Catcher In The Rye: Roderigo And Holden Caulfield

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What is a person’s role in society? Are they a leader, the follower, merely an assistant, or are they the outsider? Every person or character is defined such role either in real life or in stories such as in Othello and the Catcher in the Rye. Roderigo and Holden Caulfield share the role of the outsider by having the author develop them a certain way. In Othello, Roderigo does not isolate himself, but he is separated from the people that surround him especially Iago. In the Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield chooses to isolate himself from the rest of the society because of the all the “phonies”. An outsider is considered a person or a thing who is isolated and has no physical connection or interaction with a group of people who share common …show more content…

Throughout the story, Roderigo has minimal interaction with main characters aside from Iago. He is always present at the scene but never takes a significant part in it. Although he still travels to Venice and Cyprus with the rest of group, he never is physically seen taking part in any decisions (Othello). This also is included in how he has become a person with no real power or stance. Throughout the story, Shakespeare purposefully creates Roderigo to take on this role to allow Iago to carry out his plan. Having Roderigo powerless creates the foundation for Iago to manipulate Othello’s …show more content…

First, he alienates himself from the community at school, and it is clearly illustrated after he comes home from a fencing game. In the book, it is stated, “you could hear them all yelling, deep and terrific on the Pencey side because practically the whole school expects me was there,” (Salinger, pg 5). He even claims that the whole school, but he would be at the football games. Slowly, Holden removes his presence from the people in his life. He never calls Jane and totally, messes up his date with Sally. He goes distant from his parents by being too scared to talk to them. While he visits Phoebe, his parents come home and instead of facing them, he decides to hide in the closet (Salinger). The only person that he does not alienate from is his sister, Phoebe. As he carefully loses any time of connection to society, Holden becomes alone and powerless. With no support system of his friends or family, Holden Caulfield has no power to back him up against all the “phonies” of the world. Although he has created his own community for himself, it allows the author to get Holden’s message across the story. The author makes Holden go to such lengths in creating a separation to emphasize the growth and maturity that Holden gains throughout the story. If he was not set as an outsider, the audience would not have been able to clearly see the purpose of

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