ENG1501 Assignment 2 Student No 50097423 Unique No 553393

Holden thinks children are authentic and in order to stay authentic in a world full of phonies he seeks to preserve his childlike nature. In chapter 13, Holden talks about the concept of his virginity, he says “If you want to know the truth, I’m a virgin. I really am. I’ve had quite a few opportunities to lose my virginity and all, but I never got around to it yet. Something always happens.”(92). Holden admits he’s still a virgin and to many people losing your virginity is a step to adulthood. This is Holden’s way of trying to protect what little he has of his childhood to prevent himself from becoming an adult. That “something always happens”(92) is his own subconscious telling him to stop and to save this moment for someone who he really likes not a prostitute whom he bought. Holden even says earlier ,in the novel, “I don’t like the idea...I think if you don’t really like a girl, you shouldn’t horse around with her at all”(62). The author is trying to show how kids can avoid being an adult in the real world. Although he tries to protect his youth, Holden also likes to pretend his is an adult. He does things like being an avid smoker, constantly wanting to drink, and wanting to hookup with girls. Doing acts like these: ”After a while I sat down in a chair and smoked a couple of cigarettes.”(63), “‘Would any of you girls care to dance?’ I didn’t ask them crudely or anything. Very suave, in fact.”(70), “Boy, I sat at that goddamn bar

Holden’s immaturity causes him many problems throughout the story. Although he is physically mature, he acts more like a child. “All of a sudden I

“All of a sudden, this girl came up to me and said, “Holden Caulfield!” Her name was Lillian Simmons. My brother D.B. used to go around with her for a while. She had very big knockers”(salinger 96). In “The Catcher in the Rye” Holden is portrayed as a whiny teenager that slacks off on his homework and performs illegal acts such as drinking and purchasing prostitutes. On top of that, another inappropriate characteristic Holden has is being sexist. The book itself is also sexist because of the way the main character thinks about women, the way the main character treats women, and the roles women play in the novel.

This shows just how shallow Holden can be. Moreover, on pages 168- 171, Holden refers to Sally as being “goddam stupid” and a “phony” because she physically/mentally was absurd and didn’t agree with Holden when he suggested they leave to go somewhere far away. This shows that if you didn’t agree with Holden or match his standards, you would be seen as lesser of a person in his eyes. By using repetition of the words “phony”, “goddamn”, and “moron” the meaning of the word is lost. He refers to almost everyone including teachers, parents, friends, and siblings (except Allie) as a “phony” or “moron”.

Just before leaving he meets Lillian Simmons who is one of his brother D.B’s, ex’s. She tried striking up a conversation with Holden but the only reason why she talked to Holden is to find out how his brother was doing not in how Holden was doing himself. She even goes as far to ask Holden to pass on a message to his brother if he ever gets the chance. After she goes to leave, her date and Holden say that they were glad to have met each other, which was a phony thing to do as Holden wasn’t glad at all to have met him.

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.

As the novel progresses, we realize that ironically Holden's alienation becomes the source of most of his pain throughout the book. Although he never realizes the fact that his pain is being derived from his isolation and lack of human interaction, Salinger places clues in the book that tell us that it is so. With the introduction of Sally Hayes, Salinger is able to craft a relationship that effectively depicts the conflict in Holden. It is loneliness that initially propels Holden into a date with Sally. However, during the date Holden's need for isolation returns, he "didn't even know why" he "started all that stuff with her. The truth is" he "probably wouldn't have taken her even if she wanted to go." Because Sally is unable to recognize the feelings on the "phoniness" of school that he projects, he becomes frustrated and uses a rampaging monologue to upset her and drive her away. The only time in the

There is another lesson Holden had to learn. He needed to learn how to be satisfied with his company. He was always looking for someone to call or someone to talk to. When he finally did have some company, he did nothing but criticize them. For example, Sally Hayes went out with Holden, and throughout the entire time he complained and criticized her. He

Holden hates those magazines that the steward sells on the train. Holden cites, "I can usually even read one of those dumb stories in a magazine without puking. You know. One of those stories with a lot of phony, lean-jawed guys named David in it, and a lot of phony girls named Linda or Marcia that are always lighting all the goddam Davids' pipes for them" (53). Holden cannot stand that all the stupid same old stories. The ones where there is always a hero and saves someone that is in trouble. After that Holden felt a little down so he decided to pass the time. Holden knows this girl named Sally Hayes. They used to send a lot of time together when they were younger. Holden is bored and decides to give her a call. He calls her and her father answers and then gives the phone to Sally. Sally Hayes picked up the phone and asks, "yes--who is this?" Holden goes on to state, "she was quite a little phony. I'd already told her father who it was" (106). Holden cannot believe that she knows who is calling but asks for no reason. Sally is just trying to play a stupid game that Holden would rather not want to play at any time.

Here, Holden desperately wants to escape the phony, corrupt world, so he proclaims his love to her, and asks her to runaway with him. She tells him that he is crazy and leaves him.

Holden also has several redeeming qualities that keep him from being the rouge that many censors and critics wanted to label him in the fifties. As mentioned previously, Holden feels deeply for others and spends much of his time trying to understand them. For example, he admits to being a virgin and attributes this to the concern he has for the girls he is with; "he feels he would be taking advantage of their weakness if he had relations with them. " (Lettis, 6) "They tell me to stop, so I stop. I always wish I hadn't, after I take them home, but I take them home anyway." (Salinger, 121) He is also brutally honest, a quality children possess and adults seem to lose as they age. Holden dislikes things he

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.

Holden believes that he can change the world and he reveals his feelings on a date with Sally '" Did you ever get fed up? … I mean did you ever get scared that everything was going to go lousy unless you did something…"'(pg 130). Holden proposes to Sally to escape this world with him. It is finally to his younger sister that Holden reveals that he wants to prevent children from growing up. He blames the world's corruption on adults and believes that when he stops the children from growing up he will preserve their innocence and save the world.

Holden handles his belief that adulthood is sardonic rather childish yet adultlike. For instance, when Holden is out with Sally he acts immature about the “phonies” around him. “At the end of the first act we went out with all the other jerks for a cigarette. What a deal that was. You never saw so many phonies in your life, everybody smoking their ears off and talking about the play so that everybody could hear and know how sharp they were” (164). Holden thinks