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Sexuality in literature
Sexuality in literature
Sexuality and literature
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Sexuality in literature
Sexuality in literature
Sexuality and literature
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Holden think about whether Jane and her "lousy adolescence" fills in as some kind of association amongst her and Holden. Given the circumstances, he later uncovers that he, as well, has had some "pervert" stuff transpire "around twenty circumstances since he was a child." On pages 87-88 Jane and Holden start to have dialogue and he begging’s to like her even more so does she. This allows Holden to have extreme confidence and maturity into making him a better person.
This raises many suspicions about why Holden becomes so hysterical after an event like this. Many PTSD patients have survived a traumatic event in their life. This event is so traumatic that anything that reminds the patient of the event can trigger an intense response. Holden must have had a traumatic event that causes him to react to situations that he considers “perverty”. Another set of events that trigger Holden’s sensitivity to things of a perverty nature are when he finds the words “Fuck you” written on the walls of the school, and museum.
Holden hates the idea of sex because he feels once people have it, they aren’t innocent anymore. When talking about sex Holden says “I don’t like the idea. It stinks if you analyze it” (Salinger 70). Holden then continues to analyze it for the rest of the paragraph. He comes to the conclusion that if you like a girl, then say it to her face.
Like others with the same disorder, Holden often acts impulsively and has difficulty regulating his emotions. In his case, this includes erratically spending money, alcohol over consumption, and irrational anger leading to violence. When Holden informs the reader that “[he’d] spent a king’s ransom in about two lousy weeks… drives [his] parents crazy” (Salinger 107). This same habit is displayed when he meets a group of girls at a club. Even though Holden doesn’t have much to live off of , he “[buys] them all two drinks apiece … [and orders] two more Cokes for [himself]” (Salinger 74).
“I like to be somewhere at least where you can see a few girls around once in a while, even if they’re only scratching their arms or blowing their noses or even just giggling or something” (3). The narrator, Holden Caulfield, describes an aspect of his character through this confession. Obviously, he is interested in girls and desires them at all times. During the 1950s when this novel was published, having such desires would not have been approved of by the parents of the time due to the increasing social pressures of society. A majority of these adults would have considered Caulfield a terrible role model and would not have wanted the youth to read about him wanting to look at girls.
Many things in Holden’s childhood that could lead him to be BPD. First and foremost, he lacks self awareness which consists of constantly getting kicked out of schools. He does impulsive and unsafe acts such as substance abuse,(smoking a pack of cigarettes), and almost engaging in sexual activity with a prostitute named Sunny in chapter thirteen and also engaged in a fight with Stradlater in chapter six and Maurice in chapter fourteen. From observations that has been occurred, evidence shows that he has been abused,neglected, and molested on numerous occasions throughout his childhood. Mr. Caulfield has instability such as constantly getting abandoned by his friend,and inability to have any positive type of relationship with people other than kids, for example chapter thirteen with Sally Hayes.
An example of Holden having problems emotionally can be found when he the prostitute he paid for sat on his lap. Holden said “The trouble was, I just didn’t want to do it. I felt more depressed than sexy (Sallinger 96)”. Throughout the book Holden has tried to display himself as a masculine man who gets girls however that is all an act he used to hide the fact that he does experience the depression phase of the grieving process and it can make something that Holden very much looks forward to like sex come of as depressing and miserable. Another example of Holden’s emotional distraught behaviour can be found when he was crossing the road at night in new york.
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
Holden’s failure to embrace the masculine stereotype is epitomized in his idealized and naive views on romance and sexulaity. When Holden enters the upscale Edmont Hotel and sees a young couple on a date, he remarks, “I think if you don't really like a girl, you shouldn't horse around with her at all …. It's really too bad that so much crumby stuff is a lot of fun sometimes” (Salinger 70). Holden’s belief that a man should not engage in a casual relationship with a woman unless he truly loves her, stands in stark contrast to masculine standards which encourage and congratulate men’s sexual exploits. Holden’s asexual beliefs
Sexy was about the last thing I was feeling. I felt much more depressed than sexy" (Salinger 94-95). Holden’s first real sexual encounter was going to be with a prostitute, but it ends up just making him depressed and before this point, he talked about all these girls that he supposedly had sex, or some sort of relationship with. Which seems to be a lie to hide that fact that he is socially an outcast and has not taken that “step” out of teenage years. Holden’s parallel, Ben goes through similar
Holden Caulfield Is Mental Roughly three percent of the United States population, approximately 314,341,830 people, suffers from bipolar disorder. Holden Caulfield, from Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger, has bipolar II disorder. This particular disorder is when an individual displays two extreme demeanors, yet not at persistent levels as shown in bipolar I disorders. This novel was written during an era that did not acknowledge mental illness very often; therefore Holden did not have the tools at his disposal to learn healthy coping mechanisms.
Holden thinks of sex as "a spiritual experience" where he can 't do it with a girl "[he] don 't like a lot" (Salinger 162) (Salinger 163). He needs to be with a girl how he has feeling for, not just a random stranger. This shows he don 't take advantage of
Furthermore, Holden starts to hate all the adults or loses faith in them, calls them phony. Holden has a second thought of becoming an adult he loses hope in his future and it seems to him nothing in the world matters to him anymore. We can see that throughout the book. He smokes, gets drunk, and does daring acts like getting a prostitute in his room. He also tries to escape all this guilt and grief by wasting time with unnecessary people he calls phony.
Holden struggles with growing up and facing reality. There are many examples of Holden’s immaturity that are displayed in many forms such as facing responsibilities, his speech, his actions, and etc. Holden’s outlook on adult life is that it is superficial and brimming with phonies, but childhood was all about looking pleasing and innocent. He wants everything to stay the same and for time to stop. As Holden progresses in age, he will discover more about becoming mature in the
Holden has had several opportunities to have sexual intercourse with another female yet he keeps avoiding it, therefore unlike the rest of the teen population who have had intimacy with another being, he is an outcast, an alien. In this case, Holden is alien to sex and what intimacy truly is; his little knowledge on this is causing him to avoid going through with having an intimate relationship or sex with someone, even a prostitute who will charge him more than what she was worth. Fear can also play a role in alienation from society. Holden has a fear of human behavior and arguably even sickened with the human behavior.