Analysis of the Film Chasing Amy Essays

Intercourse, one of Andrea Dworkin’s most revealing novels on sexuality in an exploitive ethos, poetically argues that male hegemony and female inequality are manifested in the somatic action of heterosexual intercourse, a “sexed world of dominance and submission”. This world, simply titled, “Amerika” is, the world that exists within the contemporary American. In “Amerika,” sex is healthy and enjoying it is morally right [59]. It is furthermore, distinctly regarded in the context of vaginal penetration by man. In which women are

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

One of the norms Kincaid questions is virginity, whether sex is actually meaningful, that it could be enjoyable without the feeling of love. As a nineteen-year-old girl, Lucy is new to what a sexual relationship could have

Holden is a self-cautious boy, always judgmental of those around him. Females are of much confusion to him. Often he is unsure of how to properly treat them and seems to think too far into things, such as over using the word “phony” to describe

Holden’s date with Sally Hayes exhibited his difficulty at cooperating with others. At first he gives us a dire impression of Sally, “I wasn’t too crazy about her, but I’d known her for years.” (p. 105) Later, he wants to marry Sally and says he is in love with her. The biggest mystery of all when it comes to women is with Jane Gallagher. Constantly mentioning Jane, Holden recalls playing checkers with her before he got sent to boarding school. When his roommate, Stradlater, has a date with Jane, Holden asks him a peculiar question, “Did you ask her if she still keeps all her kings in the back row?” (p. 42) Holden, jealous of Stradlater’s date with Jane, longs to see Jane but never has the courage to call her. Interactions with other people especially women perplex and overwhelm Holden. He therefore resorts to isolation, illustrating a characteristic of his mental state.

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

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

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.”

One of the issues Holden faces in the novel is sexual confusion. He first exhibits sexual confusion when he was talking to his roommate, Stradlater, about

Another female that takes part in Holden's life is Sally Hayes. She is a beautiful but shallow girl that Holden has dated in the past. To Holden's standards, Sally is another "phony" person but her beauty makes Holden put his standards aside for the moment. The unusual thing is that Holden made it clear that he disliked the girl, yet he said that the minute he saw her, he felt like marrying her. On their date together, he tells her that he loved her even though it was a lie, and yet he meant it when he said it. In return, Sally tells Holden that she loved him as well. After exchanging their false feelings for each other, Holden tries to explain what is happening in his life, but she is incapable of understanding his problems.

However, he admits that while the couple’s actions are “crumby” (Salinger 81) and crude, he is still aroused and “wouldn’t mind” (Salinger 81) doing it, especially to a girl he is attracted to. While Holden wants to preserve his innocence by not thinking about sex at all, he agrees that he is a “sex maniac” (Salinger 81), and is a fiend about losing his virginity. Holden even goes as far as to make rules for himself. On page 82, he recounts, “I made a rule that I was going to quit horsing around with girls that, deep down, gave me a pain in the ass. I broke it, though, the same week I made it-the same night, as a matter of fact” (Salinger). He is slowly losing his innocence, and while he hates to admit it, Holden’s constant thoughts about sexuality is a sign of adulthood. To him, one should only have sex with someone they truly love. Holden is almost proud of himself for having such a morally correct view of sex. This is why he is so riled when he discovers that Stradlater had sex with Jane Gallagher. Holden realized that Jane barely knew Stradlater and felt that he, if anyone, should be dating Jane. His increasing thoughts on sexuality and loss of a conventional or shielded view of sex show that his loss of innocence is apparent.

Sexuality is a major part of growing up and throughout the novel, Holden tries to maintain his innocence and struggles to understand women and what he wants with them. It is common for a teenager to be confused or worried about sex but it affects Holden a lot more than an average teen. He has mixed feelings about women often calling himself a “sex maniac” (Salinger 62). From women at the bar to using women as random distractions and even his feelings for Jane Gallagher, Holden struggles to figure out the relationship he wants and doesn't want with these women.

To do so, Levy turns to the experiences of several young women whom she interviews. From her interpretations of these experiences, Levy reaches the conclusion that these women’s sexual nature revolves around their need

The movie Silver Lining playbook is an award winning movie that exposes some social disorders that the community as a whole as engaged in for years. “A word-of-mouth hit in 2012, David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook has been popularly discussed as successfully targeting an adult audience under-served in contemporary Hollywood, as “authentically” reflecting the parenting challenges of its star and director, and as portraying a “modern” romance about a sympathetic, deeply damaged protagonist couple” (Nadel P1.).

Girls & Sex by Peggy Orenstein portrays teenage sexuality as anything but light-hearted. While the title would lead a person to believe that the book is all about girls’ sexuality, it is not. Sexuality among todays teen seems to be more focused on boys than girls. Today’s teenage culture is what is known as a “hook-up” culture. This hook-up culture seems to be driving teenagers into impersonal relationships consisting of various sexual acts. This book is a must read for educators, mothers, fathers, Aunts, Uncles, and so on, but be forewarned, the information that girls have shared with the author as she interviewed more than seventy young women between the ages of fifteen and twenty (Orenstein, P., 2016), can be alarming to anyone who is not yet aware of this culture.