『호밀밭의 파수꾼』에 나타난 자기보호로서의 소외 양상

Abstract

The Catcher in the Rye is an autobiographical novel. Because Salinger tried to get over all his problems such as loneliness, empty feelings and anger for absurd, phony, hypocrisy. Salinger made Holden as a pure, innocent human being so Holden has always hard time to face everything around him. Everything around him is so superficial that hurts him deeply. So Holden decided to close himself to protect himself from the world. And Holden takes the alienation as a self-protection. I focus on his alienation as a self-protection and how he get over it. And that's the main idea and the purpose of this thesis. I divide Holden's alienation into four parts which are "family, school, society, and himself". In every each part, I try to find out what causes Holden alienate himself and how it affects his life. And in conclusion I focus on how Holden finally breaks his alienation and backs to the world where he belongs to. Holden seems to be excluded from and victimized by the world around him. He feels trapped on "the other side" of life, and he continually attempts to find his way in a world in which he feels he doesn't belong. Holden's alienation is his way of protecting himself. He uses his isolation as proof that he is better than everyone else around him and therefore above interacting with them. The truth is that interaction with other people usually confuse and overwhelm him, and his cynical sense of superiority serves as a type of self-protection. And Holden's alienations are divided into four parts in The Catcher in the Rye. They are Family issues, The alienation of School, The Journey of New York and Holden's inner conflicts. At home, Holden's parents can not do anything for Holden's teenager difficulties. His father is too busy and he doesn't understand Holden's problem, he just wants Holden to be a successful man. And Holden's mother has been sick because of her son's death. She is too weak to take care of Holden. And Holden used to like his elder brother, D.B. But Holden hates Old brother, D.B. because he went to Hollywood for money which is big shock to Holden. His lovely young brother, Alley, died of leukemia and Holden really got a big shock and hard time to get over it. And his young sister, Phoebe, Holden really adores and loves her but she can't be too young to consult with Holden about his problems. So there is nobody whom Holden can rely on in his family. In school, as Holden feels surrounded by phonies, the schools are surrounded by them. Principles estimate students' parents by their appearances like good suits, nice shoes and money given to schools. Teachers can't understand the students by their selfish and unreasonable obstinacy. Though the students follow the rules of schools, they have no harmony with themselves. They are not friendly each other. They are useless for themselves. In the journey of New York, Holden faces alienation and frustration like schools. When he finds innocence or purity it is always jeopardized by evil or apathy, and he desperately searches for something to sustain him. But he can't find anything and he gets desperate. And Holden has inner conflicts from himself with thinking over his past which he has experienced all over the surroundings. And he even lies to people without any reason. It means he is too confused to control himself, therefore he gets many problems with people. So with these all reasons, Holden finally take the alienation to protect himself because he thinks it's better to keep himself alone than having intimacy with people. And it even makes him think about death. But he finally get over everything. In the last part of this novel, when he sees his sister Phoebe riding on carrousel he suddenly feel so happy and he even misses people he really hated before. And that's when Holden breaks his alienation and gets back to the real world. Finally he comes to his senses about his sister's true love and his situation now. Holden realizes that absolute value does not exist and what social ill and phonies are does not only reside in society by themselves. And Holden also realizes that he can do nothing but to rely on God. So, at last Holden makes up his mind to let go everything and to accept and love everything around him.