Critical Lens: “…the strongest man upon the earth is he ...



Critical Lens: “…the strongest man upon the earth is he who stands most alone.” ~ Henrik Ibsen, “An Enemy of the People”

While strength sometimes expresses itself in a person’s physical prowess, there is also a kind of inner strength that is more difficult to identify. Henrik Ibsen offers a way to define this inner strength when he says, “the strongest man upon the earth is he who stands most alone.” The ability to persevere, when one is left with the lonely solace of one’s own convictions, is a form of strength that people often overlook. In his novel The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger employs characterization and symbolism to show that Holden Caulfield, though apparently oversensitive and fragile, shows strength in his unwillingness to condone the conformist attitudes of those around him. Along similar lines, in her novel Passing, Nella Larson employs characterization, conflict and climax to show that Irene Redfield, though immoral in her behavior, nonetheless exhibits a tremendous strength in her determination to resist the will of Brian and Clare and to get what she wants for herself, her husband and her children.

Salinger’s use of characterization and symbolism in Catcher helps to portray the strength of Holden’s autonomous convictions. One scene in which Salinger employs characterization to exhibit this strength occurs in Holden’s interactions with Sunny and Maurice. Feeling ashamed about still being a virgin, Holden asks Maurice, the elevator worker at the hotel where he’s staying, to send a prostitute to his room. He wants to lose his virginity not so much because he feels lustful towards woman as because he thinks once he has lost his virginity he will feel the confidence and casualness of an older man. However, when Sunny, the prostitute, finally arrives at his room, he is shocked to find that she is no older than him, and he is only sixteen. He determines her age by the way she fidgets nervously, says immature things such as “Like fun you are,” and pulls off her green dress in an awkward, unsophisticated manner. As a result of his recognition of Sunny’s age, he decides he cannot go through with his plans. This decision makes him feel extremely isolated. Sunny insults and demeans him, and eventually Maurice comes and does the same, punching Holden to attain more money. In his use of characterization in this scene, Salinger shows how harsh people like Sunny and Maurice can be and how much strength is necessary if people like Holden are to remain true to themselves. In a different vein, Salinger employs symbolism to exhibit Holden’s solitary strength. In the scene where Holden speaks to his sister Phoebe about his ambitions, he confesses that the career he’d really like to pursue doesn’t exist. He’d like to be a catcher in the rye, and Salinger uses this rich symbol to reflect Holden’s sincere wish to preserve the innocence of children, though the world insists that children can remain so forever only in fairy tales. According to Salinger’s symbol, Holden wishes to catch children before they leave the beautiful field of childhood, falling off a cliff into the abyss of “phony” adulthood. Though many would call Holden’s dream job a foolish fantasy, this is precisely what makes it courageous. In holding onto his deepest convictions despite the objections of others, Holden demonstrates his strength. In the final scene of the novel, Salinger uses a different symbol to show that Holden has begun to demonstrate a new kind of strength. Holden is afraid his sister Phoebe will fall from the horse she is riding on the carousel if she continues to reach for the golden ring, and this ring is a symbol of the grown-up world in which all children yearn to live. In accepting Phoebe’s yearning to grow up and in resisting the impulse to stop her, Holden exhibits a new kind of strength: that of letting go. Though it might seem like, in this instance, Holden is giving in to what others expect of him, this isn’t so. In accepting Phoebe’s wish, Holden feels more alone than ever before – he has accepted his sister’s mortality and his own – which is more than most people have the strength to do.

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