Social Isolation: A Deep Dive into Holden Caulfield's Psyche

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Abraham Stoker, an Irish author who is best known for his gothic novel of Dracula, once stated, “Loneliness will sit over roofs with brooding wings”. The loneliness one feels after being isolated from their social environment does not disappear over time but instead continues to grow. As it grows it causes a person to slowly become emotionally unstable and unpredictable. The effects of social isolation are seen in Holden Caulfield, Salinger’s main character in Catcher in the Rye as he faces many challenges that he fails to overcome. The way Holden deals with his failure to adapt causes him to build an increasingly dark and dangerous mindset about both himself and the phony world he lives in. Through the character of Holden Caulfield, Salinger …show more content…

As Holden is writing Stradlater’s composition about his brother Allie, he thinks back to the times when both he and Allie had fun together as well as the effects Allie’s death had on him. Due to his inability to express his feelings, Holden isolates himself in the garage and “[breaks] all the goddam windows with [his] fist”(44). Holden chooses to handle the pain of losing his brother by separating himself from the rest of his family and letting his emotions run loose. Although he may believe that he took the right course of action he is actually setting the foundation of a defense mechanism to keep others away. It prevents himself from having to deal with the pain of someone he cares about from leaving him again. While Stradlater is on a date with Jane Gallagher, Holden’s childhood sweetheart, Holden is unable to stop worrying about what Stradlater is doing to her. Once Stradlater returns from his date with Jane and shares some of the details, Holden’s anger continues to grow as he listens to Stradlater's remarks. As he thinks about Stradlater stealing Jane from him Holden’s anger begins to boil over pushing him to unsuccessfully “sock [Stradlater]...right smack in the toothbrush, [to] split his goddam throat open”(49). In Holden's eyes Jane is an important person, almost like Allie, and Stradlater is trying to take her away from him. Any other reasonable person would have talked out the situation and solved the problem, however, Holden is just the opposite. Rather than taking a rational approach Holden jumps to conclusions and attempts to use violence as a solution, which ends in him held to the floor. Holden is out on a date with Sally Hayes and finds himself confiding his problems to her. While Holden hysterically venting his angers out, he comes up with the idea to “drive up to Massachusetts and Vermont,” with good old Sally “tomorrow

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