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gender stereotypes literature
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Naturally, Your Mind is Immature 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. On the way back from Erine 's, he arrived to the hotel. Maurice met …show more content…
He states that she is stupid. One day, he calls her to go on a date and she accepts. He said that he did not like her, but he still went out on a date with her because he considered her to be attractive. When he first saw her, he felt astonished because the way she looked. The moment he saw her, ' '… [He] felt like marrying her ' ' (124). This quote shows that Holden is totally crazy, as he thinks to marry her because of her outside appearances. They took a cap to watch a show and in the cap Holden told Sally that he loves her. He confessed to her, ' ' I told her I loved her and all ' ' (125). He lied to her, he said that because he thought she was good-looking. This proves that Holden acted in a foolish way because he did not mean what he said. At the bar, Holden suddenly started shouting and talking about how much he hates New York City. Sally asked him, ' ' Don 't shout, please ' ' (130). Holden did not realize that he was shouting. After that, he was speaking until suddenly Sally stopped him. She told him, ' ' You jump from one- ' ' (131). This shows that Holden is immature about talking to Sally in a certain topic to another, and he could not stay focused. Besides, he changed his tone without noticing that himself. Few minutes later, he came up with this crazy idea to run away with Sally. He wants to run away from New York City, and everything that involves the city. Holden tells Sally that he …show more content…
His relationships with women failed because he was immature and insecure of himself. He did not think logically about the decisions he made throughout his life. Even though, he wanted to fall in love with a girl, and have sex his fear prevented him to do so. Also a factor that influenced his view on women was that he thought they were all whores, which caused him not to have a normal relationship with any woman. One day, he is thinking of his old friend Jane and he wants to call her, the other he wants to marry Sally and run away with her. At the end, he was not decisive about which girl he wanted to be with, or if he just wanted to have a one night sexual relationship with a
In his fight with Stradlater, Holden’s character is shown as a defender of innocence. He defends the memory of his brother through the report he writes for Stradlater. Because of Stradlater’s criticism on his brother’s death, Holden destroys the essay and says “All right, give it back to me, then,’ I said. I went over and pulled it right out of his goddamn hand. Then I tore it up.” Holden is tormented by the memory of his brother throughout the novel, and in this fight he defends his brothers memory by protecting the baseball glove. Later in this scene Holden is upset with Stradlater’s relationship with Jane. Holden explains, “If you knew Stradlater, you 'd have been worried, too. I 'd double-dated with the bastard a couple of times, and I know what I 'm talking about. He was unscrupulous.” Holden tries to defend Jane’s innocence and the reader is able to see Holden’s ethical code to protect the innocence and memory of others. In Holden’s confrontation with Maurice, Holden displays his detestation of the evil phony. “All of a sudden I started to cry. I 'd give anything if I hadn 't, but I did. 'No, you 're no crooks, ' I said. 'You 're just steeling five ' 'Shut up, ' old Maurice said and gave me a shove.” The scene between Maurice and Holden over the prostitute Sunny shows his emotions when it comes to fake people. In this scene he
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.
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
Holden Caulfield, portrayed in the J.D. Salinger novel Catcher in the Rye as an adolescent struggling to find his own identity, possesses many characteristics that easily link him to the typical teenager living today. The fact that the book was written many years ago clearly exemplifies the timeless nature of this work. Holden's actions are those that any teenager can clearly relate with. The desire for independence, the sexually related encounters, and the questioning of ones religion are issues that almost all teens have had or will have to deal with in their adolescent years. The novel and its main character's experiences can easily be related to and will forever link Holden with every member of society, because everyone in the world was or will be a teen sometime in their life.
Susan K. Mitchell's comments talk about how Holden is confused about the world and the people who are around him. He is an immature man who is still recovering from the effects the war had on him. He has also just failed out of school and so that has sent him into further depression. Holden sometimes contradicts his statements that he said earlier on and he doesn't realize it. "Holden is a man who does not practice what he teaches."(Mitchell 1) "You cannot believe what Holden says about his family after he has told you that he lies."(2) "Holden tells falsifications so often that he doesn't even realize whether he is lying or telling the truth."(2) Holden tells Sally he loves her, "It was a lie of course, but the thing is, I meant it when I said it."(2) "Since the book is told through the eyes of the narrator our observations are biased.
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
What was wrong with Holden, the main character in The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D.Salinger, was his moral revulsion against anything that was ugly, evil, cruel, or what he called "phoney" and his acute responsiveness to beauty and innocence, especially the innocence of the very young, in whom he saw reflected his own lost childhood. There is something wrong or lacking in the novels of despair and frustration of many writers. The sour note of bitterness and the recurring theme of sadism have become almost a convention, never thoroughly explained by the author's dependence on a psychoanalytical interpretation of a major character. The boys who are spoiled or turned into budding homosexuals by their mothers and a loveless home life are as familiar to us today as stalwart and dependable young heroes such as John Wayne were to an earlier generation. We have accepted this interpretation of the restlessness and bewilderment of our young men and boys because no one had anything better to offer. It is tragic to hear the anguished cry of parents: "What have we done to harm him? Why doesn't he care about anything? He is a bright boy, but why does he fail to pass his examinations? Why won't he talk to us?"
