Holden Caulfield Isolationism

Peter Pan may be able to escape the clutches of adulthood; the endless junk mail, taxes, and pretending to enjoy the company of your bosses’ soon-to-be ex, but those that don’t live in a fairytale land aren’t so lucky. Sooner or later, everyone living in the real world has to face up to that fact that they can’t stay a child forever, they have to mature enough to take care of themselves. This is what Holden finally realizes in “the Catcher in the Rye”. In the novel, “the Catcher in the Rye,” by J.D. Salinger, the main character, Holden Caulfield experiences a pivotal moment at the carousel when he decides to stop fighting the inevitable turn of time, marking a significant change in Holden’s psyche, characterizing his shift in priorities

His outward attitude initially exudes teenage arrogance and bullheadedness, however internally he struggles with a montage of isolationism and angst possibly brought on by his adolescence. Throughout the introduction of the novel, there is a continual theme of social isolationism- Holden goes out of his way to be separated from his peers at Pencey, even prior to his expulsion. During the football game, he doesn’t go down to the student section and watch in the stands with the other students, but rather opts to watch the game “way...up on top of Thomsen Hill.” (pg. 4) “Practically the whole school except [Holden] was there,” in the stands watching the game, while Holden was up on the hill, isolated from his peers (pg. 5). While the rest of the school is at the stadium, Holden is watching the interactions from above, rather than engaging in any himself- he is watching people rather than connecting with them, establishing his position as an outsider. This connection, or lack-thereof, lends itself to the overall theme of isolationism which develops Holden’s

As it started to rain, the other parents ran to take cover but Holden just stood there letting himself get, “soaked to the skin” (pg 233). The rain, while it does represent literal cleanliness, symbolically represents Holden allowing himself to be ‘washed’ of all the negativity that has been gripping him so tightly. He no longer has the inner-monologue of a doomed adolescent, but rather a contemplative one. The figures on the carousel continue to move in circles, never changing. In a way, it is reminiscent of the statues in the museum Holden loved, because, like them, it will always stay the same. Holden realizes that people can’t be like the carousel, though, they have to keep changing. Holden realizes that “the thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it,” (pg. 232) even though they might end up hurting themselves in the process. When he concludes that sometimes you just have to let a kid try something out for themselves and learn through their own experiences, he could be conceding that growing up and maturing is in fact necessary. A part of life is figuring out when you are ‘too big to ride the carousel’ and when you have to just watch, so trying to “protect” a child from it wouldn’t really