Pain, Depression and Loneliness in Holden Caufield from the novel Catcher in the Rye

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The overwhelming pain that Holden had suffered during the past was nonetheless an impact, which stained his future life. Some evidence that implies Holden’s characteristic is how he grudgingly criticizes and scorns at almost everyone he knows. After he leaves Pencey Prep School, he falls into a dilemma where he faces loneliness and depression. More so, he desperately seeks company from clubs, bars, and hotels to have someone to accompany him. The factors that affect this isolation of him are mostly because of the tragic death of his younger brother Allie and the life he has in school. He was an important person to Holden. He mentions how great and smart Allie was out of the entire family. When Stradlater told Holden to write an essay for him Holden decided that he wanted to write a paper about Allies baseball mitt, which had poems written on it and Holden still carries with him the mitt at school (38). The life he has in school is very miserable to him because he has already failed two other schools and it is happening to him again. He says that he did not mean to disappoint and hurt his parents’ feelings so he takes a few days out to Edmont Hotel (59).
The tension between Holden’s growing sexuality and his innocence grows much stronger throughout this section. He wants to live in a beautiful world such as the adult society, but the pressure of his emerging sexuality and the demands of his loneliness oblige him to enter into unfortunate encounters with people like Maurice and Sunny. Maurice is what makes Holden see differently of what the true adult society is, a difficult and irrational world. He is deeply affected by this, which makes him isolated from the outside world.

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