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 accredited to the level of mercy displayed by Stradlater. If the same situation had played out with someone else they might have responded more violently to Holden's antagonism. Immediately before their fight Holden was questioning Stradlater about his date with Jane. Since Holden has a very innocent image of Jane, the thought of Stradlater tainting her innocence is disconcerting. The lack of care Stradlater holds for Jane on a personal level also upsets Holden. He calls Stradlater a moron for not knowing "if her first name is Jane or Jean," and expresses displeasure because Stradlater doesn't care about her checkers habit. Even though Holden doesn't talk to her anymore, the old Jane is someone who he holds in high regard, and seeing a phony like Stradlater hanging out with her ruins her innocence in his mind, making his blood boil at the thought of anything they might have done together.
Similarly to the innocence of Jane, Holden also cares about the innocent and loving image he holds of his younger brother Allie. Much of that memory is attached to Allie's baseball mitt. Because Stradlater disrespected the paper about Allie's mitt when he arrived, Holden was already on edge. All of these factors culminated in their fight. The underlying theme of Holden's anger was his desire to protect the innocence of others from phonies like Stradlater. In that moment, Stradlater embodied the contamination of the non innocent world onto people like Allie and Jane, and he couldn't control his emotions, and felt he had to fight against it. In that sense Holden was immature and foolish to resort to violence to get his point across. However, his cause was one that is noble.
Later on in the book Holden gets into a fight with the elevator operator in his hotel, Maurice. Holden claimed to have entered into a transactional agreement with Maurice where Holden would pay 5 bucks. After this agreement was made Maurice comes back and demands that Holden pay him an additional 5 bucks, claiming he said it would cost 10 in the first place. First Holden refuses to pay. Then when they power their way in, Holden still doesn't back down. After Maurice hits him one time, Holden began to insult him. In the aftermath Holden considered himself to become some hero that stood up for what he believed. As far as I can tell, Holden simply refused to give the money because Maurice was wrong and he was right. To some extent Holden was right to protest for this cause, because in his mind this was a scam. However, he managed it in a very risky way that showed a lack of maturity.
To summarize, Holden has mature viewpoints but immature expression of them. He has limited experience with voicing his care for people's innocence, and as a result he can't handle situations like what happened with Stradlater. To him, the baseball mitt meant a lot on an emotional level, and instead of telling Stradlater that he just bottled it up. Similarly with Jane, Holden gave very little reason for his odd questioning and violent reaction. Unfortunately, this did constitute an immature nature of Holden's that put himself at risk. Immediately resorting to violence with Holden and consistently insulting Maurice were self destructive behaviors that Mr. Antonili warned him about.
Hi Kabir,
ReplyDeleteGreat blog you got there. I definitely agree that Holden's causes are decently matured and justified sometimes but the action he takes regarding it is not. My favorite of these is definitely when he gets beat up for not giving an extra 5 bucks. Considering how rich his family is those 5 bucks aren't the problem, the problem was that he felt lied to. From the scene, we can see how Holden still lacks temper and how he still lacks the ability to deal with things maturely. Overall, great blog!!!
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ReplyDeleteHi Kabira Thirodira, you crafted a pancake of amazingly thoughtful points about how while Holden was in the right in situation, he handled it badly and usually gets his cheeks clapped like in the fight with Stradlater. Which does go to show that if had wished to make an argument in cases just like those where it seemed likely that physical contact to occur, he should be ready to defend himself. You really gave this idea a looser feeling, Great blog and Peace!!
ReplyDeleteWhile the Stradlater "fight" may not qualify as a near-death experience, it is true that Holden sort of enjoys "playing dead" at the end of it, making Stradlater get all freaked out that he might have seriously hurt Holden. While the existence of self-destructive behavior in a troubled teenager is maybe not a giant revelation, you are right to point out that for Holden this self-destructive tendency takes on a particular valence, as he does seem to see himself as acting on behalf of a "cause." So Antolini's advice, in this respect, is on the nose: Holden clearly DOES have this tendency to see himself as taking a beating on behalf of some principle (truth, innocence). There's also the more passive self-destructiveness of his relentless smoking and nearly relentless drinking (he'd drink more often if these goddamn waiters would actually serve him!), which does start to seem like his silent protest against the status quo--"let the record state that Holden Caulfield did not participate in this charade." Of course, no such "record" exists, and no one is benefiting in any way from Holden's "protest" (just as Jane will likely never know that Holden got a bloody nose on her behalf), so the whole thing seems futile and truly self-destructive.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Holden needs to go back to those nuns as his role models: they are "living humbly for a cause" and have no apparent interest in "dying nobly." Holden is a little too attracted to the idea of dying nobly, of registering his dissatisfaction with the universe through this self-destructive protest.
Nice post Kabir! Your depiction of Holden's confrontation as examples of him being protective and his pride coming before judgment emulate Antolini's worry that Holden will succumb to something meaningless. Under Stradlater, Jane and Allie turn into Holden's few memories of innocence, something he is not ready to let go. His incident with maurice is him trying to be in the right, even when it puts his life in danger. While the justification is good enough for Holden, it mostly leads to reckless behavior.
ReplyDeleteHi Kabir! Mr. Antolini’s warning about not becoming self‑destructive definitely puts Holden’s fights with Stradlater and Maurice into perspective. As you point out, Holden definitely has his own noble cause for confronting these bigger men. Yet, both examples display how impulsive and reckless he can be, exactly the kind of behavior Mr. Antolini is urging him to outgrow. His willingness to risk himself over moments of anger or pride reveals how immature he still is. Your interpretation highlights well how Antolini’s advice is meant to push Holden toward a more thoughtful, self‑preserving kind of maturity. Good post!
ReplyDeleteHey Kabir! I definitely agree that Holden has a very immature and self-destructive way of expressing his worldview; however, I don't necessarily find his worldview very mature. Many of the hills he chooses to "die" on are incredibly petty. While it is clear that Holden is someone who cares deeply about the principle of things, it is quite naive to place such great importance on many of these small interactions. Great post!
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