Holden Caulfield Isolation

While venturing across the Concrete Jungle, Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, struggles to find purpose and enjoyment in his life after the loss of his brother, Allie. This novel illustrates the very polarizing topic of mental health, depression, and their lasting effects. In this book, Holden Caulfield is expelled from his former high school, Pencey Prep. After leaving the school, he roams around New York hoping to make a connection with someone so that he could feel less lonely. Holden frequently uses the phone booth as an attempt to connect with someone, but hardly ever contacts anyone because he is too afraid.

He would also go to great lengths to keep people from reading his books. When a version of Salinger's stories was published, he got his lawyers involved, and the editions disappeared (Hathcock). He would spend the next couple of decades on the ranch alone, with no connection to the outside world. Both Holden and Salinger desperately want to escape their old lives by running away and starting anew, no

In Catcher and the Rye J.D. Salinger tells the reader about a boy named Holden Caulfield who is isolated from society. He is isolated in many ways because he has post-traumatic stress disorder. Holden Caulfield’s younger brother Allie died of leukemia. This tragic event happened when they were both young, but Holden is still affected to this day. Holden has ptsd from the death of his brother which causes him to be isolated from society.

Holden Caulfield’s Phoniness: Innocence, isolation, and the unclean. Can people manage to hold onto childhood innocence in the adult world? What does it mean to be a child? The Catcher in the Rye is a coming-of-age book that consists of eccentric characters, especially when compared to the numerous other published books during the 1950s. This is due to Holden Caulfield, the main character, being a disturbed child who hates the world.

    One of the similarities between Holden and Salinger’s lives are they both attended private schools. Holden attended many schools that he continuously got kicked out of. The main school focused on in the story was Pencey Prep. Holden got ejected from Pencey as a result of failing four

Societal pressure effect any who allow them to because everyone wants to be accepted by the masses. Holden does not try to be accepted, he does not feel societal coerce because he does not like society as a whole. “I had her glued to her seat. You take somebody’s mother, all they want hear about is what a hot-shot their son is.” (Salinger 33). In the quote, the reader can tell that Holden lacks a compassion for those around him. Throughout the entire book Holden constant puts down the people around him, the only people does not seem to have qualms with are child, particularly his younger siblings. Holden at no time in the book does not have an issue with the adult he was currently talking to. Not to mention, he likes to make himself sound mysterious and dark, but he’s not, he’s a rich impertinent little kid who was not given enough attention as a child. In fact, the fact that Holden does not show any pressure from society shows that he himself is so detached from actual society that he knows little about authentic life. The only inkling of factual societal pressure he shows that he faces is having to lie about enjoying one’s company, which to be honest is the low bar on the social ladder if a bar at all. He has no grasp on reality because he reduced his reality to the minimalist percentage possible due to him focusing in on the one

The way Holden cant fit into the society around has drove him to hate it, instead of him coming to realize this he just judges other people on the fakeness and dishonesty. Holden even thinks that his own school is hypocritical because they don’t really follow there own motto which is “molds boys into upright, respected members of society", in his eyes the guys in his school don’t change from when they get there it even molds some into crooks and criminals. He also

J.D. Salinger was born in 1919 to a wealthy Manhattan family. He grew up in the same social conditions as Holden Caulfield does in The Catcher in the Rye. The last thing Salinger cared about was being a successful student because he was very lazy, without care for his responsibilities and tasks. Salinger flunked out of many prep schools, and his parents sent him to a military academy named Valley Forge in Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 1936 (Lundquist 7-10). Many critics believe that he modeled Pencey Prep, the school that Holden attended, after Valley Forge. Two weeks after J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye was published, it became an instant hit. The story about the life of a disoriented sixteen year old boy had people going crazy. The book remains popular today and has been over the years because of its brash style and its anti-establishment attitudes ("The Catcher in the Rye" 116). It was The Catcher in the Rye’s vulgar style that made parents all around the country worried about their children reading it. They did not like the language of the main character or his anti social attitudes, so parents around the country protested against The Catcher in the Rye and got most book stores to remove it from the shelves. The book was a terrible role model for teenagers during the 1950s ("The Catcher in the Rye" 116). Many critics believe that The Catcher in the Rye was based off of J.D Salinger 's life and

Holden Caulfield and J.D. Salinger shared many characteristics and life events during their early years. Caulfield and Salinger were both from New York and were raised in families who had no

society. Each person around him was a fake and he could never see the good in people and things. This is due to Holden's strong opposition to material wealth, which is a dominating characteristic of the society which he could not accept. Many say that he’s just a spoiled rich boy who doesn’t appreciate all of the opportunities given to him. I think he was constantly viewed as spoiled and rich and learned to hate it and criticize it. He can't communicate with anyone and feels that the only person he can even relate to is his sister Phoebe. Holden cannot function as a normal part of society because of his hatred towards all "phonies", which he believes everyone to be.

