ipl-logo

Catcher In The Rye All Alone Analysis

1058 Words5 Pages

All Alone

In the novel Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield feels alone and rejected by the world. As a result he sees phoniness in everyone and everything around him. Holden claims he is a “Terrific Liar” and enjoys lying to fill a void and to feel less self- conscious. His rebellion begins when he is kicked out of many boarding schools and does not care about how his mistakes will affect him in the future. After getting kicked out of yet another school, he starts to become depressed. Since he does not have anyone to talk to about how he really feels, he continues to lie. Holden’s feelings of deep loneliness drive his behavior throughout the novel. Holden has a negative outlook on people because people in his life continually …show more content…

Holden gets extremely lonely after he gets kicked out of his boarding school and gets rejected by people he meets along the way. On Holden’s way home he stays at a hotel because he cannot have his parents know he has been kicked out of yet another boarding school. Spending a long time alone, all Holden wants is a person to talk to. Holden hires a prostitute named Sunny that he only wants so he does not have to be alone. Holden asks Sunny, “‘ Don’t you feel like talking for a while?’ I asked her. It was a childish thing to say, but I was feeling so damn peculiar.” (106). Holden is seeking human connection and friendship, but instead Sunny tries to con Holden out of extra money. This makes him feel abandoned and rejected once again. Along with the many people he meets during his journey home, Holden goes to see a girl named Sally. He tells Sally he loves her as a lie, just to prove to himself he can be crazy. Holden is lying to someone he could have a real relationship with, but ruins it. Holden says to Sally, “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” (125). Holden ends up by himself at the end of the night because he never had a good bond with Sally. Holden gets rejected by Sally, who he thinks is “stupid ”, but being abandoned again causes him more pain. Holden picks the wrong people to be around, considering he ends up alone any time he tries to connect with people. Holden does not meet any people that show much interest in him since he left

Show More
Related
697 Words | 3 Pages

Asking each cab driver he has for drinks, even offering to pay for them. This is the first indication of Holden’s willingness buying his friends. At Penecy Prep he does favours for his peers he has no indication of liking. Writing papers for them, letting people borrow his type writer and clothing. His is eager to do whatever it take to be liked by others.

Read More
1496 Words | 6 Pages

Holden originally attended Pencey Prep but could never connect with the people around him. He is always criticizing or fighting with others, which lead him to leave Pencey without telling anyone. Holden heads to NYC where he faces many challenges with others and himself, emotionally and physically. Holden finds himself in his hotel room with a prostitute and feels extremely uncomfortable with what he is doing so he pays her and sends her off. The next day he plans a date with Sally Hayes, an old girlfriend, to see a play where he calls her “a pain in the ass” and laughs.

Read More
744 Words | 3 Pages

In The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield is a peculiar character portrayed as a skeptic living in “a world of phonies” in circa 1950. These personality traits can be seen through his doubts of society as well as his way of thinking and acting toward others. He also demonstrates a lack of responsibility adding to his role as a slacker. Holden flunks out of school repeatedly and has no desire to confront his parents. He mopes around the city for days, delaying the inevitable punishments he’s sure to get.

Read More
1768 Words | 8 Pages

Holden had to cope with big changes without the support of anyone. Adjusting to a new way of life is difficult on its own, but without anybody being there to teach and support him, it becomes increasingly more problematic. As he is reflecting on his life he states, "If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, an what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me," (3). He felt like he couldn’t talk about his life to anyone and open up because the people who are supposed to be there to love and support you were absent for him. Holden thought that he did not belong, he says, “how my parents were occupied”, they were never able to give him support so he considered himself to be all alone.

Read More
656 Words | 3 Pages

Although others may say that Holden was successful on his journey, saying that he grew up he. Holden showed lots of immaturity throughout the novel and was the biggest phony of all.. Holden’s attitude throughout the novel was very immature and made constant poor decisions. While he was still at Pencey he put in no effort and had the attitude that nothing mattered. As he moves on from Pencey and goes to New York, he shows no care for anything as he blows lots of his money and doesn’t even take care of himself. He doesn’t clean himself up or get any sleep because of his attitude towards life.

Read More
1039 Words | 5 Pages

These few lines from the book are a clear indication of Holdens loneliness. Holden didnt have a good explanation as to why he started crying out of blue, only to say himself that he was depressed and

Read More
734 Words | 3 Pages

Holden is unaware of his problem. When people try to help him he tells them there is nothing wrong with him. Holden wonders why he cannot connect with others. He blames it on other people when the source of his problems is himself. Holden’s past holds him back from connecting with others, but his fear of letting go of his past has him limited and scarred from making new relationships and connections.

Read More
1871 Words | 8 Pages

Holden has high standards for what a person should be and he sees the most authenticity in children, like his sister Phoebe. Holden breaks into his own house so that he can talk to Phoebe and possibly make an authentic emotional connection with her. While having their conversation Phoebe asks Holden what he truly likes, she says ““You don't like a million things. You don't .....

Read More
1308 Words | 6 Pages

Holden Caulfield lives his life as an outsider to his society, because of this any we (as a reader) find normal is a phony to him. Basically, every breathing thing in The Catcher in the Rye is a phony expect a select few, like Jane Gallagher. What is a phony to Holden and why is he obsessed with them? A phony is anyone who Holden feels is that living their authentic life, like D.B. (his older brother). Or simply anyone who fits into society norms, for example, Sally Hayes.

Read More
1077 Words | 5 Pages

And I didn’t like her much. Nobody did. You had to feel sort of sorry for her, in a way” (). This demonstrates Holden’s failure to understand people and the judgemental thoughts he has. He often has these judgemental thoughts to distance himself from others.

Read More
1142 Words | 5 Pages

The beginning of Holden’s journey starts with the innocence and naivety of childhood. Childhood is the stage that ignorance is bliss with no care in the world. Holden goes to a prestigious boarding school for boys and he believes that everyone in that school is a phony in some way. Holden is an observant character as he stays in the background, but he can also cause the most trouble. Like a child, he asks many questions and he is very curious to the point that he can be annoying.

Read More
1615 Words | 7 Pages

In Holden 's journey, he becomes more and more isolated from the world throughout the book. He isolates himself by choosing to not interact or go out with people. And further, when he does, he only ends up doing things that ruin the interaction with others, and makes himself become more isolated. Holden tries, but is always rejected and unsuccessful with his attempts.

Read More
1378 Words | 6 Pages

Holden lies as a result of his depression, in order to hide the fact that he’s lonely and bored with his life, to divert any questions which he believes are too personal, and to create his own reality. In this way, Salinger illustrates how, during difficult times, people resort to lying as a coping mechanism. In the beginning of the story, Holden lied to divert questions in order to protect his personal information.

Read More
728 Words | 3 Pages

Holden begins trying to be older than he actually is, still scared to lose innocence he grasps so hard to be a different person. He is a teenage boy in a grown up’s world. Trying to be an adult isn 't as easy as it seems and Holden is starting to learn that. “She had a terrifically nice smile. She really did.

Read More
830 Words | 4 Pages

Holden’s Struggle To Find Himself: Throughout the novel, The Catcher In The Rye, by J.D. Salinger, Holden struggles to find himself and who he truly is in order to be happy. His struggles relate to many things that he does or say in particular. Holden lacks with a social status with women and his family, whether it’s a relationship or being antisocial. Throughout The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield experiences the complexities and struggles involved with both physical and emotional relationships.

Read More

More about Catcher In The Rye All Alone Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document