Holden Caulfield: An Archetypal Picaro

C. Holden Caulfield as an Archetypal Picaro
The works of the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung supplied the writers with “archetypal images” which were considered to be “universal images”. “The main ideas of Jung integrates on the collective unconscious that contains the `depot` of the archetypes or stereotypes which are perceived in a similar way nationally or sometimes even globally”( Berezhna 26). So when a literary work is analyzed through the archetypal images it is significant to comprehend that those are not personal opinions of the author but universal, archaic patterns and images that derive from the collective unconscious. In literature, archetypes like the mother, the father, the trickster or in our case especially important, the

After 1930s a new type of young hero emerges in the literary world. This one “is more complex image of youth, an image quite frequently of disenchantment, or failure, or violent experience” ( Hassan 312). Previously, child archetype associated with innocence this time it changed and turned into a teenager that represents a different perspective. Thus 20th century society was represented to a new person that was neither a child nor an adult. He is called in several sources as a half man. Holden Caulfield was this kind of person and as it is expected from a picaro, he rejects conformity, reigning social conventions and shallowness of the 50s America. The estrangement of Holden rises with every page of the novel and we notice that his living in the established order is impossible. People around discomfort and disappoint him so he permanently says “People never notice anything” (9) / “People never believe you” (37) / “People always clap for the wrong things” (84). “The negative characteristics of Holden like swearing, smoking, tactless and disrespect that he shows to people around him makes him a typical anti-hero and rebel that doesn’t suit the society around him so, consequently, turns into a victim of it”(Berezhna 42). Holden’s victimization can be seen through the whole adventures of him in New York City where he goes with small amount of money and few belongings just like a real picaro. He is against the

Joel Salzberg says that “Not only is Holden revolted by society… but he also revolts against it, against bourgeois life in the United States around 1950s as the novel represented it” (11). Holden also is critical of the competitive system. He criticizes the people who are crazy about cars. He states that people “worry if they get a little scratch on their cars, and they’re always talking about how many miles they get to a gallon, and if they get a brand-new car already they start thinking about trading it in for one that’s even newer. I don’t even like old cars. I’d rather have a goddam horse. A horse is at least human, for God’s sake (Salinger 131). This quotation not only shows how people affected by the competitive system but also it shows the dehumanizing side of it. “As if mechanization affected not only the material world but spiritual as well, so an animal seems a better alternative for hero because it is of flesh and blood with emotions and intelligence while humans turned into some selfish and senseless machines” (Berezhna 40). Wherever Holden goes he encounters emotionally exhausted people who live according to the established order of the society and his estrangement from these people rises with every new