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How Does Holden Present Women In Catcher In The Rye

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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

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