《麦田里的守望者英文书评》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《麦田里的守望者英文书评（6页珍藏版）》请在金锄头文库上搜索。
1、精品文档你我共享Major ThemesPainful Experience vs. NumbnessPerhaps the greatest theme of the novel involves the relationship between the pain of actual experience and feeling ones feelings, on the one hand, and onthe other hand the equally devastating numbness that comes with shutting down ones emotions in
2、order to avoid suffering. After the death of Allie, Holden essentially shuts down, forcing himself to lose all attachments to people so as never to be hurt again. He repeatedly mentions how important it is not to get attached to anyone, since this will lead to missing them once they are gone. By the
3、 end of the novel, he has spiraled so far down with this theory that he has become afraid to even speak to anyone. Phoebe is perhaps the only reminder that Holden still has the capacity to love. When he looks at her, he cannot help but feel the same tortured love that he felt for Allie. Nevertheless
4、, the surges of these feelings leave him even more bereft. He knows he must leave Phoebe to protect himself, but when she shows up to accompany him on his journey, ultimately he puts his love for her first and sacrifices his own instinct to flee in order to return home.Holden, it seems, is in the th
5、roes of an existential crisis. To a great degree he is numb to the pains and joys of life. Unable to come to terms with his brothers death, he has no one to show him the kind of parental or brotherly love that he himself gave Allie. Whenever someone does end up showing him even a hint of such love (
6、such as Mr. Antolini), Holden ends up being disappointed.Love and SexAt his core, Holden is a deep, sensitive soul, at bottom unable to sublimate his feelings into numbness. He envies someone like Stradlater, who can simply pick up girls whenever he likes, and who treats sex as a casual pleasure. To
7、 Holden, however, sex is deeply discomforting. He cannot have it with girls he likes, and he cannot manage to numb himself enough to treat girls casually. Numbing himself to love, it seems, is Holdens greatest challenge. He feels too deeply about the world, about people, to truly shut down. When he
8、finally does fall in love with Jane Gallagher, he soon discovers that Stradlater has a datewith her, which confirms his suspicion that everything he loves eventually deteriorates. He leaves Pencey with some hope of inventing a new identity, buthe cannot break out of his being. Even in the presence o
9、f a prostitute, he cannot think of having sex, only of having a conversation in the hope of feeling some glimmer of human affection with her. All Holden wants to do is talk, but腹有诗书气自华精品文档你我共享he cannot find someone who will listen.Loss of InnocenceHolden must face that fork in the road of adolescenc
10、e when one realizes that maturity entails a loss of innocence that greater knowledge of oneself and others and the circumstances all comes with a price. In Holdens case, he cannot bear to accept the death of Allie, the death of pure innocence that had no good reason to suffer or die. In Holdens eyes
11、, Allie is truth, while everyoneelse is “phony. ” Innocence goes with idealism and a certain inability or unwillingness to bear and accept the harsher reality. Holden cannot bear to hold onto his innocence because innocence brings its own harms; people continue to disappoint him. Thus the cost of ma
12、turity is much less; innocencehas been quite painful, too. Innocence has been problematic: the prostitute demands more money for nothing, the man who takes him in seems like a pedophile, and the cab drivers berate him as stupid when he asks simple questions about the birds in the park. While Allie s
13、 memory can help him preserve his innocence, this is not enough, for he cannot find real love in the outside world.Besides, losing Allie has brought tremendous pain. Holden also has the common adolescent experience of perceiving that time in school learning mundane lessons feels petty when his entir
14、e soul is in flux as it comes to grips with reality. When the entire world around him appears phony, where can hego to grasp hold of some reality, some stable truth? Without an explanation why Allie was taken from him, there appears no reason behind the worlds events, and in this respect Holden s ma
15、turity involves a deep loss of innocence such that he perceives that the reality of the world is its very irrationality.Phoniness vs. AuthenticityHoldenlabelsalmost everyone a “phony, ” excepting Phoebe,Allie,andhimself. In Holdens eyes, a“phony ”is someone who embraces the worldsmundane demands and tries to make something out of nothingthat is, justabout everyone who studies in school or who puts on airs in order to do a jobor achieve a goal. The fact thatno one is acknowledginghowtrivialandfleetinglife is,comparedwith thegrand things we tell oneanother aboutreality ho
