The Catcher in the Rye Motifs Writing Assignment Holden’s loneliness is a significant theme in the novel and is a driving force throughout the entire book. In the novel his almost insane journey for companionship is presented as he skips from one meaningless encounter to another. Even though he is introduced as lonely, when given the opportunity to get in contact with somebody, he chooses to shy away from the situation and not socialize with anybody. On the other hand, he is in a constant look for someone to talk to. Holden’s isolation is a crucial factor in his way of life, which is being detached from as many people as possible and keeping a feeling of self-protection for him. For this reason, he would purposefully give up on his own ideas to end his loneliness, before he knew he would actually have a chance to accomplish them. For example, Holden’s his rude behavior during his …show more content…
Both of these previously stated relationships offer Holden an opportunity to step out of his isolated bubble. They also introduce what he distresses most about the adult world which according to him is the complexity, unpredictability, and the possibility of a conflict or change. This connects to the symbol of the Museum of Natural History, and shows how Holden likes the world to be predictable and unchanging and in a way slow and still. Unpredictable adults often challenge Holden and make him question his self-confidence and self-worth. Holden has trouble dealing with something complex like this, possibly because of the passing of his brother. Since then, Holden completely isolated himself from everybody as a means of self-protection. Although he is handed opportunities for both physical and emotional intimacy, he disregards all of them. Even so, Holden desperately continues searching for new relationships, while habitually aborting his own attempts but only at the last
Immaturity of Holden in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, the main character, Holden, cannot accept that he must move out of childhood and into adulthood. One of Holden’s most important major problems is his lack of maturity.
He's so used to the idea of being alone that it becomes what he wants. Holden is so petrified of losing the people he is closest to, so he decides to not be close with anyone. He is afraid of the same repercussions from Allie. He would rather keep to himself than risk contentment, rationality, and stability. He for so many days after his removal from Pencey would by himself go to bars alone and try to drink away his pain. “I guess it was because I was feeling so damn depressed and lonesome” (Salinger 198). It’s during this time that Holden is falling down a dark, bottomless pit of depression and loneliness. It eventually almost became the death of him when he had isolated himself so much. He became sick, depressed, and full of anxiety. His decision to distance himself weakened him beyond his belief. “I still had that headache. It was even worse. And I think I was more depressed than I ever was in my whole life” (Salinger 252). His depression was starting to get the best of him and all he needed was to be comforted by someone other than
Holden is so lonely because he is annoyed by the way people act, phony as he says. Humans require company, as an effect, so does Holden. He instinctively seeks out company. He is searching for connections to hold on to.
Holden Caulfield conveys his melancholy, sarcasm, and seclusion greatly through his dialogue; his vocabulary constantly consists of depression and loneliness. He expresses such agony all throughout the dialogue of the book. An example of this would be when Holden quotes, “When I finally got down off the radiator and went out to the hat-check room, I was crying and all. I don’t know why, but I was. I guess it was because I was feeling so damn depressed and lonesome” (153). In this quote, Holden is expressing his confusion and unhappiness but mostly is just confused to why he is unhappy. He feels a severe amount of misery that devours him, all of which is shown greatly in all of his dialogue. He, at one point in the novel, feels like committing suicide because he cannot handle the pressure. He says that “I stayed in the bathroom for about an hour, taking a bath and all. Then I got back in bed. It took me quite a while to get to sleep- I...
Initially Holden is a very immature boy. He has been kicked out of many exclusive schools his parents sent him to, and he uses an abundance of profane words. He is very depressed. At times he even said, “What I really felt like, though, was committing suicide. I felt like jumping out the window” (104). This caused all his problems to worsen. It was the root to all his struggles. His depression was what led him to flunk out of school and dismiss his education. It led to his loneliness. He would strike up a conversation with a cab driver just to prevent himself from feeling lonely. Holden is very verbose, and he never runs out of topics to speak. When he was not talking to a cab driver, he was speaking to another random person. He told Ms. Marrow lies about who he was. In accordance with lying about who he was, he also lied about the people he knew.
