The Persistent Pursuit of Childhood Innocence
in Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis and Jerome
David Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye
Instructor
Aseel Hatif Jassam
The Persistent Pursuit of Childhood Innocence in Franz
Kafka's Metamorphosis and Jerome David Salinger's The
Catcher in the Rye
Abstract
The research , as its title indicates , deals with two literary works that
share the same idea which is going back in continuous pursuit of childhood
innocence . Though these two works are in common , their authors approach
this very idea differently . Franz Kafka , a European novelist , deals with this
subject from a psychological as well as a naturalistic point of view , showing
how living in a modern merciless mechanical world makes man lose his
human worth
_
a situation that makes him , as Gregor Samsa in Kafka's
novella , Metamorphosis
( 1912 ) , who returns symbolically to a more
infantile and primitive state in the form of a cockroach , dreams of going back
to the stage of childhood where he can be far away from the burden of
responsibility , the kind of responsibility that a person is going to afford when
moving to the adolescent stage . Jerome D. Salinger , an American writer in
the 1930s , approaches it from a psychological point of view , showing how
difficult it is for Holden Caulfield , the hero of his novel , The Catcher in the
Rye ( 1951 ) and the representative of what is called " the sensitive young "
1
man , to cope with the vulgar American adult society and its economic values.
The research makes clear how the society he finds himself in makes him
suffer from countless psychological troubles that put him in front of two
undesirable choices : either to lose his identity in adjusting to the American
society's values or to enter a psychoanalytic institution where he is to be
treated as an insane child .Not assimilating the American culture and its
corrupted values and acting according to his own moral ones instead , he is
defeated by his society and is forced to choose the second alternative choice .
The aim of this research is to show the psychological reasons behind the
desires of these two heroes in staying in the stage of childhood where they
can enjoy childhood innocence , security , and no responsibility and their
abhorrence of moving to the adolescent stage where they can't enjoy any of
the above attributes that childhood connotes . The research shows whether the
biography of these two novelists has an effect on their fictions by probing into
their lives and studying their psychic condition at home which is the person's
first
school
according
to
the
science
of
psychology
.
To start with these works , readers have to have an idea of what the
literary scene is like when they are published . Published in 1912 , Kafka's
novella comes as a reaction to the modernist movement in literature that began
around the turn of the century and leads
writers – due to the advent of
different isms , to name " expressionism with its apocalyptic despairs and
messianic hopes , "
2
surrealism with its aim at liberating " the image –
forming powers of the unconscious , "
3
and stressing them over conscious
control , and Freudianism with its emphasis that early experiences , such as
one's [ strained ] relationship with his own father , have a profound impact on
the development of the unconscious ,
_
to use a dark style of writing in
perceiving the modern world and this is exactly what Kafka does in opening
his novella :
As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy
dreams , he found himself transformed in his bed
into a gigantic insect . He was lying on his hard , as
it were armour _ plated , back and when he lifted
his head a little he could see his dome _ like brown
belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of
which the bed _ quilt could hardly keep in position
and was about to slide off completely . His
numerous legs , which were pitifully thin compared
to the rest of his bulk , waved helplessly before his
eyes.
( M , Ch . I , P . 9 ) 4
To read the quotation above , one might think that Kafka's intention is
to write just a fantasy but it is more than this . In his novella , he uses the
literary technique of blending
reality with fantasy in an attempt to make
readers aware how incredible and incomprehensible reality is . Such
paradoxical aim is clear in his following recall in a later year of his ambitions
as a young man :
[ I was sitting once ] thinking over the things I wanted
in life . What seemed most important and attractive
was the wish to achieve a view of life ( and
necessarily connected with this , of course
_
_
to be
able to make other people believe in it by writing ) ,
in which life would still preserve its natural , solid
course of ups and downs , but at the same time would
be seen just as clearly to be a nothing , a dream , a
weightless movement . 5
This literary technique is plainly utilized from the start of the novella .
Samsa , first clinging to the belief that his metamorphosis is a dream , that his
" morning delusions gradually " ( M , Ch . I , P . 12 ) disappear , and that "
the change in his voice was nothing but the precursor of a severe chill , a
standing ailment of a commercial travellers , " (Ibid . ) and alienated by his
family and " left more and more to his own devices , "
" an instinctive clear
_
6
later comes to have
sightedness which makes him see his true position in
all of its inescapable actuality ."