Holden is not able to form connections with other human beings, but one person he did relate to was old Mr, Spencer. Out of all the people Holden has met with all the different schools, he can relate to only one. Salinger has a similar experience in college. Salinger kept dropping out of college or he was getting the ax, but during a writing class he formed a connection with his English professor. Similar to Holden, Salinger had been school to school and he met an uncountable amount of people at these schools, but he was only able to form one connection, with his English

Being different is difficult, especially when you’re a teenager. It’s not easy being singled out and feeling like the bad apple. Standing apart from others can be hard and takes courage. Society does not appreciate misfits, especially trouble makers who don’t make any effort to succeed. There is nothing wrong with being different and standing up for what you believe in but Holden goes about it in an arrogant way. It’s as if he sets himself apart from his peers on purpose because he does not want to be phony, just like them. Holden sees a major part of the people in his life as phony, which he tries to isolate himself from, this in turn makes him quite antisocial in every aspect of his life.

Salinger came to be known as a writer to watch in the literary world. His best known novel, The Catcher in the Rye, set a new path for literature in post-WWII America and sent Salinger to the forefront of authors of his time (PoetryFoundation.org). The novel earned its share of positive reviews, but some critics were not so kind. A few saw Holden and his quest against society as somewhat negative and wrong. Given the fact that the novel debuted in the 50’s when America was booming with post-war pride and stereotypical morals such as family and the American Dream, seeing Holden as a rebel against society would make sense given the surrounding culture. In 1953, Salinger moved from New York City to the secluded area of upstate New York and led a isolated life, publishing only one new story before his death in 2010 at the age of 91; however, he will always be remembered for the near genius that encompassed The Catcher in the Rye and its complicated yet intriguing protagonist, Holden (Bio.com). He truly questions the idealized stereotypes of the 1950’s and portrayed a lifestyle that rebelled against a previously accepted American Dream

The goal that that Holden has to try so hard to fulfil is symbolic of his need to differentiate himself from the "phonies" around him. Holden’s image of people is pretty bad because he believes no one acts how they truly feel. Growing up scares Holden because it leads to adulthood. In his eyes once he hits adulthood, it'll eventually lead into the same phoniness as the rest of the adults. His constant avoidance and dodging of people and situations causes him to become more and more distant from normal society and social stability.

He even mentioned himself as “the most terrific liar” (ch3, pg19). It makes reader feel like not only he didn't felt bad for lying, but he also thinks that it's fun to lie. Moreover, there are several times that Holden ‘judges’ every person that he saw; whether it's his roommate, his date, or any person that he walks by. He called everyone ‘phony’ and he think that he wanted to get away from all the ‘phonies’ around him. However, Holden himself is actually a ‘phony’ because he always lied and fake in front of other, but he seems like he never notice that at all. Like when he met Ms. Morrow on the train, he lied about his name by telling her that his name is “Rudolf Schmidt” instead of Holden (pg 61). He did also tell Ms. Morrow that her son is doing very well in school, getting along so well with others, and is “one of the most popular boys at Pencey” (pg 63); however in his thought he known that reality isn’t like that. In his mind when Ms. Morrow said that her son, Ernest, is “a very sensitive boy” (pg 62); Holden thought was describing Ernest that he is “as sensitive as a goddam toilet seat.”(pg 62). At the scene when Holden went to a date with Sally, Holden also showed his negative judgement by describing girls that were around there that some of them had “terrific legs...lousy legs”(pg 137). Also he pre-judged that “most of them would probably marry dopey guys…. Guys that are very boring” (pg 137); however he didn’t seems to realize that he can’t even be that charming, nice, and wonderful date for