TRAUMA and DISILLUSIONMENT— Revisiting Salinger’s ‘Catcher in the Rye’

Holden Caulfield is an eccentric teenager. He harbors a deep disdain for the adult world, which he often refers to as ‘evil’. This negativity towards adulthood is rooted in his obsession with innocence, or rather, the loss of it. Holden struggles to cope with adult behaviors, finding them difficult to understand and unable to respond to them in a mature way. It is important to note that his views on adulthood are not as simple as they might first appear.

One thing to keep in mind on Holden’s perspective is his frequent use of the term ‘phonies’ to describe adults. To him, they are shallow, insincere, and self-serving, often hypocritical or out of touch. In Holden’s mind, the adult world represents a place of moral decay, a world where compromise and the loss of innocence are inevitable.

At first glance, Holden’s view of adulthood as ‘evil’ might seem like an exaggerated or simplistic judgment. But in reality, this view reflects his perception, not an objective truth. His disillusionment with the adult world is because of his deep sense of loss and trauma. While many readers might first think that Holden’s trauma is primarily linked to the death of his younger brother, Allie, it is also implied that there are other traumas that may have affected his attitude towards adulthood (which I will get to later on).

For Holden, adulthood is synonymous with the abandonment of innocence. He believes that becoming an adult means succumbing to moral corruption and compromising one’s core values.

In the novel, Holden desires to be the ‘catcher in the rye’. He imagines to be a figure who protect children from falling into the corruption of adulthood. Interestingly, Holden’s desire to save others from the adult world can also be seen as a way of comforting himself. He yearns to preserve the purity, not only for the sake of others but also as a means of protecting himself from confronting his own psychological trauma.

Although Holden’s disdain for adulthood is not explicitly linked to a specific traumatic event beyond Allie’s death, there are subtle indications in the text that suggest his negative view of adulthood may also be influenced by his experience with sexual abuse. While this is never directly stated, some of Holden’s behaviors and attitudes hint at an underlying trauma that may have contributed to his fear and mistrust of the adult world. The Catcher in the Rye could also be a personal recount of Holden with the consequence of being a victim of child sexual abuse.

As Holden’s emotional breakdown reaches its peak, he suddenly has the urge to call Mr. Antolini, who he describes as “the best teacher”. However, the encounter with Mr. Antolini in his apartment takes an unsettling turn, suggesting that he may have ulterior motives. It’s another example of Holden being betrayed by someone he trusted reinforcing his mistrust of the very world he is trying to escape. By introducing Mr. Antolini at this late stage, is a manipulation of the reader’s expectations. Mr. Antolini, is revealed to be just another adult, another ‘phony’, who, like so many others in Holden’s life, is incapable of providing the support he desperately needs.

In chapter 24, Antolini invites Holden in and provides him some comforting advice and a place to sleep. Holden falls asleep on his couch. Holden is startled and awakes to find Mr. Antolini sitting on the floor beside him and touching him. Frightened by this supposed sexual advance, Holden immediately dresses and hurriedly leaves the apartment, while Antolini makes some feeble excuses for his behavior. After he fled, Holden narrates–

The numbers may be distorted and untrue. And perhaps even Mr. Antolini never had any sexual intentions to begin with. However, Holden’s claim that he has had multiple encounters with pedophiles is concerning. It is also suggested that Holden’s childhood friend, Jane Gallagher, had also been sexually abused by her alcoholic stepfather.

As I re-read the text, I understood him not just as a disgruntled teenager, but as a rebel (although it wasn’t always clear exactly what he was rebelling against). There was something wrong in Holden’s universe, something that deeply troubled him. As many teenagers do, we interpreted this as his resistance to the adult world, or more broadly, to society. Holden’s anger and confusion seemed to reflect a sense of disillusionment, one that felt particularly intense for someone maneuvering the transition from adolescence to adulthood.

Everyone around him, except for his younger sister Phoebe, seems completely self-absorbed. They are all wrapped up in their own concerns, and Holden feels as though they use him for their own purposes without offering anything meaningful in return. His interactions with the adults and peers he encounters are marred by an overwhelming sense of betrayal. Each person he meets, whether it’s his classmates, his teachers, or even his parents, seems to be more interested in their own self-interest than in offering Holden the kind of connection he desperately craves.

Ironically,Holden himself becomes part of the problem. In his desperate attempt, he ends up sabotaging virtually all of his relationships. Holden takes on various personas throughout the novel which meant that he, according to the suggested deductions based on his actions, is pretending to be more mature and sophisticated than he really is. He constantly tries to present himself as an outsider, someone above the ‘phoniness’ he despises, but in doing so, he becomes just as fake as the very people he criticizes. He wants to be seen as independent and emotionally detached, but in truth, he is deeply vulnerable and in need of genuine connection.

The surface story of the novel is that of Holden Caulfield, a disillusioned teenager rejecting a phony world. But as one dig deeper, the readers begin to realize something darker: Holden is not just rebelling against society— he is possibly a victim. Holden’s trauma is not merely a reaction to the world around him, but also possibly the result of abuse by adult predators. Throughout the novel, Holden struggles to articulate his pain. He can’t talk about it directly with anyone, not even with the readers. Despite the opportunity to be truly honest (such as his session with the psychiatrist in Ch.26), Holden still doesn’t confront or explicitly mention the cause of his distress. His silence about the abuse reveals the depth of traumas— he cannot bring himself to face it, even when given a chance to.

The ‘phoniness’ that Holden so vehemently condemns stems from our collective desire to see the world as perfect and perfectible. We want to believe in a world where everything fits neatly into the idealized versions of morality, success, and innocence. This desire for a flawless world often leads us to suppress or deny uncomfortable truths, things we are ashamed of but that happen with disturbing regularity. Topics like abuse, trauma, and imperfection are pushed aside in favor of maintaining a carefully constructed image of society and adulthood.

Holden’s disdain for phoniness reflects his frustration with this tendency to avoid difficult or messy realities. He sees adults as hypocrites because, in their efforts to maintain this facade of perfection, they ignore the genuine, often painful experiences.

Presuming that Holden is not being entirely dishonest, his perspective can be seen as a deeply manipulative yet understandable reaction to trauma. He is a teenager whose psychology and personality have been severely damaged by psychological trauma. Holden’s erratic behavior, his distrust of adults, and his exaggerated cynicism seem to be coping mechanisms, responses to experiences he cannot fully process or express.

His refusal to directly address the source of his pain is representative of both his trauma and a defense mechanism. The society seem to often condemn those who expose uncomfortable truths, especially when it comes to topics considered taboo such as child sexual abuse. Holden’s verbose silence, even at the end when he is in a mental hospital, suggests that he has internalized this societal condemnation because he felt guilty and scared (which is a trait of Abused victims).

The title ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ is a reference to the old folk song ‘Comin’ Through the Rye’, which is about two lovers secretly meeting in a field of rye. The song’s lyrics creates an image of hidden intimacy, that of safety and seclusion. Holden, however, transforms this image. He imagines himself as the ‘catcher in the rye’, standing in a field where children play. In his mind, these children are innocent and pure, but they are at risk of falling off an unseen cliff— perhaps the loss of innocence, the moral dangers of growing up, or even the emotional trauma he has experienced. Holden sees himself as their protector, trying to save them from falling into the ‘madness’ of adulthood or the painful experiences he himself has endured.