“The Catcher in the Rye”, by J.D. Salinger has many major themes that develop based on Holden’s thoughts and feelings. Holden seems to enjoy being isolated, and sees himself as to be superior to others. He often describes other people as “phonies” and claims to know what the people around him are really like. One of the most prominent messages conveyed to readers in the novel is loneliness results in desperation. Holden’s loneliness manifests as a desire to talk to someone he is familiar with. However, his need to stay away from “phonies” has left him isolated. When Holden arrives at Penn Station he goes into a phone booth because he “felt like giving somebody a buzz,” although he does not know who. Holden tries to think of someone to call, …show more content…
He invites both of his cab drivers, neither of which he got along with well, to get a drink with him. The first cab driver is what Holden calls “a wise guy,” and Holden does not even ask for his name before asking, “‘Would you care to stop on the way and join me for a cocktail? On me. I’m loaded’” (Salinger, 60). Holden even offers to pay for the driver, further showing his desperation for company. When the cab driver refuses, Holden thinks to himself, “He certainly was good company. Terrific Personality” (Salinger, 61). This use of sarcasm shows Holden was willing to look past the cab drivers personality if he would get a drink with him. Holden’s second cab driver is name Horwitz, who Holden considers “a much better guy than the other driver I’d had” (Salinger, 81). When Holden begins a conversation with Horwitz he becomes aggressive, and even begins yelling at Holden. Holden ends their conversation because “he was such a touchy guy, [and] it wasn’t any pleasure discussing anything with him” (Salinger, 83). Still Holden invites the cab driver for a drink, which he refused. Although Holden does not enjoy Horwitz’s company, he still asks him to go out with him, showing that he does not care who he is spending time with, as long as they can hold a
Lies, failure, depression, and loneliness are only some of the aspects that Holden Caulfield goes through in the novel The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D. Salinger. Salinger reflects Holden’s character through his own childhood experiences. Salinger admitted in a 1953 interview that "My boyhood was very much the same as that of the boy in the book.… [I]t was a great relief telling people about it” (Wikipedia). Thus, the book is somewhat the life story of J.D. Salinger as a reckless seventeen-year-old who lives in New York City and goes through awful hardships after his expulsion and departure from an elite prep school. Holden, the protagonist in this novel, is created as a depressed, cynical, and isolated character and he
When Holden takes a cab to "Ernie's" in Greenwich Village he has a conversation with the cab driver, Horwitz. Salinger demonstrates the paranoia of the 50's by emphasizing how angry Horwitz is that Holden is asking him so many questions.
In J. D Salinger 's novel, The Catcher in the Rye, the protagonist, Holden, goes through many hardships in his journey to self-knowledge. In the beginning, Holden has to deal with being kicked out of school and not having any place to call home. He is also struggling with the unfortunate tragedy of the death of his beloved younger brother Allie. At the same time, Holden is trying to deal with growing up and accepting the adult world. Throughout the novel Salinger addresses the conflicts faced by a young man struggling with the trials and tribulations of growing up while also confronting personal loss and loneliness along the way.
The image of a wrecked car effectively symbolizes Holden in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye by properly illustrating Holden’s recklessness, stubbornness, and hopelessness. Salinger emphasizes Holden as a reckless character when he writes, “All I know is I got up from bed … and then I tried to sock him”(43). Stradlater’s treatment of girls provokes Holden to act with little thought or control. Holden's lack of discernment parallels a car with no driver; just as Holden lacks the sense to avoid a fight, a driverless car cannot avoid destruction. Salinger then characterizes Holden as self-sabotaging in the story when he writes: “...by mistake I blew some smoke in their faces. I didn’t mean to, but I did it” (113). Salinger draws attention to the fall of Holden as he has the stereotypical characteristics of a teenager.
To begin with, was the encounter with Maurice and Sunny. On his return to the hotel from Ernie's, Holden met Maurice, the elevator operator. He asked Holden if he was, "Innarested in a little tail t'night?" (Salinger 152). Holden had been
As humans we sometimes seek isolation rather than human interaction for fear of being overwhelmed emotionally. For some people, comfort comes with the knowledge that alone, they are the masters of their own emotions, free from the pain of the world's occasional bitterness and sting. In the coming-of-age tale "Catcher in the Rye," J.D. Salinger explores this phenomenon through the voice of the narrator, Holden Caulfield. Although Holden possesses a voice of intelligence, sensitivity and insight he is also bitter with the hypocrisy and ugliness that he perceives in the world around him. The vividness with which he expresses his discontent is seen manifested in the criticisms that Holden aims at various characters throughout the story. As the
J.D. Salinger, the author of The Catcher in the Rye, uses the behaviour of protagonist Holden Caulfield to shape his personality in the way he alienates himself from the rest of the world. Holden alienates himself from the society he lives in, his relationships with others and also the relationship he has with himself. Holden struggles to cope with the fact that eventually he will have to grow up and so will everyone around him. Holden see’s the world not being perfect as a huge problem that he alone has to fix because everyone else is too much of a ‘phony’ to do it. The novel explores Holden’s weekend after he got kicked out of his fourth school, Pency Prep, and the struggles he faces with alienating himself.
