Holden's Emotional Breakdown In Catcher In The Rye

The most significant episode in the novel, “The Catcher in the Rye”, that fully defines Holden Caulfield is when Holden leaves early form Pencey to go to New York, but it’s his actions throughout the journey when traveling from Pency to the Edmont Hotel is what defines him. Throughout the novel, we understand that Holden is going through an emotional breakdown, however, Holden never comments on it directly. But who is Holden really, what can cause for him to have an emotional breakdown? Holden is a detached young boy who is harboring his feelings of disenchantment and confinement, a young boy who deflects attention from himself, and a young boy who is shameful of the idea of sex. “I put my red hunting hat on, and turned the peak around to the back, the way I liked it, and then I yelled at the top of my goddamn voice, “Sleep tight, ya morons!”” (29.2). During this passage, Holden is showing his lack of will to socialize which prompts him to find nearly everything depressing. If you can’t tell, Holden is nearly alone majority of the time and it’s apparent that he is very isolated. This often leads for him to ponder a strong shortfall of affection that hampers and cripples his views toward other people, his attitude, and his ability to progressively solve

“I saw a man and a woman squirting water out of their mouths at each other… I’m not kidding, the hotel was lousy with perverts.” (34.1). Holden reveals a great deal about his feelings toward sex and toward what makes him uncomfortable about sexuality. Although, he did admit that he was roused by the idea of spitting in someone’s face, he believes that people should only have sex if they care deeply for one another. Overall, sexuality is something secretive and shameful to Holden. To him, it seems there’s no such thing as a healthy sex drive, automatically means you’re a