Holden’s Alienation
In Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger introduces us to Holden Caulfield, a young man whose life is so troubled and messed up at only 16 years old. Life is messed up and out of control. After the death of his younger brother, his life goes into plunge and he shuts himself out from the world. A young and naive boy, Holden doesn’t make the right decisions and chooses not to take responsibility. He alienates himself from others to protect himself from hurt; yet doing so prevents him from doing what is right. While Holden feels out of place and needs protection, he doesn’t realize that his actions are only destroying himself instead.
The first example of Holden using alienation that ends up hurting him is at Pencey, where he had a hard time trusting his fellow students and teachers, as he thinks they were phonies. He thinks the school motto ”Since 1883 we have been making boys into splendid clear thinking young men” is a joke, too. He said that only two guys from the entire school represented what the motto says. Holden felt that no one understood him and that everyone is a “phony” and that he was the only “genuine” person in the world. Because Holden’s thinking of being superior, he separated himself from his classmates; he didn’t apply himself at Pency and ended up failing. When Holden alienated himself from others he was trying to protect himself from getting hurt but really ended up hurting himself and had no friends to help him. He became lonelier and depressed. The lesson at Pency is that if you alienate yourself from others you won’t be able to get help from others. Holden had to go through this and suffered the consequences.
Another example of Holden’s destroying himself is when Holden is with Sally Hayes. Although he separates himself from others, his human desire needs him to be with other people even if they’re phony. When Holden invites Sally Hayes to the matinee she replies “I’d love to. Grand.” This made Holden upset because it sounded so phony. Because he hates movies, he didn’t believe people actually love matinees and think they’re grand. Holden wanted to call off the date for a moment, but changes his mind because deep inside, he was really lonely and he really needs to be with people. After the matinee, Sally talks to someone named George. Holden thinks they’re phony because they talk like they know each other really well but they really don’t know each other. Later, Holden tries to have a serious talk with Sally, but she doesn’t understand him. After they go ice-skating Holden gets the idea to run off with Sally together and start a new life. But Holden doesn’t bother with what Sally thinks and insults her because she really doesn’t understand what he’s saying either. This shows that Holden’s alienation causes him to not care for those other than himself.
Holden also alienated his brother D.B. because of his job as a screenwriter in Hollywood. Holden viewed him as a “phony” because he felt DB only wrote to make “money”. When DB writes a screenplay, it is for the moviemakers and not the work of his own imagination. The work Holden admired from DB was the “The Secret Goldfish” which was not a popular book but it was something DB enjoyed writing. What DB should be doing is to write for is his own pleasure and his own true ideas. As a result, Holden did not have respect for what DB does for a living and did not want to have a relationship with his older brother.
In Catcher in the Rye, JD Salenger shows how Holden alienated himself from society for his own self-protection. The examples above show that Holden’s time at Pency, time with Sally, and time with DB ended up hurting himself because he alienated people. Holden was not able to have strong relationships with friends, got beaten up by his roommate and was not close to his only living brother. He couldn’t take Sally Hayes seriously and ignored his responsibilities and other people at Pency. His alienation to society led Holden to suffer many unnecessary pains and hurt himself and others including his family.
The irony of it is in reality, his own alienations did not give him the self-protection he was looking for. When Holden alienates people he cannot understand others outside of his world. He then becomes frustrated and angry at the world he shut out. When he shuts out the world he becomes lonely and depressed and ultimately self-destructs.