7
With the family's indifference growing
greater and greater , Samsa's metamorphosis becomes complete . Just as his
body and voice undergo a " regressive change , "
8
so too does his taste for
food and music . As for food , fresh food , not " a piece of cheese that
[ he] would have called uneatable two days ago " ( M , Ch . II , P . 29 )
comes to have " no charms for
him . "
( Ibid . ) Accordingly , his sister ,
Grete Samsa , who used to choose his food with love and care eventually
comes to push " into his room with her foot any food that was available , and
in the evening cleared it out again with one sweep of the broom , heedless of
whether it had been merely tasted , or as most frequently happened
untouched
.
"
(M,
Ch
.
III
,
P
_
left
.48)
Losing his physical human shape , and the appetite for food
completely , crawling
up the walls in his filthy room " with increasing
enjoyment " ( M , Ch . III
P . 50 ) and pleasure and developing the fear of an
insect and the habit of taking food into his mouth just as a pastime and then
spiting it out again hours later
more primitive , "
9
_
all show that " his biological level is now
and emphasize " the infantile character of the degraded
state to which Gregor has symbolically returned . "
primitiveness brings even his much
_
10
Samsa's total
loved sister and caretaker , Grete to
reject him telling her parents : " we've tried to look after it and to put up with
it as far as is humanly possible , and I don't think anyone could reproach us in
the slightest . " ( M , Ch . III , P . 56 ) Using the pronoun " it " to replace "
he" or " him ," she goes on saying :
We must try to get rid of it , … . it will
be the death of both of you , I can see that coming .
When one has to work as hard as we do , all of us ,
one can't stand this continual torment at home on
top of it . At least I can't stand it any longer .
(Ibid . )
So far , Gregor Samsa's monstrous metamorphosis is explained ; but
the question here is why such kind of dehumanizing transformation takes
place in him . Kafka gives the answer in the novella's first paragraph
mentioned earlier , in which readers are introduced to his subtle style of fusing
reality with fantasy and thus , in the case of the novella , his shift from
Samsa's real world as indicated in the first dependent clause of the opening
paragraph to his metaphorical state indicated in the main clause . The word
" uneasy " used to describe Samsa's dreams tells readers something about his
previous life as a commercial traveller . Influenced by the expressionistic
movement , Kafka tries to show by these " uneasy dreams " Samsa's inner
unhappiness and physical discomfort as a commercial traveller in addition to
" the dehumanizing effect of his job due to the always changing human
contacts, which never lead to close personal relations . "
this
tiresome
work
,
11
Complaining about
Samsa
says
:
O God , … what an exhausting job I've picked
on ! Travelling about day in , day out . It's much more
irritating work than doing the actual business in the
warehouse , and on top of that there's the trouble of
constant travelling , of
worrying about train
connexions , the bed and irregular meals , casual
acquaintances that are always new and never become
intimate
friends
.
( M , Ch . I , PP . 9 _ 10 )
As a defining work of modernism and written as an expression of
resentment towards totalitarianism that dominated Europe in the middle of the
nineteenth century , Kafka tries to show how Samsa is being exploited due to
the utilitarian spirit of the age , and badly treated by the boss . Samsa's
reflection on the head's disgusting habit of " sitting on high desk and
talking down to employees , " ( M , Ch . I , P . 10 ) which " echoes the Old
Testament metaphor of the God 'most high ' who yet can ' hear ' us "
increases
his
feeling
of
humiliation
and
nothingness
12
.