His belief of being superior causes him to view other classmates as “crooks” (pg.6) and “phonies” (pg.17). When sharing stories about his dorm roommates, Holden highlights their negative aspects. During the football game, one of the only other people to stay in the dorm is Ackley, Holden’s neighbour. Although Holden knew “[Ackley] hardly went anywhere” (pg.22) since the other classmates did not like him, he remains annoyed by Ackley’s behaviour and primarily describes his poor hygiene habits such as “never … using [a] handkerchief” (pg.40) to showcase him in a dehumanizing manner. Furthermore, Holden’s jealousy of roommate Stradlater’s relationship with former love interest Jane Gallagher causes the boys to get into a physical brawl. After the fight, Holden receives little to no attention from Ackley and fed up with feeling “sad and lonesome” (pg.58) at school, decides to act upon his frustration. As an outsider, Holden’s is unable to gain acceptance from his peers and find comfort at school, therefore to escape his peer’s negative behaviour towards him, Holden decides to run away from
Sometimes you get tired of riding in taxicabs the same way you get tired riding in elevators” (88). During the walk back to the hotel, Holden was having a mental conversation with himself. He was planning what to say to the person who had stolen his gloves. In the morning, Holden decided to call Sally Hayes and made a date with her. When it came to their date, Holden described Sally as, “ She had one of those very loud, embarrassing voices when you met her somewhere” (124). When their date was over, Holden was sort of hungry, so he went to the drugstore. When he ate some food he bought at the drugstore, he got some drinks and got drunk. “I was too drunk, I guess. So what I did, I gave old Sally Hayes a buzz” (150). They talked for awhile, but Sally hung up on him after awhile. When Holden isn’t drunk anymore, he decided to visit his younger sister Phoebe at home. When Phoebe saw Holden, she was super excited to see her brother again. “She’s very affectionate. I mean she’s quite affectionate, for a child.Sometimes she’s even too affectionate” (161). After talking for awhile, Holden left and called up Mr. Antolini. “He was about the best teacher I ever had, Mr.
Likewise, Holden is also consistently rejected when he seeks help from others. On Saturday night, Holden rides the cab to Ernie’s. During the ride, Holden “sort of [strikes] up a conversation” with Horwitz, the cab driver, about the ducks in Central Park (Salinger 81). Holden does not know where to go and feels lost, relating himself to the ducks during winter. However, Horwitz blatantly shows no interest in the ducks and diverts the conversation to the fish in the pond instead, thinking that winter is “tougher for the fish” (Salinger 82). Despite his curiosity, Holden quickly drops the conversation after seeing that Horwitz is getting frustrated with him. In addition, Horwitz also rejects Holden’s invitation to have a drink. Later on, Holden hires Sunny, a prostitute. Although Holden claims to be a sex maniac, he is still a virgin. Thus, as Sunny begins to take off her clothes, Holden feels peculiar and embarrassed. He notices Sunny’s childish habits, such as her “teeny little wheeny-whiny voice” and lack of use of vulgar language (Salinger 94). In addition, Sunny starts “jiggling her
To begin, Holden’s use of profanity and alcohol at a young age plays a substantially large role in the diction that he uses. Since this novel takes place during the 1950’s, Salinger consistently weaves words such as “goddamn” and “bastard” into Holden’s everyday language. His little sister, Phoebe, even tells him to “[not] swear so much” (218). Although peers and adults constantly tell Holden to stop such frugal language, Salinger views it as necessary to accurately depict a rebellious teenage boy of the current time period. Furthermore, Salinger’s lingual decisions regarding alcohol affect how the reader sees Holden as a person. Alcohol is very easy to get in the 1950’s, and frankly, it is what Holden turns to every time he gets depressed. One instance is in the Lavender Room, when Holden asks the waiter to “stick a little rum in it” (91) because he “can’t sit in a corny place like this cold sober” (91). Despite the fact that liquor is easy to procure,
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.
When Holden was dancing with one of the other girls, “the only way [he] could enjoy himself,” (83) would be to tell her “[he] just saw Gary Cooper” (83). Holden was trying to make conversation to heal his loneliness, but these three girls made it “practically impossible” (82) to have an intelligent one. Although Holden “was sorry” (83) that he had
The novel "Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger is very interesting novel in which the main character, Holden, intrigues the reader with his unpredictable actions and upfront judgments of his surroundings. Holden alienates himself to try and help protect him from the outside world and conserve his innocence. He constantly proves this to reader many in times in the novel by, telling characters he feels different, wearing clothing that makes him stand out even though it may make him look stupid, and failing to come through in relationships with characters in the story.
In The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger discusses the ideas of alienation and isolation. He notes that if one is unable to keep up with society they lose touch. Salinger portrays alienation and isolation through literary devices such as symbolism. Some of the symbolic features use in the novel is Holden’s red hunting hat which shows Holden’s uncommon desire compared to society’s desires. Another significant symbolic feature is the catcher in the rye; this represents Holden’s idea of protecting children from maturing as adults and facing reality. Another literary device is tone, although Holden seems preoccupied, he constantly tries to seek companionship throughout the book. J.D. Salinger also portrays irony, it is ironic that Holden calls the people around him loners and phonies when he, himself is a loner and a phony that refuses to accept taking on responsibilities and growing up. The literary devices used in this novel, further support Salinger’s recurring theme of alienation and isolation.