Analyzing Holden's "Noble" Causes
During his stay, Holden received plenty of advice from Mr. Antonili. The most memorable of them (to me) was his warning against Holden's self destructive behaviors. Specifically, he had told Holden that it was not worth it to die for a cause. He said "the mark of an immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause," and also that he can "very clearly see you [Holden] dying ... for some highly unworthy cause." Earlier in the book we saw two instances of Holden putting himself in danger, possibly even risking death, for causes he didn't fully articulate. In this blog I will analyze these near-death situations, and determine if Holden has an "immature" nature that put him at risk, and whether or not his causes are noble. The earliest example of Holden's near-death encounter is with his roommate, Stradlater. Of course, "near-death" is a slight exaggeration of the true state Holden was in following his fight, but that can mainly be ...