Religion

When Holden meets the nuns, he is grateful that they don't ask him if he is Catholic. He thinks it would make it awkward. Holden says this about what it would have been like if they had started to talk to him about it, "It wouldn't have spoiled the conversation if they had, but it would've been different, probably." (Salinger 113). He does not hate people that are religious, he just is not religious himself. Part of the problem is that his parents are both different religions. Holden and his siblings kind of became atheists because of it.

The whole subject of religion is not really broached by Holden until chapter 15. It is also one of those things that is rapped deep within in him. It is also caused by how he was raised and how his parents treated it. If you grow up with parents who have different religions, you are going to struggle with picking a religion yourself.

I think a lot of teens in America struggle with this. With so many cultures around us, there are a lot of religions to choose from. It is stressful to chose which one you want to be apart if you want to be apart of any. Religion is also a way to conform. It also has rules and guidelines. When a teenager sees a whole bunch of rules, they tend to run away. We do not want to conform and we do not like rules, therefore people stay away from religion. This, of course, is not true of all teenagers. Some of us actually like the structure and like the comfort that the decision brings.