The Bildungsroman novel, The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, shows us how self-alienation can be destructive. We can see such isolation through the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, who gets himself caught in a cycle of self-destruction. Holden’s tone throughout the story is cynical and pessimistic as he believes isolation is the best method to protect himself against society’s phoniness. However, this only causes him to emotionally break down and lands him in a mental institute. Like Holden, many people believe self isolationing yourself is the best way ofto protecting oneself from society. Since the beginning of the story, Holden hints that he suffers from alienation. “The game with Saxon Hall was suppose to be a very big deal around Pencey… I was standing way the hell up on top of Thomsen Hill … You could see the whole field from there … practically the whole school except me was there …” (Salinger 2). Instead of watching the most important football game at Pencey, he is by himself away from everybody for the second time that day. He simply watches the people instead of interacting with them. He believes the majority of the people are “phony” …show more content…
“He's dead now. He got leukemia and died when we were up in Maine, on July 18, 1946. You'd have liked him…” (Salinger 38), Holden lets the readers know about his brother, Allie who passed away. He then proceeds to tell how he broke all the windows in the garage and slept there the day Allie died. Holden informs that his parents wanted to get him psychoanalyzed after that incident. This is may have been a leading factor to why Holden decides to alienate himself from people,and does not wish to form connections with others because that may lead to emotional pain like Allie’s death. Although his alienation protects him, it also harms him because like any other human, Holden needs human contact to not feel lonesome and
When Allie was alive, his company comforts Holden because of how friendly and happy he was around him. When he dies, Holden does not know how to react, and could not hurt a particular person, so he hurt himself: ”I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it” (39). Because he was so hurt by the death of his brother, Holden releases his frustration physically rather than verbally. Also, he talks to Allie in order to feel less depressive after the prostitute, Sunny, leaves. Holden has not yet found a resolution to comfort him because he is so familiar with telling Allie how he feels.
“Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.” J.D Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is about a teenage boy struggling to get through the emotional ups and downs of life. He leaves readers with this quote at the very end of the book as a warning. He says this to prevent everyone from experiencing the lack of emotional support he felt for so long. Holden Caulfield feels as though sharing details from his life with others opens up the possibility of emotional endangerment and depression leading to self alienation to protect himself from being disappointed and heartbroken when the bond is broken.
Holden choices to seclude himself rather than face potential disappointment in relationships. The death of Allie deeply affected Holden and his view of the world. The pain of Allie’s death forced Holden to cut off emotional ties with others for self-preservation. In the opening chapters of the novel, Holden detached himself from his peers at the football game stating, “I was standing way the hell up on top of Thomsen Hill”(1.3). Holden isolated himself from others instead of bonding with his friends and peers. Holden saw and heard his classmates, but they were unable to see him. This disconnect protected Holden from forming a bond that would ultimately have to be broken when Holden left Pencey Prep.
Holden alienates himself by believing he is better than everybody else. Every time Holden meets or talks about someone he is judgemental. Even when he is talking about someone he spends time with, he cannot help but ridicule them, “I never even once saw him [Ackley] brush his teeth....he had a lot of pimples. Not just on his forehead or his chin, like most guys, but all over his whole face. And not only that, he had a terrible personality. He was also sort of a nasty guy. I wasn't too crazy about him, to tell you the truth.”(Salinger,14 ). Ackley is probably the closest thing to a friend Holden has. Yet he criticizes him is a very nitpicky way, convincing himself he does not like
The Catcher in the Rye is a story about a boy, Holden Caulfield, and a few days of his life as he goes to New York near Christmas. He has been kicked out of four distinguished high schools for his poor grades. From the beginning of the story it is visible he is very pessimistic and has a negative outlook on almost everybody in the book. It is because of this that I do not judge people based on his opinions of them. Holden’s brother died three years before the story starts, and his death might be the cause of some of his personality. At the beginning of the book, he is getting ready to leave the all-boys Pencey Prep in a few days. His roommate, Stradlater, is going on a date with Jane Gallagher, a girl whom
“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.
It is apparent from reading The Catcher in the Rye that one of the novel’s main themes is alienation. The theme of alienation is most clearly visible as a form of self-protection through the actions of the protagonist of The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield. Caulfield’s self-imposed isolation as a form of protection can be seen in his physical seclusion from the outside world, in his constant acts of lying, and in his condemnation of society as being “phony.”
From the protagonists’ point of view, the adult world Holden and Franny are entering and living in is a very superficial place. Holden who is sixteen years of age is going through a time of crisis where he is almost forced to become an adult. This concept is the very thing that makes Holden afraid, causing him to misbehave at school. His latest school, Pencey Prep, expels Holden due to his failing grades. When asked for the reason of his lack of academic enthusiasm, Holden simply states that he is not interested in anything. In every school he has attended, Holden has managed to find different reasons not to care and possibly even hate the institutions.
