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Themes in the catcher in the rye essay
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Another very common characteristic found in most teenagers, including Holden Caulfield, is obsession about sex. Throughout the story, Holden is always thinking about sex or in his own words thinking about “giving a girl a feel”. When Holden had a temporary stay at hotel in New York, he wanted to lose his virginity by calling a prostitute over his room, but after calling the prostitute over, he was afraid to have sexual intercourse with her since he never practiced it before, so he ended up rejecting the prostitute. The only thing Holden got from this experience was a punch in the stomach from a pimp. Holden also spends a lot of time fantasizing about sex with the girls he knew from school, which is very immature, but not surprising for a
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?”
Holden even hired a prostitute but did not encounter any sexual intercourse. After this, Holden went on a date with a female named Sally Hayes. The date did not go well. After the date, Holden returned to his home where he snuck in to talk to his sister but left before his parents knew he was in the house. He later then visited his former teacher, Mr. Antolini.
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.
He tries to give himself up for this cause of saving children but he shows that he is not mature enough be able to make a meaningful impact in this perceived problem. It is clearly shown that Holden believes that there is a problem in society. He believes that children need to keep their innocence. He feels that loss of innocence negatively impacts people and feels that he has to save them. We can first see his personal issues about the lack of innocence when he discovers that Stradlater and Jane Gallagher had sex casually with no intention
Holden originally attended Pencey Prep but could never connect with the people around him. He is always criticizing or fighting with others, which lead him to leave Pencey without telling anyone. Holden heads to NYC where he faces many challenges with others and himself, emotionally and physically. Holden finds himself in his hotel room with a prostitute and feels extremely uncomfortable with what he is doing so he pays her and sends her off. The next day he plans a date with Sally Hayes, an old girlfriend, to see a play where he calls her “a pain in the ass” and laughs.
Holden thinks Jane is a great girl and that she’s the type that he likes. Holden misses her and that’s why he starts to think of her at that
While the naivete of the aforementioned is seen as generally negative, Holden demonstrates something beautiful, a self-righteous innocence. To explain, Holden always says he becomes “excited” when he talks of his beliefs about sex and intimacy with every character he interacts with in the novel. His compass on what is right and what is wrong never seems to stagnate. This basic and self-righteous idea of how sacred sex and intimacy must have completely been brought about by his childhood and thus is full of childish beliefs. He wants his ideas to come to fruition and mentally criticizes people who do not believe or do what he thinks is right.
The reader observes Holden’s insecurities when Holden calls the prostitute to his hotel room. He mentions to himself, “I know you’re supposed to feel sexy when somebody gets up and pulls their dress over their head, but I didn’t. Sexy was about the last thing I was feeling. (Salinger 123)” This exemplifies how Holden struggles when dealing with females.
He is horrified when he witnesses a group of boys at his hotel flirting with two young girls, and he intervenes to prevent them from taking advantage of the girls. Similarly, when he meets a prostitute, he is more concerned with talking to her and understanding her life rather than engaging in any sexual activity. This proves that Holden wants to keep the innocence by not engaging in any sexual activity. He believes that a connection on a more personal level is more important than those that meet his physical needs. Holden's most significant relationship is with his former roommate and friend, Jane Gallagher.
Holden, who doesn’t like many things in life, likes Jane genuinely and the
He talks quite a bit about sex, but his virginity is the last existing innocence to him. Holden pays for a prostitute to have sex with, but he cannot go through with it. He is very hesitant about losing his innocence. Holden wants to be “the catcher in the rye” (191) and save all the innocence in the world. He believes that that is what he wants to do in the future as he tells his little sister, Phoebe.
Holden truly only has feelings for Jane Gallagher, making him respect her privacy about sex. As he talks to Luce, he gets defensive about him using women and "talk about her that way" when she "[lets] you get sexy" with her. Because Holden thinks highly of Jane, it makes her special to him (Salinger 160). He acts as a mature person who wants to save himself for Jane because his morality making him a good person. Not as the type of boys who only want to have sex to get pleasure from it like Carl Luce.
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 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.