Modern society demands that humans form friendships, which is echoed by Salinger through Holden’s lack of friends and irrational decisions. J.D. Salinger uses Holden to show how self-alienation affects human being and the people around them. Critics of the book have said, “Holden is an outcast like Huck Finn, and like Huck he tells his story in his own idiom, Holden's voice is not merely a virtuoso recreation of contemporary adolescent speech” (Sandock). Holden is considered an outcast because he refuses to solidify a friendship with anyone but at the same time Holden always wants to be around humans. Salinger uses Holden to stress the importance of friendships and how they keep humans sane. Holden’s lack of friendships has led him t...
Holden protects himself from all the phoniness by alienating himself from everyone. Although he desperately wants to connect with someone. He uses isolation as proof that he is better than everyone else thus not seeing it necessary to interact with them. Holden uses the fact that everyone is a phony to alienate himself to avoid interactions with others that overwhelm him.
Holden?s loneliness is apparent in more than just his lack of friends. His loneliness is made apparent by the way he misses his deceased brother, Allie. Holden makes several references to Allie and how the two used to get along and acted more like friends than brothers. Holden deeply misses his brother and even talks to him out loud to comfort himself because he still feels a void inside of him. Holden misses his brother more than others because Holden never had the final closure to his brother?s death, Holden never went to Allie?s funeral, and because Holden didn?
Throughout the Catcher in the Rye Holden makes many phone calls; through the course of the novel he is very isolated and lonely. These are linked by an inescapable fact: the way Holden tries to communicate with the outside world is his phone calls. The way he tries to and eventually breaks his lonesomeness is through these, where he can communicate with others; he does not succeed until he finally meets someone, the phone calls having been proven inadequate.
Foster’s characteristics of the QUEST are the quester, the destination, the purpose, the challenges along the way, and the reason behind going to the destination. In The Catcher in the Rye Holden is the quester who begins his journey by being kicked out of Pencey Prep. He decides to go on a trip instead of going home and revealing to his parents that he has been expelled. Staying around New York is a challenge in itself, and by the end of his trip Holden realizes more about himself. Some of the challenges he faces are his immaturity levels getting in the way of certain tasks and his loneliness. At the end of his trip Holden begins to have a new sense of maturity, and is ready to grow up.
Despite the fact that Holden cannot stand to interact with the ‘people’ around him, he does not want to connect with someone, so he is not as lonely. The lyrics that aid in signifying this idea go
Holden is the main character of the book. He is a complicated boy how seems to get thrown out of boarding schools left and right. He is constantly thinking about depressive thoughts of his past, like times he was with his brother, who is dead. His thoughts of his brother bring serious rage for some reason. In one instance he tells about the day after his brothers death, and Holden was filled with such anger and loneliness, he punched through all the glass doors in his garage. This required him to go to the hospital, and unfortunately his stay at the hospital forced him to miss his brothers funeral. He also keeps thinking about his old girl friend Jane. Holden is reminded of past times with her, where her father upset her, and Holden was the only one there to console her. So with that in mind, he thinks he still may have a place with her, and Holden believes that all his happiness will rest with her. Holden is just a guy who is searching for something to get him out of his depression, but he has no idea what it is, and above all how to get it.
The theme of alienation is demonstrated by Holden. He alienates himself from the world because he fears change and false people, he wants love and security. Holden alienates himself from all the changes that occur around him. Holden isolated himself when he didn't go down to the seats for the final football game at Pency. He isolates himself because he gets kicked out of all the schools he goes to. All those changes scare Holden off, he becomes afraid to feel secure. Holden also alienates himself because he trusts no one, he thinks everybody is phony. When Holden was in a bar and he lied and said he had to go, just to not talk to his brothers old girl friend; Holden thought she was annoying and left the bar even though he didn't feel like it. Holden is also alienated by his inability to love. Holden seems not to care about his old girlfriend Sally, he told her he loved her but he didn’t mean it.
While Holden Caulfield years for companionship and care, at the same time he wants to be by himself. This leads to problems where Holden decides to meet up with people who he doesn’t like out of desperation, then bashes the person in their presence. The people near Holden aren’t a desirable person per say, and Holden aspires to be with people he is unable too. Holden would rather stay away from people to keep himself safe from the hurt they can cause them. Holden can’t stand the company he has because they aren't real, he cares about them too much, or they aren't there.
Throughout “The Catcher in the Rye”, Holden Caufield longs for intimacy with other human beings. One of Holden’s main problems is that he sees childhood as the ideal state of being. He thinks that all adults are phonies.