Why should Samsa stay in the firm he loathes ? The answer to this
question brings readers to know something about his position inside home and
his relationship with his father who comes to be seen as " the worst insect
among the vermin "
13
in his life .Just as the firm exercises suppression on
Samsa , so too does his family more precisely shown through Kafka's " an
extremely primitive father – image . "
14
With no one in his family working
including his " parasitical father , " 15 Samsa is trapped in his job and is forced
to work there as a slave so as to pay " off some more of his father's debts to
the chief , " ( M , Ch . II , P . 33 ) and to support financially his family who is
now dependent fully on him . This heavy weight on Samsa's life , having
replaced the father as the practical head and breadwinner of the family , which
is his original sin , "
16
becomes greater for his father has never told him that
he has saved enough money from his bankruptcy and from Gregor's earnings ,
bringing by that his son to work for his debtor " another five or six years . "
( M , Ch . I , P . 10 ) Dreaming of the day when he can be free from the
restrictive demands of his work , and the feeling of responsibility for his
" family's tensions and economic worries , "
17
and escape his selfish family ,
he ironically lives and dies as an insect . Put like this , Idris Parry interprets
Samsa's metamorphosis from an insignificant commercial traveller and the
economic head of the household to his new cockroach form as a " pure
expression of his personality , " 18 that he can feel only when he returns to his
room – Kafka's prototype of the fiction of enclosure and his protagonist's
refuge against the harsh world he is unable to stand . Having Freud's
psychological theories in the background , such return can be seen as a
regressive tendency of an adult to return to the womb , the sacred place where
he
can
meet
his
needs
and
feel
protected
.
As Samsa finds in dreams a means whereby he can escape his horrible
real life , Kafka too finds in writing away which enables him to release and
escape the pain , fears , sorrows , sufferings and despair he feels inside home
where he comes to feel that he is a failure or even zero in front of the
tyrannical , authoritarian presence of the " gross giant , "
19
forceful father "
who had fought his way up from a miserably impoverished childhood to
become a relatively prosperous merchant . "
20
Trying to see his son , born as
a writer , in his own image , Kafka's father , Hermann Kafka , born as a
businessman , tells his son " that only with such masculine qualities as
hardness and aggressiveness had he succeeded in his fight against a hostile
world . " 21 Domineered by his father , Franz Kafka , like Samsa , works in an
insurance company , the Italian insurance company that provides " Kafka with
models for that kind of bug . "
22
Finding his job there as unbearable as
Samsa's , Kafka says :
It contradicts my sole desire and my only vocation ,
which is literature , as I am nothing but literature , and
neither can nor want to be anything else , my job can
never have any hold over me , though it certainly can
shatter
me
completely
.
23
In this light , Kafka's strained relationship with his father can be seen
as the origin of Samsa's story . His intention of making of his writings mirror
images of the life he lived is to have a " psychoanalytic cure "
24
or to use
Kafka's words in his letter to his father " a long – drawn – out leave – taking
from you . "
25
Seen from this corner , the question is does Samsa achieve this
leave from his father ? Yes , Samsa achieves this at the very end of the
novella, after a long journey of suffering and rejection before his
metamorphosis when his father used to be dependant economically on him ,
only after the metamorphosis with his father's restoration of the headship of
the family . Unlike his mother and sister , Samsa's father rejects him from the
start . Such rejection contiues as Samsa undergoes this metamorphosis and is
symbolized by his father's
bombardment of him with " apple after apple . "
( M , Ch . II , P . 44 ) This bombardment can also be seen as an emblem of
Hermann Kafka's dislike towards Franz Kafka's love of writing . Interpreted
psychologically , Samsa's metamorphosis is
himself "
26
an
attempt
to
" revenge
upon his father for his dependence on him . Yet his plan for a
counter - attack does not succeed for Samsa the insect becomes dependent
now on the father and with its dependence , it dies . By Samsa's failure both as
a man and an insect , Kafka tries to show that to live is to achieve " personal
certainty , "
27
the certainty that Kafka himself does not achieve until –
ironically enough – the last year of his short life . Kafka's father , as Samsa's ,
seems to be the predicament against this . This is clearly shown in a letter
written in November 1919 that Max Brod refers to in his biography of Kafka .
In that letter , the " timid son , " 28 putting into his father's mouth words which
are relevant to this Gregor Samsa transformation , brings his father to " defend
himself , "
29
saying :
I admit , I admit we are struggling against one another .
