Catcher In The Rye Synthesis Essay

Sex is one of the many motifs that comes up in The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. This novel is about a seventeen year-old boy named Holden Caulfield who is struggling with life. Suffering from loss, Holden refuses to grow up and conform to the adult world which he deems to be full of “phonies.” The story takes place in a mental institution where he reflects upon all the events prior to his hospitalization. Leading up to this, Holden chooses to isolate himself from people, and can hardly handle social encounters. His mental health starts to diminish and he realizes that he may soon need a psychoanalysis, ending his flashback and bringing us back to present day. This story of self-discovery and mental deterioration includes many themes

Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around-nobody big, I mean- except me. And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff- I mean if they’re running and from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all” (191). This is a metaphor because the children in the rye field symbolizes their innocence and them being happy and playing around. The cliff symbolizes the harsh reality of the adult world and if the kids were to fall over, they would be forced to face these realities, which is what he wants to protect them from. Holden even goes as far as wiping off the walls in school and envisioning himself beating up the person who wrote “f- you” on them. Aside from this, sex is a “grown-up” thing, and aside from Holden not understanding it despite him calling himself a “sex maniac”, he doesn’t want to participate in anything that will take away what innocence he has left, or anything that will make him more grown up. Physical and emotional relationships represent the adult world which is one of Holden’s greatest fears. He despises the adult world, especially because he believes that just about everyone is a

For reasons that seem to stem from Allie’s death, Holden has trouble dealing with the complexity of changes that occur during life. In the bar when Holden meets up with Carl Luce, a guy from the Whooton School. He talks about how all Carl would talk about were his sexual encounters so he assumes that after all these years he has remained the same person. Holden persistently asks him about his sexual encounters with his new girl, but Carl has changed into the type of person who doesn’t kiss and tell, asking Holden when he will grow up. He eventually leaves Holden at the bar and Holden asks him to stay awhile longer because he doesn’t want to return to his feelings of loneliness. Again, Holden has the opportunity to have friendly and even romantic relationships, but he always puts himself in a situation that alienates himself from others, and as a result, he fears