The Catcher in the Rye Motifs Writing Assignment Holden’s loneliness is a significant theme in the novel and is a driving force throughout the entire book. In the novel his almost insane journey for companionship is presented as he skips from one meaningless encounter to another. Even though he is introduced as lonely, when given the opportunity to get in contact with somebody, he chooses to shy away from the situation and not socialize with anybody. On the other hand, he is in a constant look for someone to talk to. Holden’s isolation is a crucial factor in his way of life, which is being detached from as many people as possible and keeping a feeling of self-protection for him. For this reason, he would purposefully give up on his own ideas to end his loneliness, before he knew he would actually have a chance to accomplish them. For example, Holden’s his rude behavior during his …show more content…
conversation with Carl Luce and Sally Hayes turned their date into a nightmare for all of them. When he calls Jane Gallagher, his calls turn out to be never successful for a similar reason: to preserve his seemingly wonderful, but extremely difficult sense of individuality. Holden encounters that his forlornness is the emotional indication of the distance between him and others. This is both the wellspring of his extraordinary agony and his security. Holden’s physical and emotional relationships are closely related to the larger theme of his alienation.
Both of these previously stated relationships offer Holden an opportunity to step out of his isolated bubble. They also introduce what he distresses most about the adult world which according to him is the complexity, unpredictability, and the possibility of a conflict or change. This connects to the symbol of the Museum of Natural History, and shows how Holden likes the world to be predictable and unchanging and in a way slow and still. Unpredictable adults often challenge Holden and make him question his self-confidence and self-worth. Holden has trouble dealing with something complex like this, possibly because of the passing of his brother. Since then, Holden completely isolated himself from everybody as a means of self-protection. Although he is handed opportunities for both physical and emotional intimacy, he disregards all of them. Even so, Holden desperately continues searching for new relationships, while habitually aborting his own attempts but only at the last
moment. Throughout the novel, Holden seems to be excluded from others and portrayed as a victim. As he tells Mr. Spencer that he feels trapped on “the other side” of life, and he is intensely searching for his way into a world he feels he fits in. As time goes by in the novel, it becomes obvious that Holden uses his alienation simply to protect himself. As the readers, we can conclude that Holden’s separation is the biggest cause of most of his pain. He never talks about his own emotions directly, and he doesn't attempt to solve his own issues either. Nevertheless, he is desperately searching for human contact and love, but his self-protective side eventually prevents him from looking for such interactions. Alienation is both the source of Holden’s strength and the source of his problems. He depends upon his alienation, but it destroys him. Holden seems to be extremely judgmental. He perceives nearly everybody as he would call “Phony” yet he doesn’t see his own mistakes regarding honesty. In fact, Holden is the one in the novel who is phony and would lie, or give only the partial truth from time to time. Holden’s definition of phoniness is mostly based on concealedness. Also, he tends to disagree with most people who claim that they are someone whom they are not, pretend to be someone else, or deny their own weaknesses. Even though Holden is highly annoyed by the phoniness of other people, he himself admits to being the best liar one can ever see. In this case a slight hypocrisy reveals in his personality. Holden can also be perceived to be dishonest with himself. From all of the above, it is obvious how Holden’s personality is rather ambiguous, full of discrepancies which clearly reflects in the momentum of the story. This also provides a sense of irony which remains present throughout the entire novel.
Holden is an outlier of society, and tries to hide his own weaknesses with his angry thoughts. It is also implied that Holden is enrolled in an institution as he talks about doctor appointments towards the beginning of the book.
Immaturity of Holden in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, the main character, Holden, cannot accept that he must move out of childhood and into adulthood. One of Holden’s most important major problems is his lack of maturity.
Nineteen million American adults suffer from a major case of depression (Web MD). That is a staggering one in every fifteen people (2 in our classroom alone). Holden Caulfield is clearly one of those people. Depression is a disease that leads to death but is also preventable. Psychology, stressful events, and prescription drugs are causes of depression. Stressful events brought on Holden’s depression. Holden has been trying to withstand losing a brother, living with careless parents, and not having many friends. The Catcher in the Rye is a book that takes us through the frazzled life of Holden Caulfield, who appears to be just a regular teen. But by hearing his thoughts and through heart-wrenching events in the book, the reader learns that Holden is not the innocent boy that he once appeared. In his book, The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger shows that Holden’s depression is not only affecting him, but also the people around him through Sally, Phoebe, and Sunny.
The one thing that stands in the way of what Holden needs is himself. He continues to cut himself off from everything he had once loved. His negative self will not let him get close to anyone else, while trying to get distant from those he once was close with. Holden never looks to the positive side of anything. He is just stuck in a deep hole and he can’t find a way out. Whenever Holden believes that he has found something that could help him, he himself some how shuts the door to his own happiness.
