Active vs. Passive Voice and how they can work together

Yesterday in class we talked in class about using the active voice in our exploratory papers-

In The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger uses 

the Passive voice as a tool

In a few the author John Green's YouTube videos, he explains the effect on the story Salinger created by giving Holden Caulfield a very passive voice.

The example John pulls from the book is in the first chapter-

"The reason I was standing way up on Thompson Hill,instead of down at the game, was because I'd just gotten back from New York with the fencing team" (Salinger 5). 

First of all, what does the passive voice do anyway? It takes the character away from the action or situation they are describing. This is not popular in a lot of fiction writing because of the distance it causes, but Salinger uses it beautifully in his character. (He sculpted his characters and thought of them also as real people, so they come across having real human qualities even through the black and white text on a page)

Next question you have, what was going on at the time Holden said this, and why should we care? He was not simply getting back from New York with the fencing team, they had to go home because they were forced to forfeit the game; Holden, the manager of the team, forgot the equipment on the subway when they got off. Everyone hated him. Because this book is told in a flashback, he had to use the passive voice, create that distance, just to make talking about his mistake bearable. Holden also uses this voice when explaining why he was getting kicked out of boarding school, fo the third time.

But then Holden uses the active voice, and present tense language when talking about his dead brother, Allie.

"He's dead now" (Salinger 43). 

"The dead do not stop being dead" John Green reminds us. There is no way of getting around that, no matter if you use a passive or active voice; nothing can bring them back. And while Holden may not want to feel the pain of making his team have to forfeit the game, he feels Allie's pain and he wants us to know it. Holden didn't even get to go to the funeral because he was in the hospital for punching out the windows in their garage, getting no closure. There is so much sadness in that and you just feel it. 

I use the passive voice a lot in my personal writing. I've been doing it for years, mostly starting when I became depressed in about 6th grade, I had never known about it to notice it, my brain did it on it's own. There was a clear shift in my writing that I find fascinating. I think that is why I like Catcher so much; Holden's dialogue mimics my own and that was and still is calming to me. It's good to know that we are not alone in our thoughts and habits. It makes them seem less harmful and absolutely bearable.

Thanks for reading,

-Kayla Audrey