Abstract

The Catcher in the Rye, written by J. D. Salinger, is regarded as the American typical modern Bildungsroman in twenties century’s literature. In this novel, the leading character Holden is a troubled teenager in the transition of childhood to adulthood who always fails the exam, smokes, drinks and uses abusive language. However, he is not willing to follow the crowd and tries to escape from the indignant world. This thesis consists of three parts. The first part is introduction, which mainly introduces the background of the novel and literature review. The second part is the body, which includes four chapters: chapter one makes a brief introduction of Holden’s personality which consists of id, ego and superego based on Freud’s theory; the second chapter is the depiction of contradictory psychology of Holden which has shown to different people; the third chapter is the explanation of contradictory psychology in Freud’s theory and we can find the pain of Holden according to it; the last chapter is about the three reasons why he has cultivated such personality. And the third part is the conclusion. All in all, the thesis is going to use Freud’s theory to analyze Holden’s ambivalence. The psychological contradiction just brings Holden so much pain and the reason of this is that Holden believes in superego but can’t achieve, detesting id but can’t abandon, and having the weak ego that can’t balance the superego and id，which is still very common for adolescents even nowadays and more attention should be drawn to it.

Key words: contradictory psychology; personality; id; ego; superego; 

Contents

Abstract

摘  要

1 Introduction-1

2 Holden’s personality-2

2.1 id of Holden-2

2.3 Superego of Holden-3

3 The contradictory psychology of Holden-4

3. 1 to the people he likes-4

3. 2 To the People He Detests-5

4 Explanation of the Contradictory Psychology in Freud’s Theory.-6

4.1 The Tendency of His Personality Facing Different People-6

4.2 Struggle between the Id and Superego, Childhood and Adult’s World-7

5 Three Main Reasons of His Uncoordinated Personality-8

5.1 Family— Parents Spent Little Time with Him and Allie Died too Early.-8

5.2 School—Indecent Teachers and Students-8

5.3 Society— Materialistic Society Puts much Pressure on Holden’s Innocence.-9

Conclusion-10

References-11