Sexism In Holden Salinger's The Catcher In The Rye

Holden’s attitude toward sex is contradictory, sometimes he says that he is horny while sometimes he feels the opposite. Holden states, “Sex is something I really don’t understand so hot. You never know where the hell you are.” (Salinger 82). This quote shows that Holden has very ambivalent feelings toward sex. He says that he does not understand it because sometimes he really wants to do it, even if it is with a

In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, J.D Salinger depicts a narration of Holden Caulfield’s encounters. Holden is portrayed as a high school student that is judgmental towards adults while kinder to the youth. Holden does not want to grow up and he thinks that if one is approaching adulthood, one will turn into a phony. Holden’s leniency towards younger people, such as his sister, is because of his dilemma of growing up or not, his distaste for adult phonies, and his own childhood.

Holden’s relationship to his sister Phoebe and his outlived relationship with his brother Allie both exercise as means of preserving his own adolescence and innocence. Holden analyzes the traits of his younger siblings and longs to keep those aspects of their individuality alive within himself. Sustaining ties to his childhood is one of Holden’s compulsions; which is balanced with his second compulsions which is to ward off ones advancement into adulthood. We can see these qualities of Holden through his lack of motivation to excel in school. Another example of this tendency is when he is reluctant to have sex with Sunny the prostitute, although a part of him was eager to take a step towards adulthood, he was too timid and scared of losing his own innocence. Phoebe immediately realizes Holden’s obsession with preserving the innocence within people; especially her, and she calls him out "You don't like anything that's happening. . .

These views are seen clearly during his date with Sally Hayes. When both of them leave for the intermission, Holden comments on the “other jerks” clearly expressing his distaste, “You never saw so many phonies in all your life, everybody smoking their ears off and talking about the play so that everybody could hear and know how sharp they were” (Salinger 162). Holden’s commentary on these phonies clearly display his disapproval for those who put on a show. Although these people are not doing anything harmful or strange in the eyes of the reader, Holden’s tendency to oversimplify and categorize those around him affect his viewpoints on these seemingly simple everyday actions. His inability to accept others as complex are a fault shown from his constant mistakes while doing so. Another character Holden categorizes as an innocent character is Sunny, the prostitute Holden calls for during his stay at a hotel. Upon hearing Holden lie about his age she responds, “Like fun you are.” Although it does not seem significant to the readers, Holden focuses on her choice of words quite intently, “It was a funny thing to say. It sounded like a real kid. You’d

Even though Holden can act extremely childish and immature, he does have some important qualities that make him adult like and ready for adulthood. One of the characteristics Holden possess that shows his maturity is his respects for women. He almost always makes sure that women are being treated with respect, and when they aren’t he usually says something. Take for example when Luce calls his ex girl friend “The whore of New Hampshire”, Holden gets quite upset about Luce’s remark. Holden also doesn't care much for Stradlater’s practice with women of “giving them the time.”

Although Holden is a virgin, he is obsessed with sex. In the narrative it states: “In my mind, I'm probably the biggest sex maniac you ever saw. Sometimes I can think of very crumby stuff I wouldn't mind doing if the opportunity came up. I can even see how it might be quite a lot of fun, in a crumby way, and if you were both sort of drunk and all, to get a girl and squirt water or something all over each other's face.” (Salinger 62). He thinks that he can do so much with a girl, and that he is really Sauvé, however, when he is with actual girls that he can’t do anything. He thinks everything will be ok, and wants to run away with Sally who is actually superficial and shallow. He thinks that if they run away together then he can do anything to her. However, the real reason that he wants to run away is not because of the sex, but he wants escape and isolation from the world, and phonies. He is very cowardly, and he just cannot or does not want to deal with the problems that he has right now. Holden is an antihero. He stands for individualism, freedom, and choice. Sally on the other hand is a conformist. Holden is taking advantage of Sally. In the story it might seem like he wants sex, but the sex is so much profounder. He wants to feel like he is part of something. He needs a sense of purpose, and that is why he is genuinely running away. However, he changed and he does not want to run away

In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield is portrayed as a young, troubled individual. He tells us his story from the mental institution where he is currently residing. Holden is a 16 year old going through many different adolescent changes. He is expelled from his prep school for flunking too many subjects. He drinks, smokes, sees a prostitute, is punched by her pimp, goes on dates, spends a great deal of time in the park, and really does not do a great deal else. Holden is a very hard person to figure out and analyze. Throughout the whole book, Holden constantly changes his mind about things and has various conflicting thoughts. The experiences that Holden goes through illustrate the divide between adults and

