Theme Analysis of Alienation in Books the Catcher in the Rye and 1984

At one point he thinks about heading out west where he would pretend to be a deaf-mute and live a quiet life. At another point Holden proposes to Sally to escape this world with him. It is finally to his younger sister Phoebe that Holden reveals his whole plan.

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.

In a complete contrast to Jane appears Sally Hayes, an attractive but obnoxious girl that Holden goes out with quite a lot. From Holden’s perspective, Sally Hayes is everything he despises in the world; phony, conceited, and stupid. But the truth is that Sally is probably just a typical, beautiful, seventeen

When he met up with Sally, Holden was so excited. He got to the meeting place early and eagerly awaited her arrival. Instead of going to see a movie, as previously planned, they went ice skating. Sally and Holden have a wonderful time ice skating. After skating, and during dinner, Holden has this peculiar idea about moving away with Sally to Massachusetts or Vermont. She firmly rejects the idea. “Why not, why the hell not?” says Holden (132). Holden has a strong negative reaction to Sally, asking her why she won’t go with him. Holden acted in an irrational manner. After they argue Sally leaves him abruptly. Holden’s unrealistic request and overreaction to Sally’s response was induced by his depression.

Just before leaving he meets Lillian Simmons who is one of his brother D.B’s, ex’s. She tried striking up a conversation with Holden but the only reason why she talked to Holden is to find out how his brother was doing not in how Holden was doing himself. She even goes as far to ask Holden to pass on a message to his brother if he ever gets the chance. After she goes to leave, her date and Holden say that they were glad to have met each other, which was a phony thing to do as Holden wasn’t glad at all to have met him.

despises phoniness, people who exhibit hypocrisy, superficiality, and shallowness, because it complicates his ideological world where everything is "black and white;" ironically, believing himself to be the one virtuous man alive, Holden overlooks the vast amount of phoniness within himself. Holden shows his hatred for phonies when he goes to see a play with Sally Hayes. After the first act, Holden takes Sally out to get cigarettes with the other attendants and thinks to himself, "You never saw so many phonies in all your life, everybody smoking their ears off and talking about the play so that everybody could hear and know how sharp they were. Some dopey movie star ... was with some gorgeous blonde, and the two of them

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 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.

Here, Holden desperately wants to escape the phony, corrupt world, so he proclaims his love to her, and asks her to runaway with him. She tells him that he is crazy and leaves him.

Another female that takes part in Holden's life is Sally Hayes. She is a beautiful but shallow girl that Holden has dated in the past. To Holden's standards, Sally is another "phony" person but her beauty makes Holden put his standards aside for the moment. The unusual thing is that Holden made it clear that he disliked the girl, yet he said that the minute he saw her, he felt like marrying her. On their date together, he tells her that he loved her even though it was a lie, and yet he meant it when he said it. In return, Sally tells Holden that she loved him as well. After exchanging their false feelings for each other, Holden tries to explain what is happening in his life, but she is incapable of understanding his problems.

We sit on the subways and we ride on the busses, we drown the outside world with our headphones and our television sets, and we walk on the sidewalks brushing past one another just enough to avoid physical contact so that we can continue on our "merry" way towards our next destination. As a society, we beeline our way through life, weaving between moments of rendezvous and accidental concurrence, and we surround ourselves with instruments of interference in an attempt to pull ourselves out of the day-to-day life. As they say, art imitates life, and in a very sadistic way Fahrenheit 451 imitates what we are, and what we could become. Fahrenheit depicts a future where the common people surround themselves

Holden is then upset after sally leaves him and ends up trying to get ahold of Jane. Jane did not answer the two times he tried calling so he decides to sneak into his parents apartment and talk to his sister Phoebe, She was sleeping when he saw her but when he woke her up, she was happy to see him. He tried to apologize to her but she refused to listen. After a while he finally got her to listen and explains why he has been failing his classes and tells her why he hates school. Phoebe calls him out for not liking anything. Holden pictured himself in a field of rye on a cliff with a bunch of children playing, and when the children get too close to the cliff he catches them before they fall so he can be “the catcher in the

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.

Holden believes that he can change the world and he reveals his feelings on a date with Sally '" Did you ever get fed up? … I mean did you ever get scared that everything was going to go lousy unless you did something…"'(pg 130). Holden proposes to Sally to escape this world with him. It is finally to his younger sister that Holden reveals that he wants to prevent children from growing up. He blames the world's corruption on adults and believes that when he stops the children from growing up he will preserve their innocence and save the world.

Sally should also know the name of her husband, but Holden doesn’t want to give any depth to what she has become, because Holden wants her all to