A fairy tale

The 19th Century is often called “the romantic era”. Romanticism was a movement which that deals with the beauty of nature and human emotions (Cambridge Dictionaries, 2016). Hollywood, with its silly, cheese and unrealistic stories, has shown us that it seems to be no place for truly romantic heroes in our current society.

Catcher in the rye is a novel written by J.D. Salinger in 1951; it presents the story of Holden Caulfield and his existentialist and nihilist questioning about people and their role in the world. However, another appreciation can show us this apathetic teenager as a romantic hero fighting against the world. Holden is the typical maverick and rebel fighting against the world, a society full of phonies which he does not want to be part.

“Typically, the Romantic poet-persona seeks the ideal in terms connection with a mysterious and elusive female, who often turns out to be a reflection of his desire for self-fulfillment. Because the poet considers this often-exotic female as the Other and, primarily, in terms of his own male ego, women appear as idealizations, not individuals” (Page, 2002).

Holden idealized conceptions of people and speaking specifically to women; he manifests that “women kill me. They really do. I don't mean I'm oversexed or anything like that….I just like them, I mean. They're always leaving their goddam bags out in the middle of the aisle.” (Salinger, 1951). This observation, referring to the lady he meets in the train, seems to give women a halo of innocence and authenticity; they act spontaneously almost like a child.  The pureness of childhood is mostly represented by the strongest female figures in the novel, Phoebe and Jane, both representing different periods of Holden ´s life; Phoebe, as the simplicity of natural, the perfection of childhood and, on the other side, Jane as his own stage of maturity, adolescence.

“In this moment as never woman is considered muse, ideal, treasure, celestial body, angel, unreachable star, inspiration, etc. In short, it is "the other", the exotic, the natural, wild and uncultivated, in what the disenchanted man of romanticism aims to solve his nostalgia for the lost ideal” (Hardisson, 2002). Romantic literature´s images of women are depicted in terms of idealization as central axis of love; spiritualized entities as a representation of nature creatures driven just by instincts. 

In addition, romantic poets paid special attention to female inner beauty. That is the reason why he hated that Stradlater thought he could have sex with every woman without paying attention of her personality details as Jane´s fixation of never take her kings out of the black row Physical descriptions of Jane are almost inexistent, except for that moment in which Holden tells she is not precisely pretty but she drive him crazy.

Besides, Holden´s romantic perception of women is also reflected in his perception of sexuality. First of all Holden is a virgin who have had opportunities to lose his virginity yet he never could. For Holden having sex with a woman would make her an object but more than that it make her real; losing the aura of romantic passion which characterizes a romantic novel.

Holden´s view of Jane is a clear example of Romantic idealization. She is presented in the novel as non-present, and ethereal entity making her transparent and clear for the narrator´s eyes. According to Holden, the time he was most close to “make love with her” was actually comforting her when she was crying; a very romantic knightly and deeply emotional way of connection.

“Old Jane. Every time I got to the part about her out with Stradlater in that damn Ed Banky's car, it almost drove me crazy”(Salinger, 1951). This desperation reflects his fear of losing Jane´s angels figure and facing her as real; a person with desire and imperfections and these feelings motivates him to escape from school.

However, it contrasts with another romantic stereotype presented in the novel, women as an object of love and desire. “That's the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty…you fall half in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are…. They can drive you crazy” (Salinger, 1951). Romantic literature mostly essentializes femininity with the quality of sensuality which inspires the male poetic capacity (Hardisson, 2002).

At the same time Holden despises sex as something we would not do with a girl he cares, he claims women neither help men to not destroy the aura of romantic love. It is a constant internal battle, when he shows up human nature full of contradictions.

All in all, from my point of view, Holden idealization of women and incapacity to see them in a sexual way reflects his rejection to adult world. Holden wants to still live in a world where female presences in his life are untouchable fairies instead of accepting that women are imperfect individuals who feel desire.

Holden are Jane are in the edge of the cliff in the rye and Holden´s inability to see her as a woman, an adult show us Holden´s fear to let her fall as are representation of his own inevitable process of maturity. By opposing these two places, the rye and cliff, the novel aims to contrast Holden´s conception of childhood as a romantic, utopian, immaculate and authentic place, as Phoebe represents; and his conception of adulthood as place never ending fall full of phonies and culpability.

All in all, Holden decided chose not to run away and confront his life, but not before say goodbye to the rye.

References:

Cambridge Free English Dictionary and Thesaurus (n.d). Retrieved June, 2016, from http://dictionary.cambridge.org/

Hardisson, A. (2002). Una mirada feminista al Romanticismo . Obtenido de Revista Intelectuales: http://intelectuales.mypressonline.com/PDF/Una_mirada_feminista.pdf

Page, J.W. (2002) Images Of Women In Romantic Period Literature. In Women's Studies Encyclopedia, ed. Helen Tierney. Greenwood Press, 2002. <http://www.gem.greenwood.com>

Salinger, J. D. (1951). The catcher in the rye. Boston: Little, Brown.