Catcher In The Rye Rejection Theme

As Monica Geller once said in Friends, “Welcome to the real world. It sucks. You’re gonna love it!” Growing up and having to face reality is hard. In J. D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, he illuminates the themes of alienation and the painfulness of growing up through the eyes of a conflicted teen. This teen, Holden Caulfield, isolates himself from people as a form of protection. Holden remains conflicted throughout the novel. There are times when he isolates himself from everyone around him and times when he reaches out to those he knows only to be left feeling unsatisfied with the interaction or rejected after putting himself out there to feel connection. This theme is relatable to teens that have lived throughout the last few decades. It

Holden would likely face the same challenges he does in the story only on a larger scale. For example, teens today can face rejection by hundreds of people at a time through social media. Holden would likely hate social media, but still use it as it would represent a way he could reach out to those around him without having to put himself in awkward social situations. Another way teens today are relatable to Holden is that we may try to be distinct in a crowd, but also invisible. We appreciate the opportunity to fade into the background when we are confused about how to act or act in a way that we would be accepted by those around us. Cell phones and social media are pulling people into a false reality and causing them to isolate themselves even further from the world. Furthermore, there are hundreds of campaigns on social media supporting individuality and self love. Albeit, there are also hundreds of altered pictures of people trying to hide flaws and imperfections. So is the message of self love and acceptance truly one of striving for acceptance by society at all costs? It remains a self deprecating message to teens throwing us into the turmoil of finding ourselves at the cost of “fitting in” with societal standards. Today, is a society of conflicting messages which in turn makes for a confusing existence. Holden would fit in perfectly with our generation. He understood what it