Control of Aesthetic Distance in J.DSalinger’sThe Catcher in the Rye

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Abstract. The Catcher in the Rye is a masterpiece of well-known American novelist Salinger， which was regarded as a "modern classic". Since the novel has been published， it received enormous controversies. Some readers adore it， and regard it as a sacred book. They consider the novel truly reflects the youngculture of 50s and the contemporary American society they rebel against. Teenagers can enforce their recognition to the society through reading this book and be alert to the evil reality. Thus it helps them seeking a new way in their growing process. While those denounce the novel think it has a bad influence on teenagers. Why the same book arouses so much different response. In fact， the reason lies in the author’s proper control of the aesthetic distance in the novel. Readers can obtain a more comprehensive and profound understanding and experience the aesthetic effect of the novel. And it is Salinger’s control that arouses more and more readers’ attention to the adolescent problems.

In view of this issue， the present thesis tries to explore an alienation effect in the novel and the author’s narrative technique. It starts from the semantic layer， analyzes the narrative techniques of the text and the variation of aesthetic distances which exist between narrator and readers， narrator and characters， implied author and characters. The purpose of this thesis is to explain that a better understanding of the control will help more readers better appreciate the novel and thus establish their own aesthetic expectation.

Key words： aesthetic distance， semantic Layer， variation of distances， control

1. Introduction

This thesis focused on the analysis on the narrative voice in The catcher in the rye discusses variation of aesthetic distances， including the distance between the narrator， characters， the implied author， other characters of the story and readers. the thesis will probe into the problems of how Salinger creates a proper distance in his novel and appeals so many readers.

However， due to limit of sources available for reference， the thesis has some defects need to make further improvement， for the third part doesn’t fully examine the controlling process and its effects. But I’ll manage to work out still relatively new perspectives of interpretation of Catcher in light of psychoanalysis combined with Wayne C. Booth’s narrative theory.

2. Holden’s Voice and Control of the Distance

According to Susan Lanser， the term “personal voice” refers to the voice of “narrators who are self-consciously telling their own histories.” Nonetheless， rather than referring to all the “homodiegetic” or “first person” narrative voice， the term is restricted to a narrower sense to designate “only those Gennete calls ‘autodiegetic’---in which the ‘I’ who tells the story is also the story’s protagonist”.[1]

In the context we may more than once find narrator Holden observes his surroundings and comments them in his own way， which may cause the unreliability of his voice. For instance， he states his impression to his school Pencey Prep where the contemporaryvalues are mirrored by the school patterns. In his point of view， Pencey Prep as a cooperative caring family is a mask for actual ideology of intense competitive struggle between its individual members and factions. There are his invariably debunking assessments of the school Pencey Prep’s traditions and customs. He is skeptical about the promotional material for Pencey Prep， and he dismisses the claim：

They advertise in a thousand magazines， always showing some hotshot guy on a horse jumping over a fence. Like as if all you ever did at Pencey was play polo all the time. I never even once saw a horse anywhere near the place..... “The more expensive a school is， the more crooks it has---I’m not kidding. （p.2）

However， the fact is， throughout the 19th and 20th century， the school has the function to socialize and instruct the children of the professional and middleclass families as modern society developed. We can see it from Holden’s comment on Pencey “It has a very good academic rating， Pencey. It really does”.

Another reason for Holden’s unreliable voice is that Holden’s psychological state is not stable or we can say he is not mentally stable and feels very insecure about many things. For instances， in his narrative， he admits he is the most terrific liar. He’s sixteen but always acts as thirteen. He has a nervous habit--- to turn the water on and off. His voice shows： “When I really worry about something， I don’t just fool around. I even have to go to the bathroom when I worry about something. Only， I don’t go. I’m too worried to go. I don’t want to interrupt my worrying to go.” （p.40） He does things purely out of impulse， such as giving his roommate Stradlater an irrelevant composition and for this he fights with Stradlater. Whereas his attitude to the boarding school masks a vulnerability to social humiliation； his pride in his looks and intelligence does little to assuage his guilty fascination with and fear of female sexuality； and his displaced aggression only underscores his doubts about his own sexual potency.

Sometimes Holden expresses a false sense of cordiality toward the people he encounters， yet describes only their most negative traits. As he expresses his own false exterior， he becomes fixated on phoniness in others， finding only cynical interpretations of their behavior， such as when he suspects that the Joe Yale guy is telling the girl about the suicide attempt while trying to feel her up. When he was in the movie theatre， saw a lady crying all through the movie， her little kid who wants to go to the bathroom， but she wouldn’t take him. She kept telling him to sit still and behave himself. He gave her such comment： “She was about as kindhearted as a goddam wolf. He takes somebody that cries their eyes out over phony stuff in the movies， nine times out of ten they are mean bastards at heart.” By trying to convert readers to his way of seeing and feeling---incorporating us， into his consciousness while distancing himself from others. Since Holden’s narrative bears his personal opinions which are not complete， his credibility is suspicious. Thus readers can’t see him so clearly. In this way， Salinger distances readers from Holden naturally.

However， Holden’s descriptions of these characters cannot be trusted entirely for these conceptions of the characters reveal Holden’s particular point of view. And clever readers will distinguish the reliability of Holden’s voice. If Stradlater is vapid and superficial， Holden proves himself equally so by detailing each of aspects of his roommates’ behavior with such precision. Holden regards almost everyone as phony. When he berates others for phoniness， he can’t recognize the same sense of vapidity within himself.

3. Authorial voice and Control of the Distance

Lanser uses the term “authorial voice” to identity “the narrative situations that are heterodiegetic， public and potentially self-referential.” The word “authorial” is used， says Lanser， not to “imply an ontological equivalence between the narrator and the author but to suggest that such a voice （re）produce the structural and functional authorship.” Since the authorial narrators are located outside the story world and have broad horizon of knowledge and strong power of judgment， they conventionally carry an authority “superior to that conferred on characters， even on narrating characters” and become the most preferable choice of most of the male writers.

Firstly J.D. Salinger begins the novel with a bold and sarcastic declaration so as to narrow the distance between the narrator and the reader. Readers may find in the opening paragraph of The Catcher in the Rye， Salinger set Holden in a limited space to tell a story which may be his experiences at a California Sanatorium. Holden begins to remember his story and re-account it. Partly the narrator does not use “I” as self-reference while directly address to the “you”-narratee unquestionably indicates the existence of a potential addressing “I”：

If you really want to hear about it， the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born， and what my lousy childhood was like， and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me， and all that David Copperfield kind of crap， but I don’t feel like going into it， if you want to know the truth. （p.1）

Salinger’s attempt to curtail the distance between the narrator and the reader is revealed through Holden’s voice.

4. Effect of the voice Control

In the case of personal narration， the speaking self is necessarily separate from the self that is spoken of. The narrator creates a sense of some others， typically past identity， framing it as an object of attention. In what Stahl （1989） has called “allusive narration”， the present and the past are reflexively transformed. However， a stable and discrete self who grounded in the past needs to be referenced a reemerge in the present. Holden narrative voice contains both experiencing “I” and narrating “I” which controls the changes of the distance， sometimes readers may sense him so near and sometimes so far.