Holden Caulfield Pacifism

America won; humanity lost. Although World War II lead to America’s increased prosperity, it ended up leaving a wound too great to be mended, a wound that bleeds through the pages of J.D. Salinger’s coming-of-age novel The Catcher in the Rye. Conformity pervaded 1950s American society, and this book is one of the few that challenged America’s mainstream values; it delivered a shock factor with its main character, Holden Caulfield, daring to question the status quo. Serving as his personal catharsis, Salinger used the novel to express an indictment against a corrupt and dysfunctional society. Catcher can be compared to a hard-hitting exposé-only in this case, it’s on an entire country. The novel’s indicative of a culture that could not yet comprehend

Holden leaves very few questions to be answered in regards to his views of war when he starkly states, “I’m a pacifist” (Salinger 59). Holden’s love of innocence may relate to his pacifist attitude in the world of war where children are utterly helpless. They have no power to protect their lives or to take away the lives of others. Holden feels an urge to shield these innocent beings and allow them to play endlessly. When describing what he wants to do with the rest of his existence, he says, “I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing I’d really like to be” (Salinger 232). He views children’s innocence as an antithesis to adulthood, and he attempts to transform his alienation into something meaningful by coining himself “the catcher in the rye.” He strives to create a concept of youth and innocence only in their opposition without really trying to understand what they mean. His inability to come up with his own ideas can be connected with the identity struggles that come with the aftermath of war. Holden forms his identity in its oppositions to adult standards--standards that, apparently, only exist to corrupt youth. Ironically enough, Holden has to face an inevitable consequence: the standards that he so heavily rallies against are the same standards he was going to have to build an identity from; his own being contradicts what he stands for. During war, people lose themselves; knowing this, Salinger may have created Holden as someone who struggles with his identity for this reason. It can be difficult to create an original identity, and so, just as a baseless identity does not represent the postwar public, Holden’s identity of “the catcher in the rye” doesn’t represent him. The catcher in the rye “is the only thing [he’d] like to be” because him being so is in direct contradiction with who he is (Salinger