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The Catcher in the Rye

by J. D. Salinger

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Family Influence in The Catcher in the Rye

Summary:

In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield's family profoundly influences his character and actions. His brother Allie's death leaves him grief-stricken and unable to move on, manifesting as survivor's guilt and anger. Holden's protectiveness towards his sister Phoebe symbolizes his desire to shield innocence from the harshness of adulthood. His parents, depicted as distant and struggling with their grief, contribute to Holden's emotional turmoil and lack of guidance. This complex family dynamic shapes Holden's mental state and interactions throughout the novel.

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What is the role of Holden's family in The Catcher in the Rye?

Holden Caulfield's conflict with life stems from many different areas, including his family. Most importantly, Holden's brother Allie, who passed away before the novel begins, leads Holden to experience a tremendous amount of grief and depression. Holden says of Allie,

it wasn’t just that he was the most intelligent member in the family. He was also the nicest . . . God, he was a nice kid (38).

Holden has an inability to fully let go of his grief and mourning for Allie. Young children frequently remind him of Allie, and Holden feels the need to protect them due to his inability to save Allie from leukemia. Part of Holden's contempt for adults stems from his inability to let go of childhood.

Phoebe, Holden's sister, also serves an important role, particularly at the end of the novel. Just like with Allie, Holden holds Phoebe dear to his heart. He feels the need to protect her from the cruel and perverse world of adulthood. After visiting her before planning to leave the city, he is convinced by her innocence and beauty to stay. Holden and Phoebe spend the day together, and when he takes her to the zoo, she happily rides the carousel in the rain. Watching his sister's innocent joy, Holden feels happy for the first time in the novel:

I felt so damn happy all of a sudden, the way old Phoebe kept going around and around. I was damn near bawling (213).

Holden's parents are the anxious type, the kind that would have "two hemorrhages a piece" if Holden were to tell anything personal about them. They are a driving force in the novel, and he is partially convinced not to return home after leaving school by the thought of encountering his hysterical mother. The novel reads:

I didn't want to go home or anything till they got it and thoroughly digested it and all. I didn't want to be around when they first got it. My mother gets very hysterical (51).

Holden's mother and father are still scarred by Allie's death, perhaps even more than he is, and as a consequence, they aren't able to be proper parents to Holden or Phoebe. Holden's relationship with them becomes strained; he is afraid to break their hearts with more bad news, but he is distant from them and unable to properly communicate his issues.

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What is the role of family in The Catcher in the Rye?

Holden, an oldest child, feels very protective toward his younger sister Phoebe, whom he loves very much. His protectiveness is increased because his younger brother Allie died three years earlier from leukemia. When Phoebe, who loves Holden very much, presses him on his aimlessness and lack of purpose in life, he tells her in chapter 22 that what he would like to do in life is be the catcher in the rye:

Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around—nobody big, I mean—except me. And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff—I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. 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. I know it’s crazy.

This speaks to Holden's great love for his siblings, and his desire to protect them and to protect all children. 

Holden talks about his brother Allie in chapter 5. We know how much he loves Allie because he tells us what a wonderful person he was. We begin to feel that Holden perhaps suffers from survivor's guilt, because he survived and Allie died:

He got leukemia and died when we were up in Maine, on July 18, 1946. You'd have liked him. He was two years younger than I was, but he was about fifty times as intelligent. He was terrifically intelligent. His teachers were always writing letters to my mother, telling her what a pleasure it was having a boy like Allie in their class. And they weren't just shooting the crap. They really meant it. But it wasn't just that he was the most intelligent member in the family. He was also the nicest, in lots of ways. He never got mad at anybody.

We know how very upset Holden is at Allie's death in chapter 5 when he tells of breaking all the windows in the garage. The broken windows are a mirror of Holden's feeling of inner brokenness. The violence is the sign of the anger he feels over his brother's death:

I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it. I even tried to break all the windows on the station wagon we had that summer, but my hand was already broken and everything by that time, and I couldn't do it. It was a very stupid thing to do, I'll admit, but I hardly didn't even know I was doing it, and you didn't know Allie.

Holden's parents are more distant, and Holden keeps them that way on purpose. He writes in the opening of the novel, in chapter 1:

... my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them. They're quite touchy about anything like that, especially my father. They're nice and all--I'm not saying that--but they're also touchy as hell. Besides, I'm not going to tell you my whole goddam autobiography or anything.

The novel suggests that family issues, particularly his brother's death and his desire to protect Phoebe, might be at the heart of his breakdown. 

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What is the role of Holden's parents in The Catcher in the Rye?

Holden's parents are simultaneously rather minor but also important figures in Holden's life. They do not have a significant role to play in the story of The Catcher in the Rye directly, but the impact they have made on Holden is relevant to the reader's understanding of Holden's character.

Holden is the narrator of the novel, so everything the reader knows about his parents has been filtered through Holden's eyes and experience. The reader learns that his parents are affluent, and therefore, Holden has not likely struggled much financially; but, Holden's parents are also grief-stricken and, it seems, unable to cope well with the death of Holden's brother.

The reader must imagine Holden's parents and their situation, which also gives the reader an opportunity to interpret Holden for themselves. If the reader sees his parents as cold and harsh, perhaps Holden can be understood more as a victim of his circumstances. On the other hand, if the reader sees Holden's parents as confused and upset by a serious tragedy, then perhaps Holden can be viewed more as a spoiled adolescent who needs to mature in order to understand that his parents are struggling in their own right.

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Evaluate the role of family in The Catcher in the Rye.

The mental descent of Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye begins with the death of his brother Allie several years before the novel begins. To Holden, Allie maintained these qualities: he was "nicest" in the family, he was more "intelligent" than Holden, and he "had very red hair." When he died of Leukemia, Holden lost his mind and "broke all the goddam windows [in the garage]" with his fist, "just for the hell of it."

In the novel, Holden also clings to his 10-year-old sister Phoebe, whom he says, "[S]he knows exactly what the hell you're talking about." It's Phoebe's love for Holden that keeps him going off the rails. He wants to see her and even buys her a record. It's her threat to run away with him that knocks some sense back into Holden.

One important factor about family to consider is the absence of Holden's father. He continues to send Holden to boarding schools despite the fact that Holden seems to be failing at every turn. When Holden does return home, his parents are noticeably absent with Phoebe's repetition of "Daddy's going to kill you" the only reminder of him. Holden also mentions that his father is a corporate lawyer, but doesn't really want to be one like him. 

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Can Holden's parents be blamed for his predicament in The Catcher in the Rye?

Sure.  Holden's parents could be blamed for why Holden is the way that he is.  I might even agree in some part that they are to blame . . . a little bit.  If you believe that a person's attitude is the sum total of their genetic makeup (nature), then Holden's parents are completely to blame.  They donated the genes, so they are to blame.  

On the other end of the spectrum is blaming Holden's parents for the way that they raised him.  That would be the nurture side of the nature vs. nurture debate.  If you believe that Holden's "issues" are a result of the way that he was raised, then his parents are a part of it.  But so are Holden's friends, teachers, classmates, and experiences outside of home and school.  I have a really hard time putting all of the blame on Holden's parents though, because they seemed to do quite a good job with Holden's sister.  

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