But there are two kinds of struggle . Chivalrous combat , in
which independent antagonists match their powers – each
remaining independent , losing for himself , conquering for
himself alone . And the attack of the noxious insect , which
not only bites , but also
sucks blood for its own
preservation . This is of course , the real professional
soldier – and this is what you are . You are unfit for life
and , so that you may feel comfortable , without care and
without reproach , you demonstrate that I have taken all
your fitness for life away from you and hidden it in my
pockets . 30
Samsa's craving for his inner man is clearly manifested both in his
persistence , while starving to death , not to eat the food the three lodgers
of his house are eating and in his appreciation of his sister's performance
on the violin before the scene of his death . Reaching this greatest
moment of humiliation , Samsa refuses to sustain his own life with " that
kind of food " ( M , Ch . III , P . 51 ) which he has been satisfied with
before. Samsa's desire is " to find in life the ' food ' which lifts [ his ] inner
man above the banality of existence . " 31 He , the product of the modern age
that is " hostile to the inner man and his hunger , "
32
wishes to save himself
by eating the food he could eat after he was changed which later comes to
represent " the life food towards which the violin – playing sister has shown
him the way . "
33
Moved by his sister's violin – playing , he as a beetle
now , unlike the three lodgers , comes to appreciate her music and tries to
bring her back to him and live in " his foul beetle – room " 34 where he is to
be " lifted out of this nether world to which his firm , his parents , the three
roomers , and the maid belong and to which he too belonged until he awakes
one morning from ' uneasy dreams ' as a beetle feeding on rotten food . "
35
Put like this , betterment seems to be the only hope for a sensitive man like
Samsa to reach " the unknown nourishment he craved " ( M , Ch . III , P
. 53 ) and reveal his inner being in front of all the predicaments of the
modern
world
.
To start with Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye , one has to have an
idea about , as with Kafka's Metamorphosis , the cultural and intellectual
climate of the 1950s . The novel begins in 1950 with the main hero , Holden
Caulfield , an American teenager , suffering from a nervous breakdown and
undergoing a psychiatric therapy in a mental institution where he , by means
of flashbacks , tells his story , bringing by that readers across " his bouts of
unexplained depression , impulsive spending , and generally odd , erratic
behavior , prior to his eventual nervous collapse . "
36
Reading the novel ,
one might question why Caulfield comes to this end . The answer is summed
up by Arthur
Heiseman and James E . Miller in the following :
It is not Holden who should be examined for a
sickness of the mind , but the world in which he has
sojourned and found himself an alien . To ' cure '
Holden , he must be given the contagious , almost
universal
disease
of
phony
adultism
.
37
Reversely and ironically enough , Caulfield's cure is to quit his
anti – phoniness and stop his stance against the vulgarity of the adult world
towards which he , as a boy of sixteen , is growing . Put like this , Salinger's
novel is seen as " a critical look at the problem facing American youth
during 1950s . "
38
Caulfield , the sensitive man , seems to be in a
psychological battle with society . He is left with two choices : either to " fit
himself to the social order "
39
or to take the worse which is to reject society
and thus be its casualty . Finding in his Pency Prep school , which is the
author's as well , " a mad world "
40
or a phony world full of creeps and
hypocrites , Caulfield decides to leave it only to find himself later in New
York City where he is introduced to creeps and hypocrites " in a larger
perspective . "
41
Caulfield's decision not to go to his school is not just a rejection of
education but also a rejection of the process of maturation he fears most . To
continue his education means for him to go through the process of change he
abhors and tries hard not to undergo . His desire not to grow up for fear of
becoming a part of the world of phoniness and weakness he sees all around
him has something to do with his idealization of the Museum of Natural
History which " hasn't changed since he visited there as a kid . "
42
His wish
for a " silent , and frozen , predictable and unchanging "
43
world
is
expressed
museum
:
in
the
following
description
of
the
The best thing , though , in that museum , was that
everything always stayed right where it was .
Nobody'd
move . You could go there a hundred
thousand times , and that Eskimo would still be just
finished catching those two fish , the birds would still
be on their way south , the deers
would still be
drinking out of that water hole , with their pretty
antlers and their pretty , skinny legs , and that squaw
with the naked bosom would still be weaving that
same blanket . Nobody'd be different . The only thing
that
would
be
different
would
be
you
.
( TCR , Ch . 16 , PP . 144- 145 ) 44
His continuous concern for the ducks in the Central Park
throughout the novel also touches on the theme of change . He keeps asking
what these ducks shall do and where they would go in wintertime when the
lagoon freezes over . These questions do not only show the " curiosity of
youth "
45
on his part but also show that such kind of curiosity about the
ducks is in reality a mirror of an inner curiosity about his own future life .
