Holden's Alienation Theme

After getting off the train that night in New York, he stands at the phone booth for a few minutes debating who to call. “So I ended up not calling anybody”(59). After going through a list of people who he could potentially call, he ends up not calling anybody because he notices that he has closed himself off from each and everyone of them, except his sister. However, he can’t call his sister since she is younger and asleep by that time. This probably makes Holden to feel even more lonely than he did before, causing him to make a call to a girl he’s never met before, so that he can have an interaction with someone.

Yet another issue Holden endures throughout this novel is loneliness . There are many reasons that he is very lonely all throughout the novel. The biggest reason he doesn't talk to anybody is because he is afraid he is going to get hurt emotionally. For example he is scared to call Jane and is scared to let her in his heart because he doesn't want to loose another person he loves, like his deceased brother Allie. Another example of his loneliness is when he meets the prostitute in the hotel. Holden knows that he can have the comfort of another human for a little while, but he doesn't want to do anything with her because he knows she will just leave after they are done having sex. In a way he is looking for something that will last longer, like a relationship, but he is too scared of being hurt . Although, “loneliness is difficult to fess up

Because of this, Holden doesn’t attain a strong, healthy relationship with his parents, causing him to go on a path of self-destruction. He has little control over his actions, which has caused him to get expelled from his school, and is now roaming the New York streets by his

He connects with life on a very idealistic level which causes him to feel the flaws of others so deeply that he tries to cover himself by being in a state of disbelief. Part of Holden yearns for a connection with others on an adult level, while the other part of him wants to repudiate the adult world as “phony” and unjust and to recede into his own memories of childhood where things seem to be easier to deal with. He attempts to connect with other people over the development of the novel which leads him to interacting with other people as an adult and then deciding that he wasn’t ready for it. When Holden meets Sunny, it becomes clear to him that he is far from ready to be able to handle an adult situation. He starts to feel uncomfortable and makes the woman leave. Another encounter he had was at the end of his date with Sally Hayes, Holden tries to get her to run away with him, resulting in her strongly rejecting his dreams and him getting so upset that they part ways. Lastly, in his departure from Mr.Antolini’s apartment, he begins to question his ability to judge peoples characteristics. He had gone to the apartment to confide in his teacher about the choices he had made, but Mr.Antolini made him realize that his arguments weren’t very strong which made him unsure of himself and his views. Holden finally comes to terms with himself at the end of his story as he watches Phoebe ride the carousel. Everything seems to all come together at that moment. Holden shows signs of growth as he’s watching Phoebe. He realizes that the compassion he was missing had been there all along within his little

Overall, alienation protected and harmed Holden Caulfield but ultimately it was the leading cause of all his problems , such as his depression , madness , and thoughts of suicide. Holden had the idea that avoiding interaction with people would save him for the humility that is caused by meeting with people , such as awkwardness , rejection and the sort of intense emotional suffering he dealt with during Allie’s death . From the situation Holden was put in because of the aftereffects of Allie’s death , such as “ They were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all, because I broke all the windows in the garage … I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it. I even tried to break

J.D. Salinger, the author of The Catcher in the Rye, uses the behaviour of protagonist Holden Caulfield to shape his personality in the way he alienates himself from the rest of the world. Holden alienates himself from the society he lives in, his relationships with others and also the relationship he has with himself. Holden struggles to cope with the fact that eventually he will have to grow up and so will everyone around him. Holden see’s the world not being perfect as a huge problem that he alone has to fix because everyone else is too much of a ‘phony’ to do it. The novel explores Holden’s weekend after he got kicked out of his fourth school, Pency Prep, and the struggles he faces with alienating himself.

In the book “Catcher in the Rye” three major themes stood out for me as a reader. Holden’s pessimistic language, alienates him from the world. The speaker demonstrates separation and incongruence; “athletic [bastards] stick together,” Holden portrays a sense of animosity towards groups of people sticking together due to how he is not able to do the same this also demonstrates alienation. At the end of chapter six Holden provokes his best friend Stadler by saying “You moron,” using this absurd language demonstrated hatred and insult which was the cause estrangement. Finally Holden exhibits how he was ostracized “don’t do one damn thing…way you’re supposed to” even though he didn’t show rude language, the meaning was blunt and impolite. Holden’s alienation was thought to occur due to his brother death and the absence of his family however it portrayed that he was different and did not want to make contact with others.

Throughout the novel “The Catcher in the Rye”, Holden seems to be excluded and isolated to the point he becomes alienated from the world in order for him to protect himself from other people.

