Psychological problem of Holden Caufield in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher In The Rye: Viewed from Erik H. Erikson’s Psychosocial theory

ABSTRACT

The Catcher in the rye is a novel written by Jerome David Salinger. This novel is story about a seventeen year-old Holden Caulfield’s description of his encounters with the students and the faculty of Pencey Prep, Agerstown in Pennsylvania. Holden criticizes them of being phony or superficial. he leaves his school and faces with many experiences.

In this research, the researcher formulates research problems into two parts, those are: (1) how is the psychological problem of Holden Caufield in The Catcher in the rye (2) how is Holden caufield psychological condition viewed from the theory of Psychological condition viewed from the Theory of Psychosocial by Erik H. Erikson.

This research uses Psychosocial theory introduced by Erik H. Erikson. He divides human age with eight stages growth development. Infancy years, Toddler years, Elementary school years, Adolescence years, Young Adulthood years, middle adulthood years, and late adulthood. The effect when interaction with social is age-friction. This problem occurs because of uncontrolled experiences in Holden Caufield and he has age friction viewed by Psychosocial stages by Holden Caufield. For the future researcher I hope can analyze other aspects in this novel or apply this theory in another literary work.

In this research the researcher only focuses on one character Holden Caufield who leaves his school/dormitory. Holden Caufield met many experiences. He had depression and disbelief with people around. He always said that people looks phony when they face other people. He faced with many experiences that he never met before. He tried being prostitute, drunk and many experiences that people in his age never face before.