The theme of alienation is demonstrated by Holden. He alienates himself from the world because he fears change and false people, he wants love and security. Holden alienates himself from all the changes that occur around him. Holden isolated himself when he didn't go down to the seats for the final football game at Pency. He isolates himself because he gets kicked out of all the schools he goes to. All those changes scare Holden off, he becomes afraid to feel secure. Holden also alienates himself because he trusts no one, he thinks everybody is phony. When Holden was in a bar and he lied and said he had to go, just to not talk to his brothers old girl friend; Holden thought she was annoying and left the bar even though he didn't feel like it. Holden is also alienated by his inability to love. Holden seems not to care about his old girlfriend Sally, he told her he loved her but he didn’t mean it.
in all but one of his subjects. He does not like to talk about his
Holden is so lonely because he is annoyed by the way people act, phony as he says. Humans require company, as an effect, so does Holden. He instinctively seeks out company. He is searching for connections to hold on to.
Holden?s loneliness is apparent in more than just his lack of friends. His loneliness is made apparent by the way he misses his deceased brother, Allie. Holden makes several references to Allie and how the two used to get along and acted more like friends than brothers. Holden deeply misses his brother and even talks to him out loud to comfort himself because he still feels a void inside of him. Holden misses his brother more than others because Holden never had the final closure to his brother?s death, Holden never went to Allie?s funeral, and because Holden didn?
Holden Caulfield conveys his melancholy, sarcasm, and seclusion greatly through his dialogue; his vocabulary constantly consists of depression and loneliness. He expresses such agony all throughout the dialogue of the book. An example of this would be when Holden quotes, “When I finally got down off the radiator and went out to the hat-check room, I was crying and all. I don’t know why, but I was. I guess it was because I was feeling so damn depressed and lonesome” (153). In this quote, Holden is expressing his confusion and unhappiness but mostly is just confused to why he is unhappy. He feels a severe amount of misery that devours him, all of which is shown greatly in all of his dialogue. He, at one point in the novel, feels like committing suicide because he cannot handle the pressure. He says that “I stayed in the bathroom for about an hour, taking a bath and all. Then I got back in bed. It took me quite a while to get to sleep- I...
Modern society demands that humans form friendships, which is echoed by Salinger through Holden’s lack of friends and irrational decisions. J.D. Salinger uses Holden to show how self-alienation affects human being and the people around them. Critics of the book have said, “Holden is an outcast like Huck Finn, and like Huck he tells his story in his own idiom, Holden's voice is not merely a virtuoso recreation of contemporary adolescent speech” (Sandock). Holden is considered an outcast because he refuses to solidify a friendship with anyone but at the same time Holden always wants to be around humans. Salinger uses Holden to stress the importance of friendships and how they keep humans sane. Holden’s lack of friendships has led him t...
Initially Holden is a very immature boy. He has been kicked out of many exclusive schools his parents sent him to, and he uses an abundance of profane words. He is very depressed. At times he even said, “What I really felt like, though, was committing suicide. I felt like jumping out the window” (104). This caused all his problems to worsen. It was the root to all his struggles. His depression was what led him to flunk out of school and dismiss his education. It led to his loneliness. He would strike up a conversation with a cab driver just to prevent himself from feeling lonely. Holden is very verbose, and he never runs out of topics to speak. When he was not talking to a cab driver, he was speaking to another random person. He told Ms. Marrow lies about who he was. In accordance with lying about who he was, he also lied about the people he knew.
Throughout the Catcher in the Rye Holden makes many phone calls; through the course of the novel he is very isolated and lonely. These are linked by an inescapable fact: the way Holden tries to communicate with the outside world is his phone calls. The way he tries to and eventually breaks his lonesomeness is through these, where he can communicate with others; he does not succeed until he finally meets someone, the phone calls having been proven inadequate.
Holden protects himself from all the phoniness by alienating himself from everyone. Although he desperately wants to connect with someone. He uses isolation as proof that he is better than everyone else thus not seeing it necessary to interact with them. Holden uses the fact that everyone is a phony to alienate himself to avoid interactions with others that overwhelm him.
Holden goes to great lengths to avoid creating meaningful relationships with others, preferring to alienate himself and be left alone with his thoughts and memories. A representation of this in the form of song lyrics from Holden’s theme song go:
While Holden Caulfield years for companionship and care, at the same time he wants to be by himself. This leads to problems where Holden decides to meet up with people who he doesn’t like out of desperation, then bashes the person in their presence. The people near Holden aren’t a desirable person per say, and Holden aspires to be with people he is unable too. Holden would rather stay away from people to keep himself safe from the hurt they can cause them. Holden can’t stand the company he has because they aren't real, he cares about them too much, or they aren't there.