Anthony Hock
Theology 300
August 22nd, 2006

Holden Caulfield, A Man of Faith

In J.D. Salinger’s “Catcher in the Rye”, Holden Caulfield is a man of faith because he believes in, maybe not the majority of the world, but certainly himself and few others close to him, importantly his sister; and he trusts that those he believes in with have good lives and not turn out to be “phonies.”
Holden definitely does not have faith in most of the world around him. He often referred to his own classmates from Pency prep to be “phonies” or “fakes.” School is not a worth while thing to Holden which we see from his expulsion of his third school. His own brother D.B. is just another sell out to him because he has given up writing short stories to write for movies in Hollywood. It seems as though Holden is completely faithless and has given up on the world, but we later see that Holden still has faith in himself and for a younger generation which his sister Phoebe belongs to.
Holden believes in himself. He only gives up at school because he does not think it is necessary. He wants to go home and see his family . He admires Jane Gallagher, and old friend, very much and has not lost faith in her. He knows that the sleazy Stradlater must have tried to have sex with Jane but he trusts that she is still the person he remembers that would never do anything with Stradlater. Holden may not have faith in many things but he does have faith. he may sound self centered in having so much faith in himself , but as John Lennon said, “I don’t believe in The Beatles, I just believe in me.” Holden believes in himself, he could be the walrus. We cannot forget how Holden feels about his young sister Phoebe. He admires her very much. He wants to make her happy so he buys her a vinyl record she would like. He wants Phoebe to grow up unique to her surrounding world. He trusts that she will not become a phony like most others out there. Holden has hope for all the children that are Phoebes age. He knows that they are the ones that can still be good people . They are innocent because when he was their age, even the girls looked at the naked bosom of the Indian in the museum because the girls did not know any more than the boys did about bosoms. The most important factor of Holden being a man of faith always comes back to the love he has for his sister. He has faith in her and that gives himself more faith because he wants to be a good role model for Phoebe. We see a sign that Holden has not completely given up on the world at the end of “Catcher in the Rye” because Holden goes home, gets help from a psychoanalyst and plans on going to a new school in the following year.