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Examples Of Isolation In Catcher In The Rye

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Humans require social connections since they were born. In the Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger conveys the negative impacts of disengaging with society. If one remains isolated for an extended period of time, the person may never find meaning in life. In the novel, Holden's hatred towards his life is a product of his self-imposed isolation. Specifically, Holden cannot make friends, cannot maintain relationships with girls and cannot maintain mental stability. Holden's tendency to protect his isolation eludes him from other people. After Holden finishes talking with Mrs. Morow, he went into a phone both. Holden wanted to give somebody a buzz, but decided not to call anybody after twenty minutes (Salinger 77). Although Holden tries to interact …show more content…

The first girl introduced to have a deep connection with Holden is Jane. When Stradlater said that he is dating Jane, Holden immediatly wants to see Jane. Sadly, Holden missed his chance because he was "not in the mood" to (Salinger, 42). Since Jane is dating, Holden knows that she is no longer as innocent as she were before. To protect his alusions, Holden isolates himself from Jane, making Jane a girl stuck in his past. Even when a girl is right beside him, Holden tends to isolate himself from sex. After Holden pays for a prostitute, he uses his money to talk instead of having sex (Stradlater, 124). This depicts how Holden alienates himself agian, resulting in Sunny viewing him as a madman. Finally, Holden manages to get hislef a date with Sally, but ruins it with a prepostrous idea of escaping society. Sally rejects his idea, and Holden responds, " You give me a royal pain in the ass" (J.D.Salinger, 173). Holden's isolation makes him want to move to a secluded area, however, Sally thinks it is stupid. Holden then loses control and rejects Sally, thereby failing to achieve another intimate relationship. Holden's isolation not only makes him fail to talk with girls properly, he also cannot maintain mental

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Chapters 18-19 Left Side Journal Holden is probably the most obnoxious in these chapters meeting up with Luce. The reason is because all he does is talk about sex even though he is a virgin. What I don’t understand is why does Holden care so much for others sex lives? I get that he is a virgin and he may be curious, but it is just really rude and uncomfortable not only to Luce, but also to the reader. The main thing I focused on in these chapters is the question that Luce asked Holden - “When are you gonna grow up?”

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Holden experiences sex in his thoughts but also in certain situations that he eventually backs out of. He encounters a situation with a prostitute named Sunny, instead of Holden actually having a sexually encounter with her he worries about her innocence. Holden is able to detect that she’s young by her word choice and the way she carries herself, when he notices this he decides not to have sex with her and to try his best to perserve her innocence. Holden fails to realizie that the girl’s innocence has already been stolen from her. Love is depicted in the story a lot and hurts Holden; He falls in love with Jane Gallagher but is crushed when he finds out Stradlater took her on a date and most likely took her innocence away from her.

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The only person that Holden makes an actual connection to is his sister, Phoebe. This barrier that he has created causes him to become a bit introvert and rather cynical. In the book, Holden finds his roommate, Stradlater, to be overly cocky and his neighbor, Ackley, to be annoying. He starts to make some of the same judgments about a girl that he goes on a date with, Sally Hayes. Sally is pretty and outgoing, but Holden feels she cannot hold a conversation.

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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

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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.

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In one situation, Holden criticizes dorm neighbour Ackley for disrupting his privacy by unwantedly barging into his room. However, after a fight with roommate Stradlater, Holden is left alone and searching for companionship forces himself into Ackley’s room spending hours sleeping on the spare bed in his room. Additionally, Holden’s contradicts many of his own judgements by forgetting to follow his moral values. When roommate Stradlater brags about sexual advancements he made with Holden’s former crush Jane, the teenager feels disgusted by the sexual relationship

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I can’t help it.” What Holden needs to realize that his ‘trouble’ isn’t a problem but a blessing. He talks about how most guys do not stop when their dates do not want to have sex but in Holden’s case he does stop because of all the respect for women’s space he has on the inside. This internal respect comes back when he is with Sunny. When Sunny gets to

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As Holden is on a quest to find someone he can truly relate to, he recalls his moments spent with the person he felt most attached to, Jane Gallagher. Holden is sitting in the lobby of his hotel, having failed at connecting with girls in the Lavender Room, and he begins thinking about Jane. He remembers how he “held hands with her all the time” (89) and that she is “terrific to hold hands with” (89). Holden realizes that “Jane was different” (89) because with most girls he felt self-conscious, yet he never felt that way with Jane. Holden realizes that he felt truly fulfilled when he was with her and wants to find someone else that helps him feel this way.

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To achieve true peace and comfort, rather than trying to find love and comfort from others, an individual will search for someone who will give them a sense of belonging. This is seen through the novel, “the Catcher in the Rye” by J. D. Salinger where the persona, Holden, is seen searching for someone or a relationship. For example, the Holden tries to form many relationships including romantically, make friends, and with family members. Thus, to belong with a sense of peace and comfort, Holden attempts to interact with others.

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Holden is about to go on a date with Sally Hayes and he deciding which show to buy tickets for. “... I went over and bought two orchestra seats for I Know My Love... I didn’t much want to see it, but I knew old Sally... would start drooling all over the place when I told her I had tickets for that” (Salinger 152). This shows that Holden is mindful when taking care of his friends and wishes to please them.

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Holden attempts to assert himself above everybody else in society and essentially portrays that he is better than everyone. Isolation is a major characteristic in Gothic writing because it forces the audience to solely focus on the protagonists and his everyday struggles with fitting into society. Holden isolates himself from everyone by the judgment he places on people in society. This isolation correlates to him immaturity and the reason he doesn't connect with anyone. When Holden comes out of the theater and sees the phonies in the mist, he states, “At the end of the first act we went out with all the other jerks for a cigarette.

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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.

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After arriving, Holden “went into [a] phone booth” and spent “about twenty minutes” without calling anybody (77-78). After pondering the many people he could call, Holden finally thinks of calling “Carl Luce, but [he] didn’t like him much” (78). While Holden has many people whom he could call, he spends twenty minutes convincing himself of why he cannot call any of these people. This illustrates alienation as Holden chooses to avoid talking to others, isolating himself when he could have easily chosen to interact with others. Moreover, this alienation provides Holden with self-protection as he does not run into any chances of his parents finding out that he has been expelled from school and has run away to New York.

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Being rather isolated, Holden Caulfield struggles with the challenges involved with relationships as he fails to balance his desire for isolation with his desire for companionship. Although Holden constantly searches for new possible relationships,

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His lack of understanding of sex and relationships make him different from the rest of society. Holden tells the reader that "If you want to know the truth, I 'm a virgin. I really am. I 've had quite a few opportunities to lose my virginity and all, but I 've never got around to it yet. Something always happens" (92).

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