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is a novel built on contradictory statements. This is partly because Holden, the angsty, teenage narrator, is still finding himself through the course of the book meaning that these contradictions show both positive and negative change in himself. The biggest contradictions shown thus far are both contradictory of Holden’s actions which is showing a lack of awareness of his true self. The first example of the Holden’s contradictions is in the beginning paragraph of the novel when he states that he is not going to recount his “whole goddam autobiography or anything” (3) and then proceeds to do that very thing by telling the “madmen stuff” (3) that happened to him a year ago. A second example of Holden’s

Holden shows how much he needs someone to talk to such as a psychologist, because he is suffering from depression and no one can tell. “Allie, don’t let me disappear. Allie don't let me disappear. Please, Allie. And then when I’d thank him”(Salinger 218).The only person he trust is his older brother but, he is dead and makes him seem crazy. With this it shows how Holden hasn’t been social in the longest time, which affects him now because he is going through a phase where he needs some to guide him to the right path. He

As Holden, states he is not ‘applying myself at all’. Since Holden has no energy to start applying himself to his schoolwork he flunked out of it. This cuts him off from his peers and any sort of socialization or friendship he managed. His forced departure from school acts as a catalyst, starting to unravel his life. Holden's depression forces him out of school, while also segregating him from his peers. Leaving him completely alone in the world. As Holden flees his school, he gets into new york all alone in the middle of the night and this occurs, “The first thing I did when I got off at Penn Station, I went into this phone booth. I felt like giving somebody a buzz … but as soon as I was inside, I couldn't think of anybody to call up. My brother D.B. was in Hollywood. My kid sister Phoebe… was out.”(Salinger 66) Holden doesn't have any good relationships with anybody outside of his family, his first thought upon finding himself alone was to call his siblings. After he decides against it, he can't think of anyone to call. this shows holden is unable to for relationships with anybody his own age. The root of his relationship issues, is his lack of energy, which stems from his

Holden's constantly telling that he is different from everyone else, who he defines as "phonies", wearing his hunting cap to make him standout in society, and inability to make a social contact with a Jane Gallagher, who he constantly brings up, are just a few lucid examples of his self-alienation of society. Holden feels and uses this alienation to protect himself from the harshness of society is this constant defense mechanism eventually leads to his

In Catcher In The Rye, Salinger uses Holden’s need of human contact to illustrate the problem of his self-alienation. His self-alienation is detrimental, ultimately blocking him from what he truly wants. Holden thinking he is better than others, which distances him from others and also hurts others in the process.

When the reader looks back at Holden’s history they can make assumptions as to why Holden wants things to stay the way they are. The general assumption would be because Holden is very distant to people who are dear to him. He mentions his younger sister, Phoebe frequently but cannot connect with her in any way due to Holden’s enrollment in a relatively distant school. Holden also recalls his two brothers, Allie and D.B., whom he is exiled from in result of Allie’s tragic fate and D.B.’s migration to California. The death of Holden’s favorite person, Allie, results ultimately in the unstable mental condition that controls Holden. Holden’s fascination with children and their mentalities is driven from Holden’s mourning of Allie’s death. While Holden tries to resist changing, he is identifying himself with Allie. Critic, Hermit Vanderbilt, agrees that, “Obviously despairing at the cosmic injustice of such an early death, Holden falls into a schizophrenic disorder interested in keeping him from growing up and keeping the role of Allie alive.” (Vanderbilt 299). In addition to the laments of personal loss, Holden also desires a stagnancy of time because of his fear of losing his moral purity. This is shown when Holden speaks about how his older brother, D.B., has lost his moral standards in the pursuit of fame. Holden feels D.B. has strayed far from his truly respectable writing when D.B. “sold himself out” to the expectations of Hollywood. Holden refers to D.B. as a

His loneliness makes him feel depressed and willing to die. At his hotel, Holden decides to hire a prostitute: “She didn’t care what the hell my name was, naturally” (105). Normally one would go to a prostitute for sex, but Holden is solely focused on finding company. He is looking for any kind of connection or relationship between him and this stranger, but she is only willing to talk business. He is feeling so deserted that his best prospect for company is a prostitute who does not even care about him. He knows prostitutes are considered among the worst of people, and they are also illegal. However, Holden loses perspective in terms of the way he sees himself in comparison to others. Now thinking that he is now on the same level as prostitutes in society. Holden grasps onto relationships with people like prostitutes (and later taxi drivers) because no one is there for him like Allie was. It is almost as if Holden is trying to recreate his relationship with Allie. Although he can not find anyone nearly as special or satisfying, so therefore he reverts towards ending his life. He describes the lobby of the hotel that he is staying at as empty and full of dead cigars, leaving him feeling lonely and frustrated as he says: “I was feeling sort of lousy. Depressed and all. I almost wished I was dead” (101). When his emotions start to