《麦田里的守望者》中霍尔顿·考尔菲德的分析_英语论文

An analysis of Holden Caulfield in the Catcher in the Rye

摘要

《麦田里的守望者》是20世纪50年代美国作家J.D.塞林格的代表作。作品以主人公霍尔顿·考尔菲德的第一人称口吻，叙述了他离校后在纽约两天两夜的游荡经历。霍尔顿·考尔菲德是个个性极为复杂的问题少年，其中一点就是他身上所体现出的矛盾性格。然而，霍尔顿表现出的极强的自我矛盾并没有得到太多全面深刻的分析，多数作者只是把他的矛盾性格作为对他性格分析中诸多特点中的一个方面而写到。因此，本文将针对霍尔顿个性中的矛盾特点，进行一个专门的全面分析。

本文将指出霍尔顿既为主流文化的反叛者，又是现实社会的妥协者这一最大的性格矛盾，并分别展开，陈述其各自的表现来支持论点。随后，文章会对这一矛盾产生的原因在客观和主观两个方面分别进行剖析，通过对当时的社会、家庭、人际关系和霍尔顿自身因素的分析，来解释他矛盾的成因。最后，霍尔顿的问题实则也给予了现代社会和青少年以启示，启示社会要更多的关注青少年健康人格的培养，也希望青少年读者能从中得到启发，在霍尔顿身上学习到宝贵的成长经验。

关键词：矛盾；霍尔顿·考尔菲德；反叛；妥协

Abstract

The Catcher in the Rye is a masterpiece of American writer J.D.Salinger in 1950s. The book describes the protagonist Holden Caulfield’s wandering experience in New York for two days and two nights after his leaving school in his own voice. Holden Caulfield is a problem youth with a very complicated personality. One of the reflections of his complex characteristics is the contradiction in him. Whereas, Holden’ s strong self-contradiction hasn’t gotten analyzed comprehensively and profoundly so much. Most authors only write about Holden’s contradictory personality as one small point when they conduct a character analysis of him. So, this thesis is going to make a special comprehensive analysis which only focuses on Holden’ s characteristic of contradiction. This thesis will point out Holden’ s biggest contradiction of being both a rebel of the mainstream culture and a compromise maker of the reality. And then, it will state their respective performance to support the argument. Moreover, the paper will analyze the causes of the contradiction subjectively and objectively. The causes of Holden’s self-contradiction will be explained by analyzing the society, family, interpersonal relationship and his own factors. Lastly, in fact, Holden’s problems also give enlightenment to our modern society and the youth. It reminds the society to pay more attention to the cultivation of the healthy personality of teenagers. And I also hope that teenager readers could learn some valuable experience of growth from Holden and the thesis.

Key words: contradiction; Holden Caulfield; rebellion; compromise

Contents

Introduction ………………………………………………………………………….1

1. A paradox of behavior and character——Holden Caulfield..............................2

  1.1 A rebel of the mainstream culture........................................................................2

1.1.1 Dissatisfaction with the education system....................................................2

1.1.2 Rebellion conveyed by the hunting hat.........................................................3

1.1.3 Pursuit of sincerity in the false society.........................................................4

1.1.4 Rebellion against the conventional language and structure..........................4

  1.2 A compromise maker of reality............................................................................5

1.2.1 Holden’s cowardliness...................................................................................5

1.2.2 Holden’s lies..................................................................................................5

1.2.3 Strong social reality.......................................................................................6

1.2.4 Attachment to human society........................................................................7

2. Analysis of objective causes of Holden’s self-contradictory................................8

  2.1 Alienation of social environment.........................................................................8

  2.2 Deformity of education........................................................................................8

  2.3 Lack of family warmth.........................................................................................8

  2.4 Alienation of human relations .............................................................................9

3. Analysis of subjective reasons of Holden’s self-contradictory............................9

  3.1 Cognitive deficiencies of life purpose and meaning............................................9

  3.2 Lack of self-control.............................................................................................10

  3.3 Lack of courage...................................................................................................10

  3.4 Lack of effort.......................................................................................................10

  Conclusion................................................................................................................11

  References.................................................................................................................13