Examples Of Isolation In Catcher In The Rye

Impressive Bathrooms
In J. D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye a teenage boy, Holden Caulfield, lost between childhood and adulthood, navigates through his boarding school, Pencey, the streets of New York and finally back to his house. During that time Holden uses "can" to change his outward appearance to match those of the social norm. When Holden attempts to fit in by looking good to impress the people around him, he pushes himself further away, and into isolation. Holden stuck in his own isolation chooses to judge the adults, teenagers, and kids around him; he calls them "phony" because they act unoriginal and use their physical and mental gifts to win people over. Holden perturbs over this "phoniness" because his

own "phoniness" cannot win anyone over to stay with him. Holden fails to impress and assimilate into a group of friends because he uses the “can” as an attempt to look good for his peers around him without acting "phony”. Holden's "phoniness" keeps him in isolation and altogether losing his mind and ending up in mental hospital.
Holden Caulfield tries to receive attention and impress the boys at school by the way he talks, acts and “cleans” up for others. He notices his suitemate Ackley, who barges through “the goddam curtains” into Holden’s room to express his hatred for Stradlater or to entertain himself (22). Ackley “clean[s] his fingernails” to hide his slob-like personality for the sake of impressing the boys around him (36).Holden believes Ackley is "phony" because his cleaning habits are disgusting when he is alone, but then acts like a clean teenager when he is out (3). When Holden’s roommate, Stradlater, heads to the “can” to prepare for a date, Holden mentions that Stradlater is a “slob” who has their razor “rusty as hell” (26,27). Stradlater’s cleaning habits are similar to those of Ackley, except Stradlater actually looks good on the outside. The contrast between Stradlater and Holden, is Stradlater attempts to look good because he is “in love with himself” but Holden wants others to be in love with, or rather accept him (27). Holden wanting to impress others leaves him acting like a "phony".
Holden cares about how he perceives himself to the people around him, and becomes upset when they deem him as outcast, but Holden absentmindedly judges others anyways.

At the Edmont Hotel, the bellboy, sixty-five and bald, helps Holden carry his bags, “is even more depressing than his room” (61). Holden already quickly judges the first person he comes in contact with, and forms assumptions about how the bellboy “is not too intelligent or anything” (61). Holden assumes this because he holds a higher standards for others, to act original and not “phony”. He judges the people he meets and calls them “phony” because they do not properly satisfy his set standards. When Holden notices the man in the room across from him, who puts “real women's clothes--silk stockings,... and one of those corsets with the straps hanging down and all”on the man scares him, by the way he acts (61). The man scares Holden because he never saw someone like that before and he calls him a pervert. Then the man “look[s] at himself in the mirror” to see if he meets his own standards (61). The man is okay with the way he looks now. Holden also notices that the man “[is] all alone, too.Unless somebody was in the bathroom..." Holden thinks the man wants to impress the society around him, that is why there must be someone in the bathroom (61). Holden believes society does not present themselves for themselves but for others in society. The society's social norm leaves Holden confronting who he is, and

also leaving him more alone.
Holden decides he will go and face the New York streets to see if he can find anyone to be with.

He "open[s] [his] suitcases and took out a clean shirt, and then [he] went in the bathroom and washed and changed my shirt" (66). Holden is getting ready and changing to go out to see if he can find someone to accept him. When Holden heads to the Lavender Room he judges the table he receives calling it "lousy" because it is not up front by the "putrid" band (69). Holden calls the table "lousy" and the band "putrid" because again, they do not meet his standards. Holden then looks for acquaintances with older women, because he could not see anyone his age there. While looking around the Lavender Room he notices these three older girls. Holden walks over to the older girls and he spoke in a "suave voice" asking if any of them wants to dance (70). He uses this "suave voice" because Holden thinks it makes him sound older, so the older girls will like him. Holden still judges the girl though and calls them "morons" because older girls laugh at him for making a pass at them. This angers Holden because he is lost between the two worlds adulthood and childhood

now.
Holden lost between the two worlds and isolated, begins to lose his mind wandering through the streets of New York. Holden asks his old buddy Carl Luce if his dad has ever "psychoanalyze" him because then Holden thinks he needs mental help (148). Carl Luce tells Holden that his dad "adjust" him to fit in the social norm (148).