In J.D. Salinger’s, Catcher in the Rye, themes of isolation and loneliness play a key role in Holden Caulfield’s life. Throughout the novel, the main character, Holden, struggles with alienating himself from the outside world, and connecting with the people in his daily life. Not only does isolation affect Holden’s life in general, but it also affects his family and social life, as well as his mental health. Ever since the death of his little brother, Allie, Holden felt like his family was never the same. Holden had enough of everyone at his prep school, Pencey, and decided instead of staying there until the break, he decided it was best to just leave and have a few days to himself. He decided that, “[Holden] didn’t wanna go home or anything till they got [the letter] and thoroughly digested it and all.” (51). After getting “the ax” from another school, Holden wanted to spend a few days by himself, avoiding the inevitable of facing his parents. In addition, he did not want to see his family because he strives to see them less and less – also mentioning his plans to runaway to his little sister – ever since Allie’s death. …show more content…
In attempt to cure Holden’s loneliness for the night, Holden schedules a date with Sally where he ends up proposes a plan about running away and says that “[…] later on, we could get married or something.” (132). From the start Holden mentioned how he did not like Sally that much. He always picked out her flaws and never actually wanted to be with her. Nevertheless, he called her out of loneliness, and came up with a crazy scheme, almost knowing that it was insane, and would drive her away. Throughout the book, Holden seems to be constantly picking out flaws in people, making excuses not to like them. Every chance Holden had to become close with someone, he let himself get in the way which made him feel more secluded from the
J.D. Salinger, the author of The Catcher in the Rye, uses the behaviour of protagonist Holden Caulfield to shape his personality in the way he alienates himself from the rest of the world. Holden alienates himself from the society he lives in, his relationships with others and also the relationships he has with himself. Holden struggles to cope with the fact that eventually he will have to grow up, and so will everyone around him. Holden see’s the world not being perfect as a huge problem that he alone has to fix because everyone else is too much of a ‘phony’ to do it. The novel explores Holden’s weekend after he got kicked out of his fourth school, Pency Prep, and the struggles he faces with alienating himself.
Again, this is one of the few people that Holden likes and doesn’t consider a phony like everyone else. He talks highly of her and he sees himself in her in the way that she alternates between behaving like an adult and behaving like a child, the way he says he also does. It bothered him greatly when she asks him if he “got the ax again,” referring to his expulsion. She starts asking him questions about his future and what he likes (if he likes anything at all) and it forces him to wake up. Everyone has been telling Holden to realize his situation and put more effort into schoolwork and relationships and to start caring. Holden’s reality is very simple: he wants to be the catcher in the rye to protect children’s innocence and stop them from growing up because all adults are phonies. Again and again, being told that that isn’t plausible annoys him. He feels betrayed, when his own sister, someone who he thought would understand him, joins everyone else in telling him to put forth more
Holden experiences both alienation and disillusionment when meeting with people like Sally Hayes, Sunny and Ackley. Holden is so desperate to have human connection yet, when he starts to talk to them, he experiences them as ‘phonies’. This makes him more depressed, continuing his downward spiral. Holden is caught in a trap of his own making.
Holden's Seperateness in Catcher in the Rye In ‘The Catcher In The Rye’ Salinger sets about making Holden appear separate from everyone else. He does this through a variety of methods. One of the ways in which Salinger shows this separateness is through Holden’s relationships and encounters with his family and friends. Another method that Salinger uses is that usually whenever Holden attempts to contact someone they are either not there or don’t answer the phone, this give us the feeling that Holden is by himself, alone, separate from everyone else. Also the fact that Holden says ‘my address book only has about three people in it’ gives us again the impression that Holden is disconnected from society.
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
“Isolation is the sum total of wretchedness to man.” (Thomas Carlyle). In the story Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger, this coming of age book tells of the teen troubles experienced by the main character Holden Caulfield. After Holden gets expelled from his school Pencey Prep, Holden leaves school a couple days early to explore New York City. In his travels he experiences isolation from friends at school, feeling disconnected from his family, as he tries understand these periods angst he finds some peace.
Lies, failure, depression, and loneliness are only some of the aspects that Holden Caulfield goes through in the novel The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D. Salinger. Salinger reflects Holden’s character through his own childhood experiences. Salinger admitted in a 1953 interview that "My boyhood was very much the same as that of the boy in the book.… [I]t was a great relief telling people about it” (Wikipedia). Thus, the book is somewhat the life story of J.D. Salinger as a reckless seventeen-year-old who lives in New York City and goes through awful hardships after his expulsion and departure from an elite prep school. Holden, the protagonist in this novel, is created as a depressed, cynical, and isolated character and he expresses this attitude through his dialogue, tone, and diction.
