Holden Faces Sexuality And Relationships example essay topic

J.D. SALINGER In Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield, an american teenager, is subject to a terrible identity crisis and an alienation problem. This alienation can be explored through two major points: Holden's loneliness, a direct and concrete manifestation of this alienation and his relationships, both emotional and physical that could help him to break from this shell, but that he rejects, afraid of the change they could bring. Both of those, relationships and loneliness, evolve in a simple way, bringing Holden to change his view of the world and create strong bonds, finally accepting people's flaws. Throughout the novel, Holden harshly criticizes the world around him, the adults as well as his peers.

As a result of his rejecting his world, Holden is lonely and alienated from others. In fact, his loneliness is the concrete expression of his alienation from the world he lives in. The loneliness Holden experiences, firstly brings great pain for him. Indeed Holden wants to communicate and hates his loneliness: " I felt so lonesome, all of a sudden. I almost wished I was dead". "; I got feeling so lonesome and rotten, I even felt like waking Ackley up".

Furthermore, his negative feelings, resulting from his loneliness, trigger his departure from Pencey to New York. Holden is in search for friends and people to talk to: even though he does not really like Sally Hayes and even thinks she is stupid, he gets on a date with her because he needed to communicate. In the same way, he called up Carl Luce to meet him just to talk, with no particular purpose. Moreover, when he asked for Sunny, the prostitute, to come to his room he just wanted to talk to her: Because of the feeling of security he gets from his being alone, Holden often sabotages his own attempts to end this loneliness. For example, his attitude with Car Luce when he meets him at the bar: ; or with Sally Hayes: . Holden's sense of loneliness evolves throughout the novel in a regular way.

At first, while still at Pencey, Holden says: . Indeed he realizes that he has not managed to create any real relationship with his peer group and actually faces the fact that he has no one he feels able to talk to about his problems. Later on, in New York, Holden tries to tie bonds with adults or older people, having given up with ones his own age. He, unfortunately, fails and expresses this after his attempt to communicate with Sunny: . However, Holden starts feeling better when he goes back to see his sister Phoebe: . He explains that he is able to communicate with her normal and that it is a relief to have found someone who listens to him and most importantly, understands him.

This feeling of being able to communicate increases when Holden goes to see Mr. Antolini and manages to have a real conversation with him, talking about his future and also about the causes of his problems. Indeed Holden says: . That is because he really feels that something has changed in him during that conversation having to think about himself, answering all the of Mr. Antolini. After this conversation, Holden tries to understand people and begins to accept flaws in other people: .

Loneliness is for Holden a source of pain but also of security, helping him to alienate himself. It evolves throughout the novel in a regular way, pushing Holden to break this shell, open himself to others and accept their flaws. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden faces sexuality and relationships, both physical and emotional, throughout the story. For Holden, physical and emotional relationships could offer opportunity to break from his isolated shell and thus stop from alienating himself. This is why he is in constant search communication and relationships throughout the novel.

However, they also represent what he fears most in the adult world: complexity, unpredictability and potential for conflict and change: He associates having a relation with Sally with a radical change in his life, running away with her to live away from civilization. As Holden has trouble dealing with complexity or problems, for example Allie's death, he isolates himself and fears intimacy, which is why he never really experiences any physical relationships. As a result, although he has opportunities for emotional and physical intimacy, he bungles them all, isolating himself in a shell of criticism and bitterness. Even so, Holden still tries to find new relationships, always undoing himself only at the last moment.

A second aspect of Holden's relationships is sexuality: Holden is a virgin but he tries a few times along the novel to lose that virginity. He believes that only people who have deep respect for each other should go as far as having a sexual relationship and thus is upset when he realizes that sex can be casual, for example between Jane and Stardlater, or that it can be bargained for money, like for Sunny the prostitute. Furthermore, he is upset to feel attracted to women that he does not respect or care for, like Sally Hayes whom he even calls and the blonde tourist in the Lavender Room. Finally, he realizes that he likes and is aroused by unrespectful sexual behaviors like spitting in each other's face: he calls this behavior, but also finds it fun while knowing he should not feel this way. The evolution of Holden's sexuality is simple: at first he tries experiencing sexual relationships, as with Sunny, in hope that it will help him to grow up properly r just belong to his world.

Realizing that it does not work, Holden is at first completely unstable: . He then, still talks about sex but does not try to have any more part in it. He thus goes back to trying to have real relationships, and finally succeeds with Phoebe and Mr. Antolini, realizing that having sexual relationships would not help him achieve his reinsertion in his society. To conclude, Holden's loneliness and badly expressed sexuality and thirst for real relationships are connected to his alienation from the world.

Through the evolution of those points, Holden manages, towards the end of the novel to reach an understanding of himself that he did not really concieve at the beginning of his mishaps..