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a vicious cycle is a repeating situation or condition in which one problem causes another problem that makes the first problem worse. Holden Caulfield, the main character of The Catcher in the Rye, by author J.D. Salinger, is stuck in a vicious cycle of self-destruction. Holden’s isolation and self-alienation creates a vicious cycle of hatred. This cycle is clearly displayed throughout the whole book and is accentuated through his interactions with strangers and those he is familiar with.
His outward attitude initially exudes teenage arrogance and bullheadedness, however internally he struggles with a montage of isolationism and angst possibly brought on by his adolescence. Throughout the introduction of the novel, there is a continual theme of social isolationism- Holden goes out of his way to be separated from his peers at Pencey, even prior to his expulsion. During the football game, he doesn’t go down to the student section and watch in the stands with the other students, but rather opts to watch the game “way...up on top of Thomsen Hill.” (pg. 4) “Practically the whole school except [Holden] was there,” in the stands watching the game, while Holden was up on the hill, isolated from his peers (pg. 5). While the rest of the school is at the stadium, Holden is watching the interactions from above, rather than engaging in any himself- he is watching people rather than connecting with them, establishing his position as an outsider. This connection, or lack-thereof, lends itself to the overall theme of isolationism which develops Holden’s
Allie was someone he loved and cared for more than anyone, he glorified Allie to the point of worship as he recounts that “it wasn’t just that he was the most intelligent member in the family. He was also the nicest …. God, he was a nice kid”(43-44). When he dies Holden passes his breaking point and never has recovered. Holden keeps everything inside, yet when his brother dies, a different side of Holden that is deeply real is revealed. This is exemplified when he describes when he hears of Allies death in the garage “I slept in the garage the night he dies, and I broke all the goddamn windows in the garage...I even tried to break all the windows on the station wagon...but my hand was already broken...I hardly didn’t know I was doing it, and you didn’t know Allie”(44). This shows a key factor in how Holden deals with pain, he would rather deal with physical pain than emotional pain as it is
The Catcher in the Rye revolves around Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of the novel, and his disillusionment. Holden’s disillusionment illustrates that he has a problem accepting such. Aforesaid is based upon multiple factors, most which have brought Holden lasting traumas. A remedy is required for Holden to accept his disillusionment and enable an improvement of his situation. For Holden’s remedy, the consultation of psychologists, and additional specialized health professionals would be the core of an apt remedy for Holden’s psychological and physiological state based upon the numerous causes of such and the everlasting trauma of some of the determinants of aforesaid situation. The origins of Holden’s disillusionment revolved mainly around the death of his younger brother Allie three years ago, of which he still experiences the trauma to this day. His disillusionment is caused by both
Holden shares his experiences with his younger brother, Allie, to the reader throughout the book. Holden recalls these memories when something reminds him of an experience with his little brother. In chapter twenty, Holden is outside late in Central Park. He starts shivering and hopes he doesn’t get pneumonia and die. The thought of him dying caused Holden to think of this situation, “I started picturing millions of jerks coming to my funeral and all. My grandfather from Detroit, that keeps calling out the numbers of the streets when you ride on a goddam bus with them, and my aunts-I have about fifty aunts- and all my lousy cousins. What a mob’d be there. They all came when Allie died, the whole goddam stupid bunch of them” (Salinger 154-155). Holden is criticizing the members of his family that showed up to his younger brother’s funeral. Instead of Holden being grateful for his family’s support, he twisted the situation around in his mind to feel as if the family’s intentions were wrong. Holden believes the family that attended the service did so only to convey a fake image to everyone else that attended. Most of his family did not know Allie but still came to his funeral to make up for the time they never had with him. Holden convinces himself that people act selfishly to convey an image to others. The result of this harmful thought pattern is that Holden distances himself to avoid human
J.D Salinger’s novel, Catcher In The Rye is about a teen, Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of the narrative. Holden is full of unique problems and most of the time lost in his own world, that can’t face reality. The psychoanalytic theory arranges a lens of definition when working at Holden Caulfield. Holden is seen as a lonely, rebellious teen who flunked out of an all boys private school, Pencey Prep. Failing school exemplifies how Holden controls his own decisions in the real world. As stubborn Holden is, opening up his persona and experiences to people is very hard for him, “I’ll just tell you about this madman stuff that happened to me…” (Salinger 1). From a Freudian psychoanalytical perspective Holden would seem to keep all his thoughts all bottled up, not speaking, and opening up to people. “The preconscious holds information we’ve stored from past experience or learning. This information can be retrieved from memory and brought into awareness at any time.” (Nevid 469). Holden is one step closer to becoming a better changed person by speaking to his psychiatrist, and there is only way to find out if he did.
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.