Catcher In the Rye Essay

Brenda Whitten

Mr. Barnes

Honors English III

24 August 2012

Should Holden Be Accepted as a Nuevos Amigos?

                West High is a caring place where kids can come to learn and develop. In The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield lacks the characteristics to become a good leader and mentor. Holden should not be accepted as a mentor to new students at West High because of his actions and the way that he judges others based on appearance. West High is a welcoming community and having Holden as a mentor would be one step against this policy of respect and care.  Here at West, we want everyone to be able to learn in a safe environment. If we allow Holden to become a mentor for freshmen students, not only would we be breaking the school’s ideals, we would also break Holden.

                One of the main aspects of West High is academics, not only is Holden failing almost all of his classes, he doesn’t care.  He tells one of his former teachers and mentor Mr. Spencer that he is “flunking everything except English” and gives the teacher permission to flunk him (Salinger 12). Near the end of the novel, Holden is brought back to reality by his little sister Phoebe when she panics that “daddy’s going to kill you. He’s going to kill you” (Salinger 172). Emphasizing the realization from Holden that he is in fact, in trouble not only with his school and his peers but also from his family.  This lack of having supportive parents means that Holden is forced to look elsewhere to find comforts, pushing him to fail classes in order to gain any type of attention that he can. Holden’s views on everyone being “phony” push him to view their attempts at helping him as fake and for a purpose. He views Thurmer as a phony and thinks that he only cares about grades and effort “around midterms when… parents [come] up for a conference” (Salinger 4). While Thurmer might be searching for funds and hoping to look better by acting compassionate around the time when parents come, there are others that truly care about Holden and the success he has or doesn’t have. He is requested to visit Mr. Spencer before he leaves Pency, (Salinger 4) and is invited to stay at the house of Mr. Antolini when he really needed a place to stay for a couple of days (Salinger 174).Holden’s inability to see the caring actions of those around him and his academic record make him unfit to be a mentor to those around him.

                Holden’s moral compass also does not line up with the West High policies of “integrity and accountability” (“Nuevos”). Holden lies in order to get attention. He talks to Ernest Morrow’s mother while on the train and tells her lie after lie after lie in order to get her to talk to him and get her interested in every word that he says (Salinger 55). He wants her hanging off the edge of her seat, waiting for the next twist in the story, a great attribute for a writer, not so good for a person. Holden claims he is “the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life” bragging about his dishonesty and lack of empathy (Salinger 16). He needs to be able to distance himself from this lying alter ego before he can attempt to help others be honest. Not only is he morally dishonest, he is also academically dishonest when he writes a composition for Stradlater (Salinger 29). This decision or compulsion to lie and cheat makes a terrible attribute for a person, especially one that may become a mentor for younger students.

                One of the most important things about West High is the way that we accept each other as family and can rely on each other.  Holden judges people the first time he sees them. All of these stereotypical judgments are pessimistic and negative. He sees all people as evil and instead of trying to help others and ignore his hatred, he dwells on that and uses those feelings to determine the way that he feels about a person both immediately and holds onto this until it is forced to change. Every time that you see him talk to someone, he immediately tells you all about the way that they look and the way that they must act instead of focusing on a more positive outlook. One of the ideals of West High is “tolerance and acceptance for people of differing viewpoints or backgrounds” (“Nuevos”).

                While it can be argued that Holden wants to be a help to people, he would ultimately fail at that attempt as well. Holden’s life dream is to “be the catcher in the rye”. He wants to stand near the edge of the cliff and catch kids as they run by, preventing their untimely end (Salinger 173). This desire to catch people as they are falling shows that he is already too late. To be a good mentor, one must plan ahead and build a fence around the children playing. They can then guard the fence, or help with the next thing that may hurt them. He is so stuck on the idea that everyone is going to fall that he is unable to prevent the ultimate plunge. Phoebe yells at Holden for holding on to the past, she claims that once someone is dead, you should leave them alone, move on. Holden however disagrees, justifying himself by claiming “just because someone’s dead, you don’t just stop liking them” (Salinger 171). Holden’s inability to let go of the past hinders even his best intentions and ultimately sets him up for certain destruction. This destruction has the potential to reach through Holden and grab onto those that he is mentoring.

                Holden would not be a good choice for a Nuevos Amigos buddy here at West High because of the difference between himself and the ideals that we hold here. Ultimately, Holden would become more depressed by “failing” his job here then he would have been if he had been rejected at time of submission. No one is able to prevent everything bad from happening to someone and protecting them from everything. Most people can accept this fact; however Holden is very upset when he is unable to prevent their pain. When he is forced to accept that sometimes life is hard, but it teaches lessons that way he backs down and tries to ignore the truth. Holden also does not comply with the moral or academic standards of West High, thus making him ineligible to be a mentor.