Holden Caulfield's Implicature

Speranza

Holden's Language or How to Ignore the Obvious    Here's a funny thing that two critics wrote about the language Holden uses: "The assumption that Holden tries to imitate spoken speech in order to intensify the appeal to the addressee is further strengthened by his frequent direct addresses of the addressee" (T.Hoops and W.Hoops).     This is a strange statement indeed, because either Hoops/Hoops mix up the narrator (Holden) with the author (Salinger), or it is a classic attempt at how to ignore the obvious. To me it is perfectly clear that Holden does not imitate anything, since all the clues in the text (language level, direct address, digressions, etc etc) suggest that this is indeed a spoken text: Holden is  talking to his addressee. In point of fact, the word that Holden uses in his very first sentence when addressing his "addressee" is "hear."  Thus we, his "addressees", actually become his listeners from the very beginning. No wonder that, after a very short time, we feel so close to him.

Some do not believe Holden Caulfield is speaking aloud because of a remark he makes in the second chapter.  He says:  "...and I have gray hair. I really do." "The one side of my head--the right side--is full of millions of gray hairs."  In this quotation, it appears that he is acting as though he does NOT believe that the addressee would believe him about his gray hair.  If he were in the same room with his addressee, however, he would just say: "I have gray hair. (points to his head) See?"        Now, this is most likely the only clue of that kind in the entire novel, but still - it's a good counter-argument!