as the supporting concept. In my analysis, I find that Holden's failure in becoming a young adult is caused by his denial of his past life, the absence of fidelity, identity confusion and his obsession to preserve childhood's innocence as a form of his regression. Holden's failure in becoming a young adult also brings some negative effects toward him. Holden is rejected by the society and unable to contribute in the society.

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