In J.D. Salinger’s best selling novel, Catcher in The Rye, he utilizes equivocation alongside despair to block out true progress. For example, Holden Caulfield, the main character of the book, uses ambiguous language to hide his current health state. He struggles with making progress, yet at the same time reverting said progress. The issues he face are not because of the trauma he has lived through, but rather how he deals with it. Because Salinger incorporates equivocation and despair in conjunction with Holden's personality, he is suggesting that one must first identify their struggle in order to find their own identity. Equivocation and despair cause people to withhold their own identities. Holden utilizes these two traits to conceal
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and came out here for all these goddam checkups and stuff. I’m pretty healthy though.” (7). The use of equivocation in this passage suggests Holden is hiding the truth about his personal life. He speaks of how “They made me cut it out” to avoid who it was that made Holden cut smoking out of his life. He doesn’t want the reader to know who he is interacting with, nor where he “...came out here for all these goddam checkups and stuff.” He is clearly upset by himself and who he is as a person, so he uses contradictory language to avoid the truth about his identity and what defines him as a person. Another example of equivocation is at the very end of the book, when Holden talks of telling his story, saying “If you want to know the truth, I don’t know what I think about it. I think I even miss that goddam Maurice. It’s funny. Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you’ll start missing everybody” (234). In the following quote, Holden is struggling with his own thoughts and identity. He thinks that he misses “that goddam Maurice,” which so happens to be someone who caused him pain earlier in the book. He has told people his story, but when he does, he proceeds to have regrets. He doesn’t want the …show more content…
One of Holden’s main struggles is, a matter of fact, identifying his struggles and dealing with them. A situation in which Holden identifies how he feels, is when he is leaving the bar drunk, thinking “I don’t know why, but I was. I guess it was because I was feeling so damn depressed and lonesome” (169). Here, Holden has identified one of his many struggles. At first, he didn’t “know why” he was crying. After a little bit of thinking Holden uncertainly guesses that it is because he “was feeling so damn depressed and lonesome.” He never could comprehend his feelings and what was causing him his trouble. Typically, Holden would deny or ignore any struggle he has. When he does feel something, he tends to drown it out with alcohol. However, by identifying his struggles, even in the slightest sense, helps Holden find who he is as a person. He can accept who he is even in a minimal setting like this. Another case of this occurring is after the prostitute leaves Holden’s hotel room, and he thinks “What I did, I started talking, sort of out loud, to Allie. I do that sometimes when I get very depressed. I keep telling him to go home and get his bike and meet me in front of Bobby Fallon’s house” (110). Holden has discovered a main source of his problems. The situation with “Bobby Fallon’s house” shows that Holden feels very bad for not spending as much time with his brother. He told his brother to go away and
and came out here for all these goddam checkups and stuff. I’m pretty healthy though.” (7). The use of equivocation in this passage suggests Holden is hiding the truth about his personal life. He speaks of how “They made me cut it out” to avoid who it was that made Holden cut smoking out of his life. He doesn’t want the reader to know who he is interacting with, nor where he “...came out here for all these goddam checkups and stuff.” He is clearly upset by himself and who he is as a person, so he uses contradictory language to avoid the truth about his identity and what defines him as a person. Another example of equivocation is at the very end of the book, when Holden talks of telling his story, saying “If you want to know the truth, I don’t know what I think about it. I think I even miss that goddam Maurice. It’s funny. Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you’ll start missing everybody” (234). In the following quote, Holden is struggling with his own thoughts and identity. He thinks that he misses “that goddam Maurice,” which so happens to be someone who caused him pain earlier in the book. He has told people his story, but when he does, he proceeds to have regrets. He doesn’t want the …show more content…
One of Holden’s main struggles is, a matter of fact, identifying his struggles and dealing with them. A situation in which Holden identifies how he feels, is when he is leaving the bar drunk, thinking “I don’t know why, but I was. I guess it was because I was feeling so damn depressed and lonesome” (169). Here, Holden has identified one of his many struggles. At first, he didn’t “know why” he was crying. After a little bit of thinking Holden uncertainly guesses that it is because he “was feeling so damn depressed and lonesome.” He never could comprehend his feelings and what was causing him his trouble. Typically, Holden would deny or ignore any struggle he has. When he does feel something, he tends to drown it out with alcohol. However, by identifying his struggles, even in the slightest sense, helps Holden find who he is as a person. He can accept who he is even in a minimal setting like this. Another case of this occurring is after the prostitute leaves Holden’s hotel room, and he thinks “What I did, I started talking, sort of out loud, to Allie. I do that sometimes when I get very depressed. I keep telling him to go home and get his bike and meet me in front of Bobby Fallon’s house” (110). Holden has discovered a main source of his problems. The situation with “Bobby Fallon’s house” shows that Holden feels very bad for not spending as much time with his brother. He told his brother to go away and