ホールデンと赤いハンチング帽
〜ホールデンの人間性〜

The Catcher in the Ryeの基本的テーマを簡単に言うと、子供の夢の世界と大人の現実の世界との対立ということになるだろう。つまり、子供の純粋無くな心と大人が作り出した実社会を生きていくためのルールや現実処理の方法との対立、という身近で誰しもが経験しているような事がテーマとなっている。

主人公ホールデンは子供の夢を持ちながら大人の現実とぶつかり、一人奮闘している。特に彼はインチキなものに対して並々ならぬ嫌悪感を示す。インチキなものに触れた時の彼の言動は激しく、偽悪的とも言えるほどきつい。

After I shut the door and started back to the living room, he yelled something at me, but I couldn't exactly hear him. I'm pretty sure he yelled `Good luck!' at me. I hope not. I hope to hell not. I'd never yell 'Good luck!' at anybody. It sounds terrible, when you think about it. (p. 13)

“`I had the privilege of meeting your mother and dad when they had their little chat with Dr Thurmer some weeks ago. They're grand people.' `Yes, they are. They're very nice.' Grand. There's a word I really hate. It's a phony. I could puke every time I hear it.” (p. 8)

“`I'd love to. Grand.' Grand. If there's one word I hate, it's grand. It's so phony. For a second, I was tempted to tell her to forget about the matinee.”(p. 96)

Where I lived at Pencey, I lived in the Ossenburger Memorial Wing of the new dorms. It was only for juniors and seniors. I was a junior. My roommate was a senior. It was named after this guy Ossenburger that went to Pencey. He made a pot of dough in the undertaking business after he got out of Pencey. What he did, he started these undertaking parlors all over the country that you could get members of your family buried for about five bucks apiece. You see old Ossenburger. He probably just shoves them in a sack and dumps them in the river. Anyway he gave Pencey a pile of dough, and they named our wing after him. The first football game of the year, he came up to school in this big goddam Cadillac, and we all had to stand up in the grandstand and give him a locomotive−that's a cheer. Then, the next morning, in chapel, he made a speech that lasted about ten hours. He started off with about fifty corny jokes, just to show us what a regular guy he was. Very big deal. Then he started telling us how he was never ashamed, when he was in some kind of trouble or something, to get right down on his knees and pray to God. He told us we should always pray to God−talk to Him and all−wherever we were. He told us we ought to think of Jesus as our buddy and all. He said he talked to Jesus all the time. Even when he was driving his car. That killed me. I can just see the big phony bastard shifting into first gear and asking Jesus to send him a few more stiffs.(p. 14)

`I mean they're all right if they go around saving innocent guys' lives all the time, and like that, but you don't do that kind of stuff if you're a lawyer. All you do is make a lot of dough and play golf and play bridge and buy cars and drink Martinis and look like a hot-shot. And besides. Even if you did go around saving guy's lives and all, how would you know if you did it because what you really wanted to do was be a terrific lawyer, with everybody slapping you on the back and congratulating you in court when the goddam trial was over, the reporters and everybody, the way it is in the dirty movies? How would you know you weren't being a phony? The trouble is, you wouldn't.' (p. 155)

There was this one boy at Elkton Hills, named James Castle, that wouldn't take back something he said about this very conceited guy, and one of Stabile's lousy friends went and squealed on him to Stabile. So Stabile, with about six other dirty bastards, went down to James Castle's room and went in and locked the goddam door and tried to make him take back what he said, but he wouldn't do it. So they started in on him. I won't even tell you what they did to him−it's too repulsive−but he still wouldn't take it back, old James Castle. And you should've seen him. He was a skinny little weak-looking guy, with wrists about as big as pencils. Finally, what he did, instead of taking back what he said, he jumped out the window.(p. 153)

While he was doing it, I went over to my window and opened it and packed a snowball with my bare hands. The snow was very good for packing. I didn't throw it at anything, though. I started to throw it. At a car that was parked across the street. But I changed my mind. The car looked so nice and white. Then I started to throw it at a hydrant, but that looked too nice and white, too. Finally I didn't throw it at anything. All I did was close the window and walk around the room with the snowball, packing it harder. A little while later, I still had it with me when I and Brossard and Ackley got on the bus. The bus driver opened the door and made me throw it out. I told him I wasn't going to chuck it at anybody, but he wouldn't believe me. People never believe you.(p. 32)

“The Navy guy and I told each other we were glad to've met each other. Which always kills me. I'm always saying `Glad to've met you' to somebody I'm not at all glad I met. If you want to stay alive , you have to say that stuff, though.”(p. 79)

“I passed by this playground and watched a couple of very tiny kids on a seesaw. One of them was sort of fat, and I put my hand on the skinny kid's end, to sort of even up the weight, but you could tell they didn't want me around, so I let them alone.”(p. 110)

I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around −nobody big, I mean−expect me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff−I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all.(p. 156)

Boy, it began to rain like a bastard. In buckets, I swear to God. All the parents and mothers and everybody went over and stood right under the roof of the carrousel, so they wouldn't get soaked to the skin or anything, but I stuck around on the bench for quite a while. I got pretty soaking wet, especially my neck and my pants. My hunting hat really gave me quite a lot of protection, in a way, but I got soaked anyway. I didn't care, though. I felt so damn happy all of a sudden, the way old Phoebe kept going around and around. (p. 191)