The quote “humankind cannot stand very much reality”, by TS Eliot, most likely means people don’t like facing the truth. I agree with the quote because people are usually happier believing a lie than facing the truth. Holden Caulfield from The Catcher In the Rye, and the theme of sadness, and depression represents this quote.
The character Holden from The Catcher In the Rye represents the quote because he doesn’t want to face the truth in many situations.To begin with, Holden doesn’t want to face his brother Allie’s death so he buys a hat that reminds him of Allie’s red hair and carries Allie’s baseball mitt around in his own suitcase. This is in direct relation to the quote because Holden wants to feel like Allie is with him and doesn’t accept that his brother is dead. Secondly, Holden doesn’t want to deal with telling his parents the truth that he got kicked out of Pencey so he tries to make a plan with Sally to move away, in order to avoid confronting his mother and father.This is an example of the quote because he doesn’t want to face his parents and instead lies to Sally to get out of facing his parents. Finally, in many situations Holden lies in order to keep himself away from attention and not deal with his problems.
Some examples of this is when Holden lies to Mrs Morrow, so he won’t have to tell her he’s been kicked out of Pencey, and when he lies to the three women at the nightclub so they think he’s older than he really is. In conclusion, Holden supports the quote because he avoids the truth throughout the novel.JD Salinger, author of The Catcher In the Rye, characterizes Holden in a way that agrees with the quote. Firstly, Holden is characterized as a liar, in fact Holden even admits he is “a terrific liar” this shows that Holden would rather lie than confront the truth. An example of where he does this is in his hotel room, where he lies to Sunny, the prostitute, telling her he recently had surgery to get out of having sex with her.
He does this in order to avoid the reality of growing up.Secondly, Holden doesn’t like adults or the adult world, regarding them or it as phony or perverted, specifically Holden tries running away from adulthood, by proposing his plan to move away to Sally, this shows, again, that Holden wants to avoid reality. Finally, Holden acts very childlike when avoiding certain problems. For example, Holden pretends that he has been shot after he is punched by Maurice to avoid the reality that he just got robbed of five dollars, and punched. Clearly, there are many ways the characteristics of Holden relate to the quote by TS Eliot.The theme, sadness and depression, of the novel by JD Salinger relate to quote.
For example, Holden has several suicidal thoughts throughout the novel (ex: he thinks about jumping out the window after being robbed by Sunny and Maurice. ) These suicidal thoughts are to show Holden is tired of his dreadful reality filled with phonies and perverts, and would rather die. Also, Holden says “I started talking, sort of out loud to Allie” this shows Holden is depressed by his brothers death and is avoiding Allies death by pretending he is still alive (or rather he is lying to himself by not facing the truth of Allie’s death.Finally, the quote, BY Holden “what I was really hanging around for, I was trying to feel some kind of good-by” shows that Holden is depressed by leaving and having to face reality. In conclusion, the theme of depression and sadness in The Catcher In the Rye represent the quote by TS Eliot.
In the end, the quote by TS Eliot relates to Holden, and the theme of sadness and depression throughout the novel by JD Salinger. I agree because most people are happy assuming a lie-driven life rather than accept the truth. Clearly, the quote means that people don’t like facing the truth.
