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Loneliness In The Catcher In The Rye

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A Perspective on Loneliness in The Catcher in the Rye What should a person do if he or she is kicked out of boarding school? JD Salinger traces Holden, the main character in The Catcher in the Rye, on his lonely path after he is expelled from a boarding school. Salinger writes a tale about the coming of age of a teenager who pushes away all of his friends when he needs them the most. In The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger shows how Holden’s struggles with developing and maintaining friendships result from traumatic events in his past. The death of Holden’s younger brother, Allie, causes Holden’s struggles with developing and maintaining friendships. Allie died of leukemia about 4 prior. The reader learns more about Allie from when Stradlater asks Holden to write him a descriptive composition. Holden writes the essay on Allie’s baseball mitt. In the process of writing, Holden describes Allie’s characteristics. “But it wasn 't just that he was the most intelligent member in the family. He was also the nicest, in lots of ways. He never got mad at anybody” (Salinger 38). When Holden talks about Allie, he describes only positive qualities about his brother; this is in stark contrast to almost everyone else he describes. This emphasizes how important his younger brother is to him and shows he thought Allie was perfect. It also seems like Allie …show more content…

The theme of loneliness is demonstrated multiple times through Holden’s self destructive behaviors with his friends and family, his fear of rejection, and his rude behaviors and language when he feels rebuffed by a friend. As a result, Holden is confused, he is pushing his friends away, and his emotions are in disarray. Holden’s loneliness in The Catcher in the Rye illustrates what life would be like without friends, and reinforces how important friends are in

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While doing Stradlater’s assignment, Holden mentions his younger brother, Allie. Recalling Allie and his baseball mitt, Holden said, “he’s dead now. He got leukemia and died when we were up in Maine, on July 18, 1946. You’d have liked him” (Salinger 49). Holden showed a contrast and contradiction with this quote.

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698 Words | 3 Pages

In the book, “The Catcher In The Rye” the author, J.D. Salinger, tells us a story through the eyes of a lonely young teen that hides his emotions. The young teen known as Holden Caulfield has a vexation so strong with society and the people around him,that it causes him to not only push others away, but in the process push himself away. The very first example of loneliness that the author reveals about Holden, is at the beginning of the book, in chapter one page two, where we are told about the Pencey Prep football game. Holden tells us about how that day, he was supposed to be on a trip with the fencing team as their manager, but because he left their equipment on the train, they were able to return home earlier, in time for the football game. Holden describes the football game by telling us, “The game with Saxon Hall was supposed to be a very big deal around Pencey.

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403 Words | 2 Pages

The loss of Allie links directly to Holden's loss of innocence. “…the night he [Allie] died…I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it…I hardly didn’t even know I was doing it, and you didn’t know Allie” (Salinger 39). Salinger uses Holden

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1022 Words | 5 Pages

After talking about his childhood memories with his brother he states, ¨He is dead now. He got leukemia and died when we were up in Maine, on July 18, 1946. You´d have like him.¨ Then after talking about Allie’s old baseball mitt he said, ¨I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it¨(43-44). Allie’s death is used to show the unexpected change that Holden had experienced during his life. Allie was only eleven when he died, and Holden was thirteen.

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646 Words | 3 Pages

You don't need water to feel like you're drowning do you ? That is a question that many people ask when they are going through many obstacles and can not seem to overcome their problems. The water is used to represent isolation, loneliness, and alienation. To be isolated, alienated, and lonely you can either push yourself away from people or someone is making you be alone. Suffering from these things you may have some issues that make you feel that way.

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1039 Words | 5 Pages

The Catcher In The Rye, Loneliness is the main topic of the book. Holden Caulfield is an outsider from the beginning , which makes it easier for him to feel lonely. The author wanted his readers to somehow connect with the book by making him a young teenage boy who is in a stage in his life where his is lonely. Just like how our youth today goes through stages of loneliness in their

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1171 Words | 5 Pages

Holden 's weak connection with his family causes Holden to fail out of Pency. Having nobody to support him while Holden journeys through high school makes Holden lonely and brews his lack of motivation. In addition, Holden constantly isolates himself from society and the people around him. Which leads him to loneliness and severe isolation. In this quote, Holden goes into a telephone booth very bored to call friends.

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1107 Words | 5 Pages

The Catcher in the Rye Thematic Essay Imagine living a lonesome life, full of fear and little hope of better days to come. Imagine the toll this would take on a person’s life and how they develop as a person. For Holden Caulfield, the main character of J.D Salinger’s classic The Catcher in the Rye this, is his reality. Holden is a sixteen year old troubled boy suffering through major mental issues and living a rather a depressing life for a teenager. Throughout the novel he goes through many hardships that only worsen his depression making him feel hatred towards his seemingly hellish world.

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656 Words | 3 Pages

Throughout the book, Holden is struggling to get by. The death of his brother Allie has left him in a tough spot. Holden doesn’t exactly know how to deal with this. The different stages of grief are represented through Holden. Holden shows denial and anger when he flashbacks to one of his memories after his brother’s death.

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602 Words | 3 Pages

Gretchen Rubin once said, “Negative emotions like loneliness, envy, and guilt have an important role to play in a happy life; they're big, flashing signs that something needs to change.” However, in The Catcher in the Rye there is no one who understands Holden’s loneliness, and Holden does not quite know how to express it. In his novel The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger develops the theme of loneliness through Holden’s need for human contact, suicidal thoughts, and his separation from others around him. One way J.D. Salinger expresses Holden’s loneliness is through his need for human contact.

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818 Words | 4 Pages

Just because somebody's dead, you don't just stop liking them, for God's sake – especially if they were about a thousand times nicer than the people you know that're alive and all.”(Salinger). Allie’s death is one of the main reasons Holden is emotionally unstable. Allie made Holden happy and Holden regrets taking his love for granted when he was alive, Which caused him to be so attached to Allie. Not only is Holden having to grow up mentally the biological time is catching up with him. Holden fears life and

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1615 Words | 7 Pages

In the novel The Catcher In The Rye written by J. D. Salinger shows that Holden goes through his journey and is depressed because of his isolation from

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664 Words | 3 Pages

Alienation as Self-Protection in The Catcher in the Rye Throughout the novel The Catcher in the Rye, there are many themes, motifs and symbols that emerge and develop along with Holden, the protagonist, and the plot. Though the most significant theme is alienation as means for self-protection. In many instances, Holden isolates and alienates himself from his peers and the world in order to protect his morals and his self-imposed superiority. The first evidence of this alienation occurs when Holden speaks to his history teacher, Mr. Spencer. While talking about Mr. Thurmer’s lecture, Holden begins to ponder the “right side”, stating “if you get on the other side, where there aren’t any hot-shots, then what’s the game about?”

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779 Words | 4 Pages

In this quote he tells that his brother died. This shows his brother died when he was young. Furthermore he dies as an innocent child who was not exposed to the adult world or the “phoniness.” Allie's death was tragic to Holden but maybe, in some ways Holden wanted the death himself, he wanted to preserve his innocence. Another point that shows Allie's mitt represents innocence is when Holden says Allie used to read poems on his glove while playing baseball which he wrote before the game so he wouldn’t be bored.

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1305 Words | 6 Pages

Loneliness is a state many have experienced, but it is scarcely felt to the point of insanity and utter hopelessness. In The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield’s loneliness is a self-defense mechanism from socializing with others, making it the greatest source of his pain. Though his loneliness is caused by uncontrollable external forces, it is only overcome by his own choice of introspection. Initially, Holden did not chose to be lonely.

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