The Role Of Alienation In Catcher In The Rye

Holden’s childish ways cause him to never mature and figure out who he is as a person. We see many signs of Holden insecurities throughout the book, like the fact that he contradicts himself. An example of this would be when Sally and Holden are in the taxi and he tells her he loves her, he then counties to say, “It was a lie, of course, but the thing is, I meant it when I said it” (Salinger 139). Someone who is confident would not lie and play with the emotions of someone else. Another example of Holden contradicting himself would have to be when he hired Sunny, a

Holden Caulfield is a character much like Huck Finn who chooses to bathe in the glory of individualism. On leaving his Prep school, he comes in contact with reality and encounters people, most of whom he dislikes. He is appalled at their need for approval and pretentiousness. A Journalist, William Whyte termed these people as the “organization men” which he defined as individuals focused on getting along and incapable of any kind of independent thought or action. Caulfield offered his own term of disparagement- phony and thus appeals to broadly shared anxieties about a conformist culture.

In the novel The Catcher In The Rye, by JD Salinger, Holden struggles with the idea of adulthood. He thinks of it as a very phony and painful world. Salinger sends the message that growing up is very painful and phony and that the young should be saved from this complex aspect of life. Growing up is a very complex idea. Not everyone wants to go through it’s process, especially Holden.

In the book 1984, the protagonist Winston Smith tries to lead a rebellion against Big Brother. In the end he has now been through many things such as torture, but he has failed his rebellion. Throughout the book Winston was bound to fail because he was careless and not rebellious. An example of him being careless is that he has blind faith in O’Brien. An example of him being not rebellious is that his biggest act of rebellion was Julia.

Holden oppresses himself when the prostitute comes over by instead of having sex with her he tells her to leave and he will still pay for her fee, this proves that Holden pretends to be a sex maniac while oppressing his sexuality. Holden also states that with all of his girlfriends he could have “given them the time” but whenever they said stop, he would, thus sating his oppression and that he thinks that sex is morally wrong at his age. “I’ve had quite a few opportunities to lose my virginity and all, but I’ve never got around to it yet” (92). This shows that Holden oppresses himself form his sexuality. All in all the main characters of both stories at one time were sexually

Lonesome…depressed…negative. In the thought-provoking book The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden struggles to form relationships after his brother’s death, and becomes careless after flunking out of multiple schools. Holden has no feelings besides negativity towards all of his surroundings. He thinks of everyone as phonies when he himself is phony as well.

This is demonstrated even during Act one when Proctor lies and tries to make others around him lie. While speaking about his elusive affair Proctor states,“We never touched” when speaking Abigail about the affair. Untruthful, in a bigger sense, can also be applied to John Proctor as he commits the sin of adultery. This makes him unfaithful as well as untruthful as he is supposed to follow the Ten Commandments. In his religious life it is expected that the commandments be followed, yet Proctor is also untruthful to that when he breaks the seventh one.

It is clear that Holden is at odds with the mainstream, as he controversially identifies as an atheist and a pacifist. In many ways, Holden was before his time. His prevalent profanity, lying, and drinking contrast with our traditional view as of the 1950s as a paradigm of virtue. Perhaps the best representation of this “man against society” struggle is the tragic case of James Castle. Castle, a relatively minor character, is one of the few people other than Holden who speaks out against the status quo by calling a well-to-do fellow student “a very conceited guy” (Salinger 188).

There are subtle hints to why he is there, “I have been accused of a multitude of things, of jealousy, and paranoia, of not being man enough to satisfy my wife, of having relations with male friends of mine...”(64)During a meeting with all the patients nurse Ratched accuses him of a various things and one of those things is Harding being gay.During that same meeting, Harding was also heard saying that he is scared that he is not satisfying his wife, and she will cheat on him.“He had stated that his wife ...and that this made him uneasy because she drew stares from men on the street....he may give her reason to seek further sexual attention.” (44) As the book progresses we have an encounter with Harding’s wife and she tells Mcmurphy “She talks some more about some of Harding's friends who she wishes would quit dropping around the house looking for him. You know the type, don’t you, Mack? she says.The hoity-toity boys with the nice long hair combed so perfectly and the limp little wrist that flip so nice.”(185) This could be saying that Harding’s wife knows that he is gay and just tries to make him feel guilty about it. Another indication of Harding being gay are his hands. Harding has been noticed multiple times moving his hands femininely “beautiful

Finally, Holden has difficulties with isolation as Holden lives distant from his family and constantly strives to find ways to feel belonged. Therefore, these are all essential communal struggles Holden experiences throughout the novel. To start off with, a central matter Holden faces and seeks to protect is innocence. Holden witnesses a “man and woman squirting water out of their mouths” at each other.Holden’s perception of this reveals to readers how Holden is uncomfortable with sexuality. Holden considers what the “perverts” are doing is “crumby behaviour.” He believes that people should only be having sex if they care deeply for each other.