Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye and Franny and Zooey

Sex is something he gains new understandings about and he learns that it is something natural, but complex and not all it appears to be. For example, Sunny is a prostitute who Holden calls up to his room out of desperation. He’s so lonely that he’s just looking for conversation, but he’s searching in the wrong place. Holden admits earlier on in the novel, “sex is something I really don’t understand too hot” (Salinger 82). Sunny is young and sees her as a person who needs protection, however he expected someone who is a prostitute to be older. From this situation Holden learns that he needs the moment to be right and an emotional connection to have sex, that for him it is not something that can be casual although for others it might be.

J. D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye features a complex narrative surrounding a troubled young student, Holden Caulfield. Difficulties he faces throughout the story force Holden to confront his fears of adulthood and maturation and the responsibilities therein through the difficulties he faces throughout the story. Academic controversy surrounds whether Holden learns from these confrontations and adjust accordingly, maturing throughout the story. While initially this seems rather subjective, a thorough analysis of Holden’s actions throughout the story as well as of the symbolism injected by Salinger makes it quite clear that Holden does undergo a significant maturity arc as the story progresses. Holden’s social development and maturation

Salinger uses prostitution as a symbol for Holden’s yearning for intimacy and maturity. One night when he is arriving back at his hotel, a man approaches him offering a prostitute and Holden accepts. Holden then reveals to the reader that he is a virgin, but he tries to maintain his smooth attitude by saying he has “had quite a few opportunities to lose [his] virginity and all, but [he’s] never got around to it yet” (Salinger 92). He wants people to see him as sexually experienced because sex depicts his idea of manhood. When Sunny the prostitute arrives in his room, he gives her the fake name Jim Steele because he believes it makes him sound older and manly. Despite

In The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, the main character and narrator Holden Caulfeild walks many different paths of life. He jumps around different aspects of his life throughout the book, showing the reader many different sides to himself. This theme is presented through the author’s technique in crafting the characterization and symbolism. J.D. Salinger develops a puzzle of a personality for Holden throughout the book, to show the complexity and multitude of sides to Holden’s character.

His loneliness makes him feel depressed and willing to die. At his hotel, Holden decides to hire a prostitute: “She didn’t care what the hell my name was, naturally” (105). Normally one would go to a prostitute for sex, but Holden is solely focused on finding company. He is looking for any kind of connection or relationship between him and this stranger, but she is only willing to talk business. He is feeling so deserted that his best prospect for company is a prostitute who does not even care about him. He knows prostitutes are considered among the worst of people, and they are also illegal. However, Holden loses perspective in terms of the way he sees himself in comparison to others. Now thinking that he is now on the same level as prostitutes in society. Holden grasps onto relationships with people like prostitutes (and later taxi drivers) because no one is there for him like Allie was. It is almost as if Holden is trying to recreate his relationship with Allie. Although he can not find anyone nearly as special or satisfying, so therefore he reverts towards ending his life. He describes the lobby of the hotel that he is staying at as empty and full of dead cigars, leaving him feeling lonely and frustrated as he says: “I was feeling sort of lousy. Depressed and all. I almost wished I was dead” (101). When his emotions start to

J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye is widely recognized as one of the most self-destructive novels ever written. The novel’s protagonist Holden Caulfield is known for his anti-social behavior and his self-loathing, self-isolating character in the book. Holden’s traits could widely be compared to Napoleon Dynamite the protagonist of the 2004 film Napoleon Dynamite directed by Jared Hess. Napoleon is characterized by his clichéd “school nerd” behavior and of course his own self-isolating habit just like Holden. Like Holden, Napoleon tries to put down people to isolate him from others. But even though Holden and Napoleon are alike on how they assume the traits of the people they meet,

Throughout The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger, incorporates numerous themes. However, the two most important themes throughout the book were innocence and loneliness. Holden’s innocence is constantly changing as he matures throughout the story. Furthermore, Holden has to deal with the effects of embarking on his journey throughout the story with loneliness. Salinger’s message during the 1940’s shows how American society and the growth of the teenage boy remains the same throughout

