Adolescent Stupidity in The Catcher in the Rye

Photo - Lesley Lanir
The Catcher in the Rye - photo by Lesley Lanir

Holden Caulfield's behaviours in J.D. Salinger's The Catcher In The Rye agree with Professor David Elkind's theories on adolescent pseudo-stupidity and imaginary audience.
Adolescence is a complex period of transition. It constitutes a stage in personality development when a child begins to feel less need for the security of familial protection and supervision; because adolescence is such a transitional period, it may cause psychological conflicts resulting in mental instability.

Holden Caulfield – A Typical Adolescent

The protagonist, Holden Caulfield, is a teenager suffering from a mental disequilibrium that eventually results in his admission to a sanatorium. However, some of the symptoms he displays are considered normal adolescent behaviour if interpreted according to David Elkind’s theory of development in his article, "Understanding the Young Adolescent" in Adolescence, 1978. 
David Elkind, former Professor of Psychology, Psychiatry and Education at the University of Rochester, New York, approaches child development in close connection with Jean Piaget’s theories of development psychology and discusses several typical behaviours, two of which he calls, “pseudo-stupidity” and “imaginary audience”.


Holden Caulfield’s Pseudo-stupidity
Elkind states that one aspect of pseudo-stupidity occurs when adolescents translate circumstances more complexly than necessary, usually anticipating devious motives in the behaviour of others. Caulfield displays this type of behaviour when he assumes that Pencey gives steaks to the students on Saturdays to impress those parents who visit at the weekends (39).
Caulfield also exhibits pseudo-stupidity when he assumes that Stradlater admires his hat only because he wants him to write a composition for him (34). Caulfield’s certitude that all Catholics, including the nuns he enjoys breakfast with, “are always trying to find out if [people are] Catholic” (118) represents another instance of over-analysing people's motives.
A further example of this type of the behaviour known as pseudo-stupidity is when Caulfield becomes unreasonably distressed “that the old lady in the school had told [the] other lady not to give [his sister his] message” (184*), which would result in Caulfield and his sister not meeting before he left town. Thus, Caulfield’s adolescent “pseudo-stupidity” results in him responding to situations in an apprehensive manner almost to the extent of being paranoid.

Imaginary Audience
When teenagers believe that everyone in their vicinity is as preoccupied with their behaviour and appearance as they are themselves, they believe they have what Elkind refers to as an “imaginary audience”. Such an idiosyncrasy helps to account for the increased self-consciousness of adolescents who become very concerned with their looks because they feel they are subject to constant evaluation. This characteristic manifests itself in Caulfield when he goes to the ice rink with Sally Hayes. He assumes that “a couple of hundred rubbernecks” are watching him fall over (135), thus imagining himself to be the centre of everybody’s attention.

Holden Caulfield, a Teenage Problem
Although Caulfield’s conduct may appear perplexing, even irritating, according to Elkind, he displays these behaviours not due to bad motives or “madman stuff” (1*), but rather to intellectual immaturity resulting from the psychological disequilibrium that happens during adolescence.


Sources:
Elkind, David. “Understanding the Young Adolescent.” Adolescence, vol. XIII No. 49, Libro Publishers, Inc. New York. , Spring, 1978
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher In The Rye. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books Ltd., 1951.
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher In The Rye. London: Penguin Books Ltd., 1994.
References with * refer to the 1994 edition of The Catcher in the Rye. References without * refer to the 1951 version.

First published Feb 16, 2011 on Suite101 by Lesley Lanir.
Copyright Lesley Lanir. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication.

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