Catcher Essay; Denial

Catcher Essay

By: Erik Hansen

J. Donald Walters once wrote, "Self-acceptance comes from meeting life's challenges vigorously. Don't numb yourself to your trials and difficulties, nor build mental walls to exclude pain from your life. You will find peace not by trying to escape your problems, but by confronting them courageously. You will find peace not in denial, but in victory." J. Donald Walters was right. You have to stand up and face your hardships, not pack them away to deal with later, if you ever want to find peace. This is something Holden Caulfield learned through experience.

Holden Caulfield is a perfect example of a person in denial. Holden seems to believe that everything that happens to him is because of someone else's actions and that none of his mishaps have come around due to his own poor judgment. He is denying that he often makes terrible decisions. Soon enough, he gets over that, but doesn't get over the fact that he has ongoing issues that he needs to be aware of and start to resolve. Holden hides his emotions and problems just like he packs away his belongings in suitcases. Once he is done packing his suitcases, he puts them out of sight or locks them up. It's as if Holden doesn't want to let people get to know the true Holden because he doesn't want to seem attached to others because he is afraid that when he's the closest he can be to someone, he will screw it up and end up hurt. Holden is not the only one that feels this way but that doesn't mean he can't try to be himself and let others get to know the most of him. Maybe if he started getting closer to people he would realize that the world is not perfect and that there will be times when you get hurt or something happens that you can't fix, like losing someone close to you.

Friends are what make it possible to get through life. Holden might not admit that he has any, but at the end of the book he thinks about all the people that he told us about and says, "About all I know is, I sort of miss everybody I told about. Even old Stradlater and Ackley, for instance" (214). Holden wouldn't have missed them if they hadn't meant something to him. Even though Holden has some friends, maybe not best friends, he always seems to pin all the stuff that happened to him on them. For example, when he is at Ernie's just having a drink; Lillian Simmons comes up to him and starts chatting away. He lies to her and says he has to go and then he thinks to himself, "People are always ruining things for you" (87). He seems to be denying the fact that he was the one who said he had to go, although he could have stayed and hung out with Lillian for a while but decided to ruin the evening for himself. It's like Holden is unable to connect himself to others and he's not able to see that problems others have are just like the problems he deals with.

Holden can't get over this girl named Jane Gallagher, but never seems to even attempt to progress in a relationship with her. He seems to be afraid to become attached to her in the off chance that she wouldn't feel the same way about him and totally demolish him. Holden doesn't seem to get close to anyone. In some situations he uses fake names so that they won't know who he is. An example is when he is on the train with Ms. Morrow in chapter eight