Holden's Absolutism
Holden is an opinionated narrator, to say the least. In fact, one of the patterns that stands out most in his various rants and reflections is his lack of nuance and complexity in thought. Holden tends to view life in extremes/absolutes, leaving no room for alternative perspectives, which can be overwhelming to those around him, including the reader.
A prime example of this appears in Holden’s critique of Hamlet. During a page-long rant, he asserts that Hamlet “was too much like a goddam general, instead of a sad, screwed-up type guy” (117). This passage illustrates a general theme in the majority of Holden’s spiels: he does not express his views on the world as opinions or personal beliefs, but rather as rigid facts. Even if his critiques of Hamlet have merit, his absolutist, authoritative language overwhelms the actual substance of his argument. With that in mind, it becomes difficult for anyone to seriously engage with what Holden is trying to say without feeling fatigued by his extremist speech.
Holden’s interaction with Sally Hayes also presents an instance in which he overwhelms those around him with his sharp assertions. While they are ice-skating, Holden abruptly begins interrogating Sally about her views on school. When she doesn’t give him the answer he’s looking for, he launches into a rant about how much he hates school, then living in New York, then Taxicabs, then buses, then elevators, and so on. His speech makes Sally noticeably uncomfortable and taken aback: “You could tell she wanted me to change the damn subject” (131). Sally also interrupts Holden multiple times in an attempt to stop him, first asking “Don’t shout, please,” and later saying “I don’t know what you’re even talking about” (130-131).
Sally’s discomfort highlights how relentless and exhausting Holden’s extremism can be. When Sally doesn’t initially agree with him, he takes it as an opportunity to drill his own intense views into her, leaving no room for different perspectives. Once again, the substance of Holden’s feelings is overshadowed by the intensity and extremity of how he expresses them.
Holden desperately wants others, including the reader, to agree with him and validate his opinions. But by presenting those opinions in an overbearing and absolutist way, he overwhelms his audience and diminishes the impact of the message he’s trying to convey—effectively sabotaging himself.
Hi Lena!
ReplyDeleteHolden's absolutism is interesting, because he is clearly able to hold conflicting opinions (again, see Sally Hayes, who he doesn't like, but whom he tries to convince himself he is in love with in his desperation for human connection and to find someone who feels the same way he does). This is basically seen with respect to any particular person you show him; he'll find some flaw in them and jump to criticize them and disrespect them in the realm of his mind, but he still cares about them and misses them, even before the end of the novel. He finds Ackley annoying, but he still tries to include him at movie outings. I think that if he let that absolutism extend to his treatment of people, then that would serve to further dehumanize them in his eyes, and it would remove one of his main positive characteristics, but if he didn't make those general, absolute, categorizing statements, whether about how "all mothers are kind of insane" or how much he hates the movies, he wouldn't be Holden.
I think it's interesting that you chose to emphasize the alienating effect Holden's absolutism has, both on the reader and on the people around him, and it makes me think about the reciprocality of Holden's isolation.
Hello Lena!
ReplyDeleteThe way you frame Holden's view of the world is really interesting. I definitely noticed his constantly negative views, rants, and outbreaks. However, I had never thought much about his lack of complexity in thought. Now that I'm looking for it, he does have a very limited vocabulary, cussing quite often. His sentences are often short, and to the point (typically that point is complaining about one thing or another). It seems like Holden only really does surface level thinking.
However, there are parts in the story where he surprises the reader with really in depth thoughts. Like when he is talking with Phoebe about how he wants to save the kids from the cliffs in the rye fields. But, like you said, even the rare exceptions to simple thoughts are covered in absolutes and extremes.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI think it is rather interesting to talk about how much Holden speaks in absolutes. He always speaks in absolutes. Except when he doesn't, but those are few and far between. I do think that what you said about his absolutist language makes any valid points he make, just, become wrong and off putting.
Hi Lena,
ReplyDeleteI agree that Holden's absolutionism/extremism alienates him from others and prevents them from feeling like they can agree with his assertions. That being said, there are lots of people in real life, especially kids and teenages, who say things (surely not as often as Holden) that they don't mean as a way of expressing a deeper and very, very reasonable discomfort with systems/people/things. It's "cheeky" and can even be seen as lighthearted/dramatic/funny when the object of hatred is very benign or when the hating isn't too consistent. When people don't convey nuance, it can definitely be off-putting, but that doesn't mean that there isn't real nuance behind their "simplistic" statement. I think it's very interesting how Holden consistently makes himself seem more unreasonable by holding back information (ex. James Castle, Stradlater and the "fight," Sally, etc.). I can't fully understand why, because it's self-sabotaging behavior, but I assume it's because he doesn't know how to express all the emotions he has and explicitly explain his feelings/perspective. It would be awesome if people always gave others the benefit of the doubt and tried to understand them, but I also don't blame anyone for judging someone based only on a superficial comment someone makes.
Hi Lena,
ReplyDeleteWhile I noticed Holden's extremist language and the way he frames his beliefs as facts while reading, you explained it rather nicely and really highlighted how much it isolates him from both the reader and the people around him. I do wonder, however, where this habit of talking in absolutes originated from? Sophia mentioned that it's common for young people to do this, so is this just a consequence of "coming of age"? Or, is it something more specific and personal: is it a result of deeper trauma that leads to disillusionment with the world and the use of beliefs framed as facts to make sense of broken ideals?
I agree that Holden's "absolutism" is reflected in his narrative throughout, but I'd add that often this tendency to generalize recklessly contributes to his odd kind of *authority* as a narrator, as long as we don't interrogate any of these reckless generalizations too far. For some younger readers especially, a narrator with the brazen confidence to declare a range of things that "people always" and "people never" do sounds pretty attractive--even if it's simply untrue that people NEVER pass on your messages when you ask them to, or whatever. So the more mature reader sees these generalizations and absolutist statements as a sign of Holden's recklessness and immaturity, but other readers will find a kind of posturing toward authority here. We WISH we were confident enough to make these kinds of reckless generalizations! In a world that is ambiguous and confusing, it can be comforting to at least have arrived at some "conclusions" about how the game works, no matter how badly these conclusions might hold up under scrutiny.
ReplyDeleteI would definitely include his reckless generalizations about actors in this category ("They think they speak like regular people, but they don't" etc.), but in the case of his critique of Olivier's performance in Hamlet, I actually don't see this as one of these examples. For one thing, he is challenging DB's (respected) opinion of the movie, and Holden is actually deploying his own critical thinking to dissect Olivier's celebrated performance. DB is the one who tells Holden that Hamlet is a "sad, screwed-up type guy" (Holden hasn't read the play!), and Holden uses this template to view Olivier's bombastic performance, which is in fact "stagey" and over-the-top at times, rather than reflecting Hamlet's uncertainty, confusion, hesitation, and sadness. It's a pretty spot-on criticism, for my money!
Hi Lena! I also found Holden's absolutism somewhat harmful to his credibility and likability to his audience, but I think that his criticisms were made all the more forceful and effective that way. If he hadn't been so intense with his language, it wouldn't have been clear the serious psychological effect that all of his problems with the world were causing him, and that may have lessened the gravity of the situation. However, I definitely do agree that his blanket criticisms often tend to be so exaggerated or inaccurate that you can't help but lose a sliver of faith in him. Great blog!
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