When Holden Caulfield first appears in the novel, it becomes self-evident that he is isolated from everyone else. During a football game at his school, he says, “The reason I was standing way up on Thomsen Hill, instead of down at the game was because I’d just got back from New York with the fencing team… I left all the foils and equipment and stuff on the goddamn subway…The whole team ostracized me the whole way back on the train (Salinger, The Catcher in The Rye 6). Consequently, Holden takes the action of watching the game from the hill because that was his form of self protection during this time. After being the cause of the fencing team not being able to participate in their meet, Holden therefore felt humiliated and he alienated himself from the rest of the student body, as a form of self protection. …show more content…
Holden takes this action to help him deal with his loneliness, but he then became aware that the connection that he is looking for is nonexistent and that sex is not going to help resolve his issues. “I know you’re suppose to feel pretty sexy when somebody gets up and pulls their dress over their head, but I didn’t. Sexy was the last thing I was feeling. I felt much more depressed than sexy” (Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye 123). J.D. Salinger shows how much Holden is in need of a meaningful connection, that he says “Don’t you feel like talking for a while? I asked her… Are you in a big hurry? She looked at me like I was a madman.” (124) Furthermore, the prostitute soon leaves as a result of Holden driving her away due to his superficial, vacant emotions. Rather than having sexual encounters with her, he is able to convince himself that he needs to alienate himself from her to protect his feelings. Throughout the novel, Holden takes many actions to alienate himself as a form of
Holden struggles to make connections with other people, and usually resorts to calling them phonies whenever they upset him. He finds natural human flaws in people and runs away from connection immediately. His date with Sally shows this. Near the end of the date, Holden tells Sally about his plans to run away from life. When Sally gives him practical advice, Holden is quick to escape connection by calling her “a pain”. Sally’s advice would definitely guide Holden in a more realistic direction, but that is not what he wants to hear. Conflict always arises in his mind even if there is little in reality. His struggles with finding connection also make him too apprehensive to call his old friend Jane. Holden likes to think of Jane as a pure and perfect girl that he can
In The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden is constantly having internal conflicts dealing with intimacy. Holden constantly battles with himself over wanting intimacy and not wanting intimacy. Holden longs for intimacy with other people while simultaneously rejecting such intimacy, a self-destructive paradox that leads to his great suffering.
Catcher in the Rye, by J.D Salinger is about a boy named Holden Caulfield who struggles with the codes of conduct his upper class lifestyle follows. For Holden, loss of innocence is not about smoking a cigarette as much as it is about his realization that the rules placed on him by society are phony. Holden distracts himself by focusing on his feelings of alienation because he does not want to face his own deep sadness over his own loss of innocence.
In the novel The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger,Holden the main character tries to take on adult and mature situations but finds himself in reality not getting very far. Holden Caulfield who goes to Pencey has failed four out of five classes and gets the notice that he is being expelled from the school. He leaves the school and goes out and tries to adventure into the real world. Holden takes on many challenges and obstacles throughout the book . Although Holden wants to be independent many people perceive Holden in numerous different ways to his actions and feelings. Faith and Stradlater both perceive Holden as irritating, when in reality he tries to distract himself from being depressed. For example when Holden was in the phone
Holden never seems interested in anything that he does. When he goes back to New York, he goes to all kinds of shows and movies and ends up uninterested half way through. When Holden goes to see a movie at Radio City Music Hall he tells a little bit about the movie and then says, “I’d tell you the rest of the story, but I might puke if I did. There isn’t anything to spoil, for Chrissake” (Salinger, 139). This shows that Holden becomes easily uninterested in normal things, which is a common cause of depression. The whole time Holden is in New York, he goes out to things but ends up uninterested extremely fast. The first night he is in New York, an elevator operator gets Holden a prostitute and he is excited and felt sexy. Once the girl arrives and takes off her dress, his mood completely changes and he wants her to leave. He says “The trouble was, I just didn’t want to do it. I felt more depressed than sexy, if you want to know the truth” (Salinger, 96). Just like being uninterested in normal activities is a symptom of depression, so is being uninterested in sex. Holden gets excited and nervous when he talks about sex, but w...
Throughout the novel, J.D, Salinger develops Holden’s character with numerous situations. Holden makes the reader question his rectitude through his perspective of those around him, his sexual desires, his general attitude, and his chronic lying. Because Salinger permits the audience to know how situations proceed from Holden’s perspective, the audience has an alternative side of Holden available to evaluate. Without the varying traits Holden presents, The Catcher in the Rye would not thoroughly depict Holden as a suffering individual. Thus, Holden’s character is morally ambiguous and crucial to the overall development of the novel.
