Examples Of Isolation In Catcher In The Rye

To isolate can be defined as causing a person or place to be or remain alone or apart from others. Isolation is a epidemic that devastates millions of people, making them feel useless and hopelessly alone. Being detached from society and human interaction is an awful feeling and can lead to serious mental and physical problems. If isolation is so disastrous, why do authors make so many characters feel isolated to the point where the characters actions and emotions are only based off of this isolation? Authors such as M.T. Anderson in Feed, J.D. Salinger in The Catcher in the Rye and Ursula K. Le Guin in Tehanu all create some sort of isolation for their characters. These authors create isolated characters not only to display how bad being isolated

Holden is not isolated from people themselves, but is unable to make a genuine human connection. He rejects all the people that he considers “friends”, calling them phonies or giving reasons why he shouldn’t talk to them. Although Holden meets a lot of people while in the city, he doesn’t actually connect with them. In one instance of the book, Holden is walking behind a family and hears a little boy singing. He says, “It made me feel better. It made me feel not so depressed anymore” (Catcher in the Rye 62). This slight instance of human interaction makes Holden feel good, but this feeling dissipates as quickly as it came. Shortly after, Holden realizes that he is all alone, having no family of friends to interact with. He admits to himself, “When I finally got down off the radiator and went out to the hat-check room, I was crying and all. I don't know why, but I was. I guess it was because I was feeling so damn depressed and lonesome” (Catcher in the Rye 82). This isolation makes Holden feel depressed and alienated from

All three characters, are isolated from a society that would probably accept them, but they do not know how or cannot connect with them. The authors are trying to prove that isolation is horrible, but it can be solved with human interaction. Feed shows the extent that technology is isolation our society, showing a society that cannot connect with one another on an emotion level. The Catcher in the Rye proves that people can sometimes isolate themselves from the world, and shows the difficulty it is to interact with people after they are isolated. Tehanu shows that isolation can be solved with human interaction, proving it is possible to come back from being alone. All three authors purposefully warn the audience how devastating a problem isolation can be, but giving solutions to how it can be