His survival in the face of " the harsh realities of looming adulthood "
46
seems to be uncertain and unpredictable as that of the ducks . The pond ,
once in a while frozen , also symbolizes his transition from the world of
childhood to which he clings to the world of adulthood he wishes not to
enter . The appearance and disappearance of these ducks proves to him not
only that change is temporary , but also that life will go on , in spite of this
possibility of change , symbolized in his case by the death of his loved
brother , Allie Caulfield and by the succession of different seasons in the
case
of
the
ducks
and
their
pond
.
In reality , these two worlds : the world of the ducks and the world of
the museum he wishes he could live in are live reflections of " his ' catcher in
the rye ' fantasy "
47
in which he imagines himself as " a Christlike figure "
48
responsible for rescuing children , playing in a field of rye near a cliff from
falling symbolically from innocence " into adulthood , "
49
the inevitability of
which he comes to recognize only at the end . Such recognition that he no
longer can be the catcher able to help children to " hold on , "
50
as his
name suggests , to their innocence and be the savior of their purity is shown in
the carousel scene as he says :
All the kids kept trying to grab for the old ring , and
so was old Phoebe , and I was sort of afraid she'd fall
off the goddam horse , but I didn't say anything or do
anything . The thing with kids is , if they want to grab
for the gold ring , you have to let them do it , and not
say anything . If they fall off , they fall off , but it's
bad
if
you
say
anything
to
them
.
( TCR , Ch . 25 , P . 251 )
Feeling " powerless to the world of evil and forever protect both
51
young children and himself from growing up , "
Caulfield decides not to
stop his sister , Phoebe , to grab the gold ring , symbolically to experience an "
52
adolescent error . "
Yet , there are so many upsetting events in Caulfield's
teenager life in front of which he feels helpless prior to his epiphany . One of
these events take place in the Metropolitan Museum of Art where an obscene
expression as ' fuck you ' ( TCR , Ch . 25 , P . 242 ) engraved on the serene
Egyptian tomb catches his sight . This very expression is first seen by him in
his sister's school written on the wall . He , infuriated at the thought of
children
seeing
it
,
says
:
I kept wanting to kill whoever'd written it . I figured it
was some poverty bum that'd sneaked into the school
late at night to take a leak or something and then
wrote it on the wall . I kept picturing myself catching
him at it , and how I'd smash his head on the stone
steps till he was good and goddam dead and bloody .
But I knew too , I wouldn't have the guts to do it . I
knew that . That made me even more depressed . I
hardly even had the guts to rub it off the wall with my
hand , if you want to know the truth . I was afraid
some teacher would catch me rubbing it off and
would
anyway
think I'd written it . But I rubbed
,
finally
it out
.
( TCR , Ch . 25 , P . 239 )
Such an expression as a reminder of sex drives him reluctantly back
into the profane life he rejects and attempts to escape from , causing him
eventually to fall " into another kind of stasis : eternal childhood . "
53
Unlike
his fellow students as Stradlater and Ackley , Caulfield seems to be very
" sensitive to the adolescent transition to adult sexuality . "
54
Though
" precocious " 55 he may appear , he , unlike most juveniles , finds difficulty
in handling this dangerous new force saying :
Sex is something I really don't understand too hot .
You never know where the hell you are . I keep
making up these sex rules for myself , and then I
break them right away . Last year I made a rule that I
was going to quit horsing around with girls that , … .
( TCR , Ch . 9 , P . 76 )
Caulfield's " moratorium "
56
concerning this power is made clear by
his different failing sexual experiences , as
relationships with younger women , "
57
" Salinger's short
term
with Old Jane Gallagher , the
symbol of innocence in his mind whom he never communicates his love to ,
Sally Hayes , the girl he used to date in the past , and Sunny the prostitute
whose sexual advances makes him nervous and feel sorry for her , paying
money for nothing sexual in return . His struggle " with the turmoil of
adolescence " 58 is again felt as he nearly " dropped dead , " ( TCR , Ch . 4 , P.
38 ) being informed by Stradlater that he has dated Jane , the woman who
used to keep her kings in the back row when playing checkers with Caulfield .
Having heard that , he requests Stradlater to " ask her if she still keeps all her
kings in the back row ; " ( TCR , Ch . 6 , P . 52 ) a symbolic image ,
" portraying defense against sexual attack . " 59 Yet to Caulfield's recall of the
day he meets Jane and plays checkers with , Stradlater comments
contemptuously : " checkers , for Chrissake ! " ( TCR , Ch . 4 , P . 39 )
hinting at having sex with her . With such a comment , " danger signals have
begun fluttering in Holden's mind " 60 that Stradlater or the " secret slob "
( TCR , Ch . 4 , P . 34 ) " has invaded Holden's secret world and violated a
symbol
of
innocence
and
respect
.