“All I know is, I sort of miss everybody I told you about. [….] Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody” (Salinger 277). Holden Caulfield comes in contact with many females throughout the novel. Some of them are for better, and some cause him to be more depressed. Holden is currently in a mental institution. He is telling a psychoanalyst everything that has happened to him a few weeks before last Christmas. In J.D. Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye the author demonstrates how two characters can help Holden hold his sanity or can make his whole world fall apart through the use of Sally and Phoebe to show that relationships can be difficult and confusing or the exact opposite.
Holden’s sexual struggles are visible through his interactions with Sunny, Sally Hayes, and Carl Luce. Holden’s fascination with sex interferes with his elevated morals; as much as he wants to engage in intercourse, he voices his need to establish an emotional connection with his partner first, which prevents him from having casual sex. As much as physical intimacy is important to him, Holden needs to be taken care of and understood emotionally, as well, displaying that he holds sex in high regards and does not view it as something to be done carelessly. Holden just needs to be loved; but, unfortunately, his romantic life is sub-par at best, and until that changes, he’ll always feel confused – and very, very lonely.
Not only does he feel alienated from the other kids at school, he also doesn’t get along with people in his family. The only person that Holden gets along with in his family is his sister. Throughout the novel Holden has a relationship with his sister. As shown in this quote from chapter ten. “But I certainly wouldn't have minded shooting the crap with old Phoebe for a while”(). Phoebe is the only person that Holden ever reaches out to in the novel. Holden likes and connects to Phoebe because of her innocence. Holden feels like he doesn’t belong when he gets to Penn Station. When Holden arrives to Penn Station he wants to call a family member or friend but he feel likes he has no one to call. For an example when Holden says “The first thing I did when I got off at Penn Station, I went into this phone booth. I felt like giving somebody a buzz … but as soon as I was inside, I couldn't think of anybody to call up”(). Holden doesn’t feel close to any friends or family members to give them a call. Holden feels this way a lot thought the story. Not belonging is a big theme in Catcher in the
Holden Caulfield is clearly at odds with society. He prefers isolation rather than the company of others. He frequently lies when there is no need to do so. And he deems most people to be phonies without reasoning that in himself. It is clear that Holden Caulfield alienates himself as a form of self-protection. There is no doubt that he is a troubled individual in desperate need of help. Perhaps Caulfield has found help in the “crummy place” where the novel began.
Holden is a pessimistic, remote, and miserable character and he expresses this attitude through dialogue, tone, and diction. Throughout the book he has remained to be a liar, a failure, a loner, and lastly, a suicidal guy who feels like he has no purpose in life. Perhaps Salinger expressed his perceptions and emotions of his teen years in this book and it was a form of conveying his deep inner feelings of his childhood. Readers can see this clearly shown in The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D. Salinger.
Holden has a respect for women that he views as unnatural. He feels that his sexual desires should be similar to those of his roommate Stradlater and peer, Luce. Holden shows his confusion by saying, "The thing is, most of the time when you're coming close to doing it with a girl, a girl that isn't ...
In today's world many people do not show their true self to people that they do not feel comfortable around. Readers can see this in J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. Holden only shows his true authentic self to women and girls. Although Holden seems that he does not like to talk to anyone, when he is around women he pays attention to them, is comfortable, and expresses his true feelings.
Sexual relationships can be negative or positive in many different ways. In the novel The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield has been kicked out of Pencey Prep because he failed in most of his classes. He has been through sexual relationships that reflects his personality. Holden 's emotions towards women and sex reflects his feelings that all women are whores. He pines to be in love and have sex, but in the same time he is afraid to do so. Holden 's sexual immaturity destroys positive relationships with the opposite sex. The feminist lens is used to show how Holden pictures women, and used characteristics to show Holden 's personality.
In Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, the main character, Holden Caulfield, undergoes a challenge to face the world around him. He constantly faces social issues throughout the novel, such as insecurities, loneliness, and uncertainty. One of the main issues he faces is “Caulfield constantly feels as if he is being surrounded by his enemies. (Huber and Ledbetter 254)” Accordingly, this leads to his self-isolation because he views everyone in society as a phony just going through life as a fake. Thus, what he perceives as fake is really the normal world around him. Bickmore and Youngblood state, “An honest hypocrite, Holden is the very essence . . . of adolescence. (253)” Because of his negative perception towards life, he feels insecure about himself around others. Thus, Holden Caulfield is a hypocritical adolescent who isolates himself to feed off of his negativity.