Gender Roles In Catcher In The Rye By Holden Caulfield

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During this time period there was a very distinct line of gender roles. Women were viewed as homemakers, while the men were seen as the money-makers. Women did work and go to school just like men, however, women were given easy labor – front office type of work, and men took on more mighty and powerful careers. This was a drastic change in pace for women as they were forced to work hard laborious jobs during the industrialization era a few years prior to this time. Caulfield may not have wanted to accept the lifestyle that society was encouraging at that time, although, he did appear accepting of the gender roles that were being imposed. This can be seen during a date with his on-again off-again flame Sally Hayes, he attempts to pitch a juvenile idea that they do not have to live this life of conformity and they could just run away together. He makes promises that he will find work and home for them and perhaps get married. Sally points out to Holden that they are merely children and these types of acts are not possible as they need to obtain a college education before they can run off and get married. She also mentions that if Holden was unable to find a job they would starve, which implies to this author that they two of them believed heavily in the idea of the man working and the woman being dependent of the man. Other examples of gender roles can be seen throughout this novel. …show more content…

Antolini during the middle of the night, Mr. Antolini invites him over, and upon his arrival Mrs. Antolini is up from bed after an evening of entertaining and is making coffee and cakes for Mr. Antolini and

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