Superficially the story of a young man getting expelled from another school, the Catcher in the Rye is, in fact, a perceptive study of one individual’s understanding of his human condition. Holden Caulfield, a teenager growing up in 1950’s, New York, has been expelled from school for poor achievement once again. In an attempt to deal with this he leaves school a few days prior to the end of term, and goes to New York to take a vacation before returning to his parents’ inevitable irritation. Told as a monologue, the book describe Holden’s thoughts and activities over these few days, during which he describes a developing nervous breakdown. This was evident by his bouts of unexplained depression, impetuous spending and generally odd, erratic behavior, prior to his eventual nervous collapse.
Holden Caulfield narrates his story from Hollywood, California, a city of movie stars and big dreams. The story he retells takes place in cold, dreary, wet New York City, New York. It is not a coincidence that author J.D. Salinger uses these two environments to create a mental contrast with Holden’s emotions. During Holden’s time in New York, he spends many nights and days trying to find himself as a person and struggling to grasp the idea that he is eventually going to grow up. This reality check does not sit will with Holden as he spends most of his times in the big city alone and depressed, trying to reach out to anyone willing to talk to him and help guide him through the unstable path of adolescence. Thus, in the novel The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger, Salinger uses setting to show how winter affects narrator Holden Caulfield through feelings of depression and loneliness.
Holden struggles with himself mightily and cannot fulfill his responsibilities. One of Holden’s struggles is that he has a bad attitude towards everyone. For example, at the school he goes to, he hates his roommates and his teachers. In addition to not liking anyone, Holden
He feels a loss of connection with Mr.Spencer, believing, “[He and Mr.Spencer] were too much on opposite sides of the pole” (Salinger 18). It is highly probable that he feels this disconnect for more people than just Mr.Spencer, after all, he decides to leave his school early to roam the city by himself instead of facing his peers for two more days. He makes this decision because he feels surrounded by “phonies” and thus needs to leave, which he has done before; in fact, during a tangent of Holden’s about his old school Elkton Hills, he states “One of the biggest reasons I left Elkton Hills was because I was surrounded by phonies. That’s all” (17). This statement brings proof to the idea that being surrounded by phony people forces Holden to isolate himself and break off from them.
Many young people often find themselves struggling to find their own identity and place in society. This search for self worth often leaves these young people feeling lonely and isolated because they are unsure of themselves. Holden Caulfield, J.D. Salinger's main character in the book The Catcher In the Rye, is young man on the verge of having a nervous breakdown. One contributor to this breakdown, is the loneliness that Holden experiences. His loneliness is apparent through many ways including: his lack of friends, his longing for his dead brother, and the way he attempts to gain acceptance from others.
For Holden, he is disappointed with his social interaction and alienation he faces, yet uses this to show no one is genuinely alone with their feelings. There are people experiencing very similar circumstances to others, thus people should avoid feeling isolated like Holden does. “The Catcher in the Rye” uses the main character Holden as a tool to relate to readers to show that being frustrating with aspects of your life is completely
Throughout the novel Holden seems to be excluded from any group. He feels alienated from the rest of society, but I believe that Holden stays bitter on purpose. He keeps a cynical, sarcastic outlook on life so as to escape his true feelings. This is not uncommon for people who have trouble accepting their problems. Many of the times that Holden criticizes people it is something he does himself. (Pg 13) “… one of the reasons I left Elkton was that I was surrounded by phonies…” Holden himself is many times what he refers to as a “phony”. He knows that he lies and pretends to like people that he would rather not be with. (Pg 125) “… I told her I loved her and all. It was a lie of course…” His bitterness is a shield against his reality, a reality he doesn’t like at all. Yet at the same time Holden really wants to communicate with people. (Pg 66) “ I damn near gave my kid sister Phoebe a buzz…” He is torn between the two ways to act and cannot reach conclusio...
Because of Holden’s low self esteem he gets pleasure from standing out. Holden explains, “The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was…Nobody’d be different. The only thing that would be different would be you”(Salinger 121). Here we see that Holden gets comfort from standing out. This is probably because he has not been able to stand out because of his siblings always surpassing him and the lack of attention he received from both