The novel, The Catcher in the Rye, written by JD Salinger, touches on the themes of innocence, death, and the artifice and the authenticity in the world, while following the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, through his weekend trip to New York City. As the story unfolds, Holden, as narrator, becomes more vulnerable to the reader, and starts to express his feelings surrounding the death of his brother, Allie, as well as his feelings about himself. Holden is faced with a truth that has haunted him for many years: adulthood. Many of the qualities Holden exhibits, which he sees as negative, are those of the average person: struggle, loneliness, deep sadness. He is one of many classic protagonists that encourages the reader to relate to them on
Even though “The Catcher in the Rye” was written and set in the 1950s, Salinger's story about an observative, conscious teen who is struggling to find his own identity, maintains much interest and is suitable to readers today. Many teenagers can relate to Holden Caulfield's opinionated and sentimental personality, as well as the problems he faces. These problems include sexually related rendezvouses and eagerness for independence. Holden goes against the adult world around him, which to Holden is loaded with "phonies", searching for righteousness and truth, even though several of his actions would depict him as a "phony" himself. Towards the end of the book, Holden finds it harder to deal with living in the society he is in, while dealing with his worsening depression.
The poem, “Comin Thro’ the Rye”, is about a girl engaging in a sexual intercourse with no intention of carrying the relationship further than the act itself. However, Holden misunderstands the title of the poem, which he mistakes as a song, and the image that comes into his mind was not of the sexual act but of the children playing around and needing protection from the fall from the “crazy cliff,” inspiring him to become the catcher in the rye to watch over the kids. The way he interprets the poem is that once a child falls over the cliff, that child is lost to the cruel and ugly world that the adults have created, forever losing his or her childlikeness. In addition, the misinterpretation of the sexual content of the poem signifies his feelings about sex in general. During his conversation with Luce, he claims, “I know it’s supposed to be physical and spiritual, and artistic and all. But what I mean is, you can’t do it with everybody – every girl you neck with and all – and make it come out that way” (Salinger 147). Unlike the girl in the poem and his friends who “get sexy” with multiple girls, Holden cannot bring himself to “get sexy” with a girl he truly does not like, expressing his purity. Also, sex is a part of growing up and maturing into an adult; his hesitation to have
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger is a coming-of-age novel set in New York during the 1940’s. Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of the story, is a detached seventeen-year old boy harboring feelings of isolation and disillusionment. He emphasizes a general dislike for society, referring to people as “phonies.” His lack of will to socialize prompts him to find nearly everything depressing. He’s alone most of the time and it’s apparent that he is very reclusive. This often leads him to pondering about his own death and other personal issues that plague him without immediate resolution. Holden possesses a strong deficit of affection – platonic and sexual – that hinders and cripples his views toward people, his attitude, and his ability to progressively solve his problems without inflicting pain on himself. The absence of significant figures in his life revert him to a childlike dependency and initiate his morbid fascination with sexuality. In this novel, Salinger uses Sunny, Sally Hayes, and Carl Luce to incorporate the hardships of discovering sexual identity and how these events affect adolescents as they try to understand their own sexuality.
In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield feels a compulsion to protect women over anything else. The reason for this is that Holden views women as the last innocent people left in society. J.D. Salinger makes it a point to display the powerful influences that women have had on Holden throughout his life by retelling Holden's experiences with his own mother as a younger man. These trends continue throughout the story, as the events that unfold involving Phoebe and Jane Gallagher become focal points during Holden's time in New York City. Holden's desire to protect women seems to go so far that he begins to feel immediate hostility -- hostility that may or may not be justified -- towards several male characters.
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.
In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield is his own greatest enemy. Socially awkward, Holden struggles to maintain a firm relationship of any form. He has difficulties with trying not to judging others harshly, referring to few people in the novel positively. Holden is told repeatedly that he never applies himself and avoids his problems. After his argument with his roommate Ward Stradlater, Holden leaves Pencey early to avoid further confrontation. An elevator man at his hotel offers Holden ...
Holden instead of challenging these ideologies chooses to perpetuate them. Holden’s obsession with the objectivation of women and death exemplifies that the masculinity he practices is toxic. Male readers of this novel can then cling to these stereotypes as well, and continue to perpetuate rape culture and toxic masculinity. In the above examples, Holden shows that he is a product of negative social constructs upheld by a patriarchal