Holden Caulfield e a marginalização do sujeito: representação literária do indivíduo à margem

Abstract

The aim of this work is to present a critical reading, departing from Brazil, of the novel The catcher in the rye, first published in 1951, by the North American writer J. D. Salinger (1919-2010). Based on a social and psychological perspective, we show the discussion of issues such as subject, identity, society, marginalization and war, which are part of the novel and exposed by its main character, Holden Caulfield. We understand that he is the subject who rejects the American way of life, therefore, he is a symbolic figure of marginalization. The marginalization and the confrontation of institutions are factors that help build/characterize Caulfield as a decentered subject, a complex individual that does not have a logical or rational nature. At last, this writing highlights the contradiction of values (center x margin, "the American way of life x the marginal way of living") in The catcher, as well the complexity of Holden Caulfield in his adolescence-adulthood years and the importance of subjectivity in the novel.