Alienation In Catcher In The Rye

Was Holden ever associated with society? Throughout the whole book, The Catcher in The Rye, by J.D Salinger, Holden Caulfield had many dislikes to the things that most people liked. This was very noticeable of how Holden was extremely judgmental of almost everything and everybody. He criticized and philosophized about people who were boring, people who are insecure, and, above all, people who are “phony.” He was very antisocial, his beliefs weren’t the same compared to other people. This connected to Holden not having many friends in his school, since they weren’t the same. It caused ostracization for Holden throughout the novel. Not only did the people around Holden ostracized him, but he himself stayed away from society and interacting with

Salinger’s attitude showed how Holden didn’t want to be part of what people did in society. It also showed how people around him kept alienating him. Holden first points out his feelings of alienation from friends and school society by referring to the fact that he is alone at during the football game because he misplaced the fencing team foils on the subway right before a competition: "The whole team ostracized me the whole way back on the train" (3). Next, Holden explains his feelings of alienation from family because he is getting kicked out of another school. He does not want to face his family when they first get the news because "My mother gets very hysterical" (51). So he decides to remove himself from his school and family, thus alienating himself in the process, because "I just didn 't want to hang around anymore. It made me too sad and lonesome" (51). Later, after meeting up with his sister Phoebe and telling her the news about school, he blames her for alienating him by using the word "ostracized" again. Phoebe puts her head in her pillow to avoid talking to her failure of a brother and he says, "She was ostracizing the hell out of me. Just like the fencing team at Pencey . . ."(166). Noticed how Holden was being ostracized by his own family and friends. He was being pushed and getting pushed away from everyone and that’s probably why he became what he turned out to

Many young people often find themselves struggling to find their own identity and place in society. This search for self worth often leaves these young people feeling lonely and isolated because they are unsure of themselves. But for Holden, even though he wanted acceptance from people, he couldn’t find himself hanging with other people because one of which those things were when people went to watch movies. He thought that going to watch movies was very phony-like because he thought it wasn’t realistic. That also leads on to how he doesn’t like actors. He feels they don’t act natural. Holden dislikes phonies and thinks of them as people who try to be something they are not. He loathes people who showed off because it seems unnatural every time they do not act like themselves. Holden does not allow himself to have friendship because of his dull attitude. In the beginning of the book, the reader knows that Holden is lonely when he separates himself from the rest of the Pencey students by watching the football game (as I stated before) from Thomsen Hill and not the grandstands. Holden is not a very sociable person partly because he finds himself better than many others. Another event in which Holden showed ostracization was when he encountered the prostitute, Sunny. He wanted to connect and interact with her but just couldn’t click. In chapter 13, page 103, it states, The thing is, most of the time