When Holden is spending time with a prostitute, he lies about having another physical issue as a way to show the progression of they way that he expressed his mental ailments. During his interaction with her, Holden is uncomfortable and his actions reflect it. The prostitute notices this and confronts him about it:

He tells us that the hotel was full of “lousy perverts” doing “crumby stuff” (Salinger 33). The scathing remark isn’t unfounded, because in two different rooms Holden see a crossdressing man and two adults spitting water on each other. Though he admonishes the people he sees, he goes on to describe in vivid detail exactly what he saw. Later on, he orders a prostitute named Sunny (who’s a minor) to his hotel room, only to back out when things get too hot. As intelligent as Holden is, he’s incredibly immature when it comes to intimacy or relationships. While he welcomes “brief and isolated instances of kindness” (Edwards), he tends to avoid any type of emotional investment. Unfortunately for him, this is a major part of growing up, something Holden refuses to

For example, while Holden is out on a date with a girl named Sally Hayes, he becomes frustrated when Sally does not share his opinions about certain topics. Salinger shows an example of Holden’s interactions with Sally when Holden says to her, “You give me a royal pain in the ass, if you want to know the truth” (Salinger 133). When Salinger utilizes the literary device of dialogue, he reveals that Holden does not have the maturity to respect the perspectives of others, even the perspectives of a possible love interest. In addition, by using dialogue, Salinger shows that not only is this the opinion that Holden has of Sally, but also that he does not have the self control to keep such an insulting statement to himself. An additional way the reader can see Holden’s juvenility through his interactions with others is through his relationship with his younger sister Phoebe. For instance, Holden explains his unrealistic fantasy to her when he says, “Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all… [w]hat I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff… [t]hat’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all” (Salinger 173). In this instance, Salinger uses the literary device of a metaphor to show Holden is in denial about growing up; his wish in life is to protect children from life’s

At the time that The Catcher in the Rye was published, the quiet suburban housewife trope reigned over the world of post-war America. Despite this common media stereotype, J.D. Salinger’s primary source of development within his narrative occurred as a result of female characters. Whether it was the idealistic innocence of Jane Gallagher, the social correctness of Sally Hayes, or the infinite wisdom of Phoebe Caulfield, their influence is indisputable. Salinger uses the females in Holden’s world to reveal the adolescent struggles that Holden is experiencing. Holden’s determined protection of innocence is best shown through the presence of Jane and Phoebe in Holden’s thoughts and life.

present any sexist ideas. Its possible Holden didn't mistreat his sister because he idolizes her very much for her innocence. She lives up to the expectation he has for society, and has not yet lost her childhood purity. This is a recurring theme throughout the book. Holden is nice and respectful to girls that he already knows and cares about. However girls that annoy him are treated much differently. Holden is unable to relate to women as actual human beings. He objectifies women, either looking down on them as "dumb" or putting them on unrealistic pedestals of innocence and virtue. However, as the book is written in the 50’s about a 15 year old boy

At a bar, Holden finds these women, describing them and typical “phonies.” He ends up dancing with “the blonde one” and teases her, telling her that a movie star was in the room they were. All of a sudden “[he] was sorry as hell [he’d] kidded her. Some people you shouldn’t kid, even if they deserve it” (Salinger 78). Holden is well aware that he has hurt her. He also not admittingly makes a mental not that you cannot do as you please in this world.

Holden is a very troubled and judgemental 16 year old boy who has general feelings of isolation and disillusionment which are tied to the particular time and place of a heavily sexist nation following a hard-won world war. He is very discontent with nearly everything in his life, from his classmates, to his family, but especially to those of the opposite gender. Throughout his briefing of a single weekend, Holden often displays his interest in women and sex, yet he himself is a virgin and is mentally unable to make a move on any woman. Though on the contrary, Holden finds it upsetting when these women he knows attempt or successfully get with men whom they hardly know themselves. J.D. Salinger's novel, The Catcher in the Rye, conveys sexism in the 1950s through the characterization and direct

The novel “The Catcher in the Rye” by J. D. Salinger is about a 17-year-old boy named Holden. Holden gets in a very bad condition after his younger brother Allie dies from Leukemia. He gets mentally ill and suffers from serious depression. Holden goes through tough times in which he has a lot of trouble finding friends and keeping good relationships. Relationship and sexuality are big motifs in the novel, which come up very often. Holden is always on the look for a new friend but he always turns away in the last moment. When Holden interacts with women in the novel, he is very different than when he interacts with men. The women characters in the book all are very important because they represent and