Holden did treat some girls in the book badly, for example Sally but the book itself didn’t 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 …show more content…
This is apparent throughout the book. He is entranced by them but is still unable to talk to them. “She knocked me out. I mean it. I was half in love with her by the time we sat down. That's the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty, even if they're not much to look at, or even if they're sort of stupid, you fall half in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are. Girls. Jesus Christ. They can drive you crazy. They really can.” In this quote we see Holden struggling with his feelings towards women. However Holden is not being sexist, he is simply expressing his admiration towards them. He is slightly cynical towards them but that is not because he is sexist it's because he is pessimistic and hates a lot about a lot of things. "You ought to go to a boys' school sometime. Try it sometime," I said. "It's full of phonies, and all you do is study so that you can learn enough to be smart enough to be able to buy a goddam Cadillac some day, and you have to keep making believe you give a damn if the football team loses, and all you do is talk about girls and liquor and sex all day, and everybody sticks together in these dirty little goddam cliques." This quote is when Holden is discussing an all boys school. He finds boys much more repulsive and vile than women. When talking about Sally, Holden states “Then, just to show you how crazy I am, when we were coming out of this big clinch, I told her I loved her and all. It was a lie, of course, but the thing is, I meant it when I said it. I'm crazy. I swear to God I am.” Holden admits his own personal flaws repeatedly throughout the book, especially when he is interacting with women. If he was a true sexist he would have made it the women’s fault that he said that, not his own mental state. This again shows how Holden is not sexist, he's just kind of a dick. The only time that I felt Holden could have been easily portrayed as sexist was when Holden was
In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, Holden is a rather unique character. He has several complications with other characters that he runs into, and does not seem that he is able to relate to anyone. However, Holden has a younger sister named Phoebe, and he seems to connect with her in a way that he does not with anyone else. She is only ten years old, so she and Holden both have a childlike mind. On the other hand, Phoebe seems to have a positive outlook on life while Holden sees most things in a negative light. Another contrast between them is that Phoebe puts in effort at school, and Holden is clearly not concerned his performance at school.
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
Holden’s personality is different from his sister’s. He’s a liar and childish. In chapter 8 p.g. 58 it says “ The I started reading this timetable I had in my pocket. Just to stop lying. Once I get started, I can go on for hours if I feel like it. No kidding. Hours.” He’s also childish. In chapter 2
Holden is a misogynist because he views women as objects, either by looking down on them as "brainless" or putting them on unnatural expectations of innocence and virtue. As well as looking at them as a source of pleasure. Holden’s perspective of a woman’s intellectual capacity is clearly traditional and clearly misogynistic. Holden comes to a conclusion that all the females he meets are less intelligent than him, but it’s different with men. Holden believes that he is above the guys at school because he behaves in a more “proper and gentlemanly” manner than they do. However, around the women, he is voluntarily deceitful, and he would still snickers at these women for believing him. On page 57 of chapter 8, Holden says “mothers aren’t too
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
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
In the book The Catcher and the Rye, [book titles always get italicized, not underlined or quote marks] by J.D. Salinger, a lot of the central idea revolves around Holden missing his brother Allie, who died, and Holden missing his little sister Phoebe while at boarding school. Holden is distracted and put in distress by a lot of things such as girls. Today, in society, teens like Holden are confused with how to act with the opposite sex, very sad, and do not want to grow up.
Holden was a smart kid however, just never put in any effort in to what he was doing. His careless actions is what deemed this novel from many schools. From old time friends, mothers of classmates, to certain women, Holden has a unique experience with women in this book. Throughout the book, Holden would talk about his old time girlfriends he had been with. He would also occasionally make an attempt to call some of these girls just to see what
Mother, friend, or sister Holden Caulfield holds women in high regard. He cherishes their quirks, joy, and gentleness. They differ men greatly in that they do not obsess over sex like males and tend to surprise Holden in a special way whether it is positive or not. The qualities of the women in Holden’s life have made the pure and innocent in his eyes, unlike how he sees himself.
Throughout the novel, Holden attempts to create intimate relationships, but each time the relationship begins he talks himself out of it by being nit-picking and critical.When Holden starts building a relationship with both Sunny and Sally he quickly begins internally picking out their flaws. Carl Luce and Mr. Antolini are another two people we read about in the novel; however, Holden keeps that from happening. Holden’s inexperienced and hypocritical views tarnish both his physical and emotional relationships.
In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Sunny, the prostitute who came to Holden’s hotel room, was a minor character in Holden’s story; however, she played a big part in the readers understanding of Holden’s innocence. Throughout the book, Holden appears to be obsessed with girls and sex, but when confronted with the opportunity “to do something crumby” with a girl, he cannot go through with it. All he wants to do during the story is objectify women and have a physical relationship with them, yet when he is faced with the chance to do the thing he has been talking about all along, he still ends up as an innocent kid trying to come up with an excuse to get out of it. Holden obsesses over women constantly; for example, Holden tries to fight
He don’t have feelings for sally, in his eyes she just someone to fool around with since he don’t love her. When they went on the date and when Holden sees her he admires her looks, he stated “Want to marry her when I seen her, I’m a fool. I don’t even see her like that and I’m feeling like I’m in love and wants to be with for the rest of my life. I swear to God I’m crazy.” The looks turns him on that’s
From my point of view, I believe that The Cather of the Rye is somewhat anti-feminist and sexism. Throughout the story, there aren’t many times where you see women I the book. Not that it is a bad thing, but I believe that was for a reason. I believe more women in the book would have made it more convincing and make the story better. But I believe that Salinger did not want that. In the story, Holden was not able to relate to females at all. Whenever he tried, it usually backfired and something went extremely wrong. He has many encounters with women, but some are just memories and quick moments. In my eyes, I saw that Holden only saw women as “objects” or “tool”, who were only used for sex or pleasuring oneself. Mostly the main characters in
At the beginning of the book Holden sees himself as a kid, instead of an adult, while he doesn’t believe in adolescence, thinks of sex as “crumby” and sexual relations and the women who do it as objects.” anyway I kept walking around the room waiting for the prostitute to show up I kept hoping she'd be good-looking. I didn't care too much, though.
Holden views women as ‘too dumb for their own good’ and feels sorry for them. A view which may reflect their status in society at the time. He also mentions how boys like Stradlater wouldn’t stop their advances even after a girl says ‘no’. This implies that rape culture was incredibly present in the time