61
"
Seen in this light , Caulfield's repeated reference to kings in the back
row is viewed by critics as expressions of his own ' fear ' or as representing
" a holding back of one's aggressive powers and unwillingness to enter the
competitive game and use them against other people , "
62
and thus his
request to Stradlater as an expression of " his desire to send Jane a secret
warning against the slob who would himself be the bearer of the message "
63
to Caulfield . Annoyed by her fall and feeling responsible for such violation ,
Caulfield punishes himself by maneuvering Stradlater into beating him up for
letting Stradlater break through the chaste " stage of kissing "
64
Caulfield
only once reached . After his struggle with Stradlater , he is unable for a while
to find his red hunting hat that he used to wear with " the old peak around to
the back , " ( TCR , Ch . 6 , P . 56 ) which symbolizes both " his red badge of
individuality , "
65
and his own " hunting expedition . "
66
With these kings
no more in the back row and losing and then giving his protective hat to his
sister in their last meeting , he comes to learn a pathetic lesson that he has
to play the game of life he first objects to playing " according to the rules . "
( TCR , Ch . 2 , P . 13 )
Caulfield , as Salinger who leaves " New York City primarily because
he found its literary circles at best unsatisfying , "
67
decides to lead a
secluded life . His dissatisfaction with the profane world surrounding him is to
be interpreted , Ihab Hassan in his article , J . D . Salinger : Rare Quixotic
Gesture points to , as an expression of " the need to reconceive American
reality . " 68 As " a new look of the American Dream , "
69
Salinger's story also
comes to dramatize a similar conflict . This clash " between a vision of
innocence and the reality of guilt , between the forms of love and power "
70
is replaced in his work by childhood and adolescence . Thus , " the nostalgia
for a mythic American past "
71
comes to find its reflection in Caulfield's
nostalgia for childhood innocence . Through such counter – play , Salinger
succeeds to show his hero's inner conflict between his desire to regress " back
to a child – like state of mind , "
72
and his withdrawal from the fearful
process of maturation . Put like this , his nostalgic retreat to childhood is not
to be seen as a form of escape , but also as " a criticism , an affirmation of
values which , for better or worse , we still cherish . "
access "
74
by his " dull or angry world about "
75
73
His ideals " denied
him , he as a result
withdraws to defend himself . Yet his ultimate defense , as the body of this
research and the novel's circular ending show , " is defenselessness . "
76
As
outsiders , both Caulfield and Samsa respond to their worlds strangely and
quixotically . Taking the form of a strange , and quixotic gesture , their
responses are seen , as Hassan points out , as the gestures " at once of pure
expression and of expectation , of protest and prayer , of aesthetic form and
spiritual content . "
77
Spiritually noble and against everything sham and
corrupted , Caulfield attempts to restore moral order by fighting his society's
phoniness . Yet in this Don Quixote type of battle , he slays no dragons and
proves to be a failure . Making no reforming contributions to his society and
achieving non of his supreme goals , he realizes his weakness and incapability
to change the profane mode of life in America – the realization that leads him
to accept the inevitability of maturation at the end of the novel .As Caulfield's,
Samsa's protest against the materialist world represented by his firm also
leads him to participate in a quixotic battle with his world and more especially
with his father whom he tries to avenge himself on through his regressive
metamorphosis , the only possible cure left for him in order not to take the
economic responsibility of his family . Again like Caulfield , Samsa achieves
nothing but his destruction . Rather than continuing to live in a mental hospital
as Caulfield does , Samsa lives and dies as an insignificant insect proving the
futility
of
his
transformation
.
Conclusion
Reading these two literary works , one would immediately think that
they are the fruit of troubled psyches . This comes to be true of both novels .
Kafka's Metamorphosis is written as a result of the author's strained
relationship with his father which he shows through his main hero , Gregor
Samsa , a salesman who , due to his father's debt to the firm's owner , is
obliged to work so as to support his family economically . Unable to tolerate
the exploitation of the firm's head , he once awakes from a dream only to find
himself as an insect – an insignificant example given by Kafka to show how
degraded humanity would be in the modern world . Awaked from this horrible
dream , his metamorphosis to a giant beetle becomes literal . With his dream
coming true , he accomplishes his wish of abandoning this vulgar and
materialistic world .
Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye also has its psychological
soundings . It comes as a result of feeling unrest , disillusionment , and
isolation from society following World War II . Salinger admits that his novel
is an autobiographical novel saying that " my boyhood was very much the
same as that of the boy in the book ….. it was a great relief telling people
about it . "
78
Caulfield's feeling of unrest comes likewise from his inability to
adjust to his phony and profane adult American world . Rejecting American
adult values , he regresses , like Samsa , to a child – like state of mind for fear
of becoming mature and vulgar as those who surround him both in his Prep
school and in New York City. Rather than committing suicide or accepting
his society's values and acting according to them , he continues living ,
receiving
psychological
treatment
in
a
psychiatric
hospital
.
Notes
1
Nona Balakian and Charles Simmons , eds. , The Creative Present :
Notes on Contemporary American Fiction (
New York ,
Company
,
2
,
INC.
,
1963
)
P
.
Doubleday &
25
.
Meno Spann , Franz Kafka ( London , Twayne Publishers , 1976 ) , p .
43 .
3
Donald O . Bdander , ed. etal. ,
New Webster's Dictionary and
Thesaurus of the English Language ( Danburg , CT, Lexicom Publication ,
INC. , 1992 ) , P . 996 .
4
Franz Kafka , Metamorphosis and Other Stories ( Harmondsworth ,
Penguin Books Ltd. , 1961 ) , p . 9 . All subsequent references appear in this
text .
5
Cited in Anthony Thorlby , Students' Guides to European Literature :
Kafka ( London , Heinemann Educational Books Ltd. , 1972 ) , p . 3 .
6
Johannes Pfeiffer , " The Metamorphosis " in Kafka : A Collection of
Critical Essays , ed. , Ronald Gray ( Englewood Cliffs , N. J. Prentice – Hall ,
Inc.
,
1962
)
,
7
Ibid .
8
Angel Flores and Homer Swander , eds.
p
.
, Franz Kafka Today
Wisconsin , The University of Wisconsin Press , 1958 ) , p . 32 .
9
Ibid .
10
11
Ibid.
Spann , p . 71 .
12
Cited in Spann , p . 64 .
13
Spann , p .67 .
14
15
Flores and Swander , eds. , p . 26 .
Spann , p .67 .
55
.
(
16
Flores and Swander , eds. , p . 26 .
17
Anonymous , " Study Guide for The Metamorphosis " nd. New York .
The McGraw- Hill Companies , Inc. , 25/ 11/ 2009 . << www. glencoe.
Com/sec/litreture/library/pdf/metamorphosis.pdf.>>
18
Idris Parry , " Kafka , Gogol and Nathanael West " in
Collection
19
20
of
Critical
Ibid .
Ibid .
21
Spann , p . 19 .
22
Ibid . , p . 67 .
23
Cited in Thorlby , P. 19 .
24
25
26
27
.
Thorlby , p . 11 .
Cited in Thorlby , p . 11 .
Spann , p . 48 .
Parry , p . 88 .
Essays
,
p
.
Kafka : A
87
.
28
Spann , p . 48 .
29
Ibid . , p . 49 .
30
31
Cited in Parry , p . 88 .
Spann , p . 73 .
32
33
34
Ibid .
Ibid .
Thorlby , p . 39 .
35
Spann , p. 70 .
36
Brian Banks , " T he Catcher in the Rye : a review " nd. 4/ 6 / 2006 . <<
http
://
37
www.
tmtm.com./sides
/
catcher
.
html
.
>>
.
Peter Show , " Love and Death in The Catcher in the Rye , " 1991 . 25 /
2 / 2009 . << homepage.
Love
38
&
Death
mac. com / mseffie/ assignments/ Catcher /
.
pdf
.
>>
.
Eric Lomazoff , " The Praises and Criticisms of J. D . Salinger's The
Catcher in the Rye , " nd. 4/ 6 / 2006 . << http : // www. levity . com/
corduroy/
39
Salinger
1
.
htm
.
>>
.