Holden’s disappointingly cold experience with sex and prostitution after he leaves Stradlater and Pencey Prep is a betrayal of his childish dreams of greatness and celebrity. As he enters the elevator of a New York City hotel, the elevator boy asks him if he wants a good time. Holden agrees, as he is “starting to feel pretty sexy and all” (92), being his first official chance to live up to his dreams of sexiness and manliness. His mind even starts to wander to his grand fantasy of “Caulfield and His Magic Violin” (93) in which he is the most adored man in all the world. He never, however, lives up to any of these egotistical illusions. His disappointment comes knocking at the door in the form of a young girl named Sunny. The minute she undresses, Holden feels odd and uncomfortable. He “know[s] that you’re supposed to feel pretty sexy when somebody gets up and pulls their dress over their head” (95), but he just felt embarrassed for her. His ego and dreams come crashing down, as his night is not of good times and achievement, but of a too young girl who is as nervous as he. It was quite depressing for him to realize that the adult world was made up not of the movie-like dreams he had entertained for so long, but of timid, depressing reality.

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.

Holden checks into the Edmont Hotel in Manhattan, where he hired a young prostitute named Sunny, but didn’t sleep with her. The scene depicts Holden’s struggle of coming to adulthood. Holden thought that by sleeping with a prostitute would make him a man. However, when he was confronted in the burgeoning sexual situation, he yielded. After all he is still just a kid. “The trouble was, I just didn’t want to do it. I felt more depressed than

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

In the novel Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield, our protagonist, makes a mental journey in relation to dealing and coping with the grief accompanied with the death of his brother, and we are able to see how his mental status changes and how he needs guidance from loved ones. In this journey, he learns about how to make connections and that staying close to the people he loves can improve his outlook on life and overall mood. During the book, he isolated himself from others and always found the negative in everything, which did put him in a very grim place. In fact, he even becomes clinically depressed, as we can clearly see from our point of view. He soon learns that being with his younger sister Phoebe almost brought

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.

This passage proves that Holden is dissatisfied with the boys at his school, he believes they are fake and he does not social well with them. Although Holden doesn’t want to interact much, when he does end up interacting with people, he usually gets the short end of the stick. For instance he invites Ackley, a boy he meets at Pency Prep, along to the movies, but Ackley won't return the favor by letting Holden sleep in his roommate's bed. ‘“I’m not worried about it. Only, I’d hate like hell if Ely came in all of a sudden and found some guy-”’ (Salinger 49). Another instance is when Holden pays Sunny even though they don’t have sex, and ends up getting scammed. At a young age, Holden lost his younger brother, Allie. This had a huge traumatizing effect on him; Holden felt useless because he was unable to help his brother. Holden turns his emotions into anger; stating that he punched out all the windows in the garage. Another time Holden felt unable to help was when his peer, James Castle, was harassed and bullied, leading to James’s suicide. Holden says, “... and there was old James Castle laying right on the stone steps and all. He was dead, and his teeth, and blood, were all over the place, and nobody would even go near him. He had on this turtleneck sweater I'd lent him”’ (Salinger 170). Holden feels that society had

After Holden arrives in New York and takes a cab to his hotel, he "damn near gave my kid sister Phoebe a buzz, though. I certainly felt like talking to her on the phone. Somebody with sense and all," (66). Holden wants to talk to Phoebe as he has been isolated from her and feels because she is someone who he has a strong connection with, that she will make him less depressed shown by him saying that she had sense. Also while Holden is in his hotel room in New York, after his prostitute leaves, he "felt depressed," then he began "talking, sort of out loud, to Allie," (98). Allie's death made Holden isolated form someone who was close to him. Him attempting to talk to Allie shows how his loneliness and depression was caused by his isolation because he wants to try to reconnect with Allie to end his loneliness. While on his way to a bar from the hotel, Holden describes New York as making him feel "lonesome and depressed" and how he wished "[he] could go home and shoot the bull with old Phoebe," (81). Holden feels lonely and depressed in New York because of his isolation from Phoebe, someone he loves. This is proved by how he describes that he wishes he could go home and talk with her for a while. After getting to New York, Holden's feelings still follow him as he feels lonely and depressed thinking about Phoebe and wanting to see