Holden Caulfield – A Faux Rebel?

Abstract

Through analysis of the importance of education in the novel Catcher in the Rye, the scope of this paper is to explore how genes and the environment come together in shaping a child's behaviour. The matter of how nature versus nurture influences human development has been an ongoing discussion for a very long time and, at present, the matter is up to debate, as both nature (genes) and nurture (environmental factors) seem to play a very important role in human development. Education is a fundamental part of intellectual freedom and, one of its main values is enhancing how children view, exist in, and participate in the world (Rothwell, 2013). At the centre of this study will be one of the most popular “misfits” of American literature J.D. Salinger’s Holden Caulfield, who was and will remain a source of inspiration for many teenagers who, one way or another, refuse to accept conformity. Holden is a young adult who lives in a society which he utterly neglects and the main purpose is to find out if he is indeed a rebel and a misfit or is he just a confused teenager in search of adulthood?