Richard Lettis , J. D. Salinger : The Catcher in the Rye ( Woodbury ,
Barron's
40
Educational
Ihab
Series
,
Inc.
,
1964
)
,
p
.
10
.
Hassan , Radical Innocence : Studies in the Contemporary
American Novel ( Princeton , Princeton University Press , 1961 ) , p . 273 .
41
Ibid .
42
Katie Reese , " Concept / Vocabulary Analysis for The Catcher in the
Rye , " 2006 . 25 / 2 / 2009 . << English byu. Edu/ Novellinks / reading % 20
strategies / catcher % 20 in % 20 the % 20 Rye / Vocab – Concept % 20
analysis . pdf . >> .
43
Anonymous , " The Catcher in the Rye : Themes , Symbols , Motifs "
nd. 21/ 2 / 2009 . << http : // www. slidersharenet / tranceking / the – catcher
–
in
–
44
the
–
rye
–
themes
–
symbols-
motifs
.
>>
.
J. D. Salinger , The Catcher in the Rye ( London , Hamish Hamilton
Ltd. , 1951 ) , pp. 144 – 146 .All subsequent references appear in this text .
45
Anonymous , " The Catcher in the Rye : Themes , Symbols ,
Motifs , "
46
47
48
Reese.
Anonymous , " The Catcher in the Rye : Themes , Symbols , Motifs , "
Lettis , p . 13 .
49
50
Ibid .
Anonymous , " Essays on The Catcher in the Rye , " 13 January
2005 . 6 / 3 / 2009 . << Lesley@ Lesleycody . com >> .
51
Sarah Downey , " The Maturation of Holden Caulfield and Henry
Fleming , " Aerius 2003 . 6 / 3 / 2009 . << http: // ae-lib. org . ua/ Salinger /
Texts
/
Downey
52
–
Maturation
.
htm
.
>>
.
Anonymous , " The Catcher in the Rye , " nd. 20 / 2 / 2009 . <<
http:// en. wikipedia. org / wiki/ The Catcher in the Rye . >> .
53
54
Encarta
Lettis , p . 14 .
James M. Kemp , " The Catcher in the Rye , " nd. Microsoft
2003
Microsoft
Corporation
.
55
Columbia
James Tucker , The Novels of Anthony Powell ( New York ,
University
56
57
Press
,
1976
)
,
p
.
129
.
Show .
Kelly Manning and Sarajane Stofac , " The Catcher in the Rye ,"
nd. 25 / 2 / 2009 . << http : // www. district 196. org/ rhs/ english / storm /
readingguide/
58
catcher
in
the
rye
.
pdf
.
>>
.
Anonymous , " The Catcher in the Rye , " nd. 25 / 2/ 2009 . <<
Cairinewilsonss . ocdsb . ca/ Folders / Departments / English / Heather% 20
Oliver % 20 The % 20 Catcher % 20 in %20 the % 20 Rye % 20 essay .
doc . >> .
59
Carl F. Strauch , " Kings in the Back Row : Meaning through
Structure – A Reading of Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye , " nd. 25 / 2 /
2009 . << homepage . mac. Com/ mseffie/ assignments / catcher/ structure .
pdf. >> .
60
Ibid .
61
Ibid .
62
Cited in Show .
63
Strauch .
64
Show .
65
Michael J. Cummings , " The Catcher in the Rye : Study Guide "
2006 . 25 / 2 / 2009 . << http :// www .Cummingsstudyguides . net / Guides3/
Catcher. html >>.
66
67
Ibid .
Ismail Salami , ed. , Literary Criticism Series : Study of Thirty
Great Novels ( Tehran , Mehrandish Books , 1999 ) , p . 40 .
68
Hassan , p . 261 .
69
Ibid .
70
Ibid.
71
Ibid . , p . 289 .
72
Anonymous , " The Catcher in the Rye ," nd. 21/ 2 / 2009 . << http: //
www.
73
bellmore-
merrick.
Hassan , p . 260 .
74
Ibid . , p . 272 .
75
Ibid ., p . 262 .
76
77
Ibid .
Ibid . , p . 263 .
k12.
ny.
us/
catcher.
html
.
>>
.
78
Anonymous , " The Catcher in the Rye , " nd. 20 / 2 /2009 . <<
http://www.
answers.
c
om/
topic/
j-d-salinger
.
>>
.
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