Aastha Pandey English The Catcher in the Rye

The Catcher in the Rye

Holden’s Date with Sally

Holden’s date with Sally was a typical teenage date that was more chaotic than smooth sailing. The time they spend at the play, and the skating rink all deal with what a disaster it is to have the wrong partner. Sally seems like an odd match for Holden, she is extremely phony. Everything is “marvelous” for sally. Moreover, we also know that Sally doesn’t feel things the way Holden does. In addition when they bump into George, Sally immediately clicks with him. This causes Holden to think about Sally, and feel a little insecure and cynical. However, he still decides to talk to Sally about his future plans. Holden starts to act slightly rude and aggressive while he is sharing his feelings with Sally. Sally declines Holden’s proposal for the future because she is a practical girl who is ambitious in conventional ways. Thus it leads to Holden calling Sally a “royal pain in the ass.” This proves that Holden is very impulsive and mentally unstable because he cannot control what he is saying to others. After this remark the date is over. Holden is impulsive and cynical all the time. He isn’t able to connect with people, trust them, and think before he acts. This proves that the inability of a stable mind can harm his relationships with other people, also pushes other people away from himself, which result in his self-alienation.

Holden has moved from school to school and is not able to relate to his parents. What effect has this had on him?

Holden’s loneliness is a concrete presentation of his feelings of alienation. He feels unconnected to his parents and the world because he hasn’t lived with his parents very much. When he says, “what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied an all…” it shows that he wasn’t given the time he wanted from his parents. The fact that he calls his childhood “lousy” shows that he hasn’t been through a very painful childhood.

Moving from school to school builds up on the feeling of being different. Due to the change of school Holden is very cynical. He is unable to trust people and connect with people. When Dr. Thurmer tells Holden “Life is a game” he doesn’t believe him and ignores the suggestion and guidance Dr. Thurmer gives him. This is because he has a sense of self-alienation and he is cynical.

He describes his parents as “touchy as hell.” If he lets them know that he flunked school then they will react, especially Holden’s father, we know this because when Holden and Phoebe meet Phoebe keeps on emphasizing “Daddy’ll kill you” when she is talking to him. Since he doesn’t want his parents to know that he has flunked school, he starts to keep himself away from home, and wants to run away. This shows that he still is trying to protect himself from being exposed in front of adults especially his parents.

Holden being self-alienated and lonely has resulted in him being rude and abstract from others. Rude because he doesn’t know what to say and do at the right

Aastha Pandey English The Catcher in the Rye

Aastha Pandey English The Catcher in the Rye

time, and abstract because he thinks very unconventionally. Therefore, his self-alienation and loneliness is a sense of pain and security.

Explain why Holden’s brother Allie, his sister Phoebe and his friend Jane Gallagher are so important to him. How does his connection to them help to

reveal his reluctance to grow up?

Allie, Phoebe and Jane are three people Holden admires and connects with. Holden loves his brother Allie. Allie’s death caused Holden to be depressed for a long time. “They were going to have me psychoanalyzed” proves that Holden was psychologically unstable when Allie died. Holden loves Allie because Allie wrote great poems all over his own baseball gloves. He loves it so much that he even writes about it in an English essay for Stradlater. This shows that he wants other people to know about Allie. Another reason is because he didn’t get to spend a lot of time with Allie because he was in boarding school. Holden describes Allie as the “nicest person” because “he has never got mad at anybody.” The song “The Catcher In The Rye” about helping the children connects to Holden wanting Allie back.

Phoebe is important to Holden because she understands Holden. Holden says “I mean if you tell old Phoebe something, she knows exactly what you’re talking about” this shows that he likes Sally because she understands his feelings, unlike other people. Holden states that Phoebe “knows all the talk by heart” this shows that Phoebe is a straightforward person, and isn’t a hypocrite. This indicates that in Holden’s opinion Phoebe is not a phony, thus he loves her.

Jane and Holden have an intimate relationship. She is important to Holden because he spent one summer with the playing checkers and golf together. Holden shows that he is very jealous and angry when Stradlater tells him that he gave her “the time of her life” when Holden asks him about their date. Holden also shows his concern by asking Stradlater “You’re back pretty god damn late.” Their dialogues lead into a physical fight that Holden starts out of concern and jealousy for Jane. This clearly tells the reader that he has a love-like and devoted emotion for Jane. All in all, Holden is very feels insecure when something relates to Jane.

Summarize Holden’s experiences after he leaves Pencey Prep. Don’t just list these experiences. Summarize what kinds of experiences they are and the

effect they have on Holden. How does he respond to them? (What does he try to do? Is he successful? Why or why not?)

The experiences that Holden struggles with are infatuation towards girls and conflicts towards immoral people. During his journey he meets all kinds of people, especially females. At the Lavender room his behavior towards the girls was very exciting and stimulated. He was attracted to them, and wanted to dance with them. It shows that he wanted to act like an adult. Likewise, he also meets a prostitute, he wants to have sex but doesn’t. He is scared to do things that he isn’t supposed to do. “All of a sudden I started to cry,” this proves that he isn’t ready to be an adult, or an independent person because he is only an immature teenager. He also admits that he is a “coward” therefore, he knows that he isn’t meant to be doing what he is doing.

Aastha Pandey English The Catcher in the Rye

Aastha Pandey English The Catcher in the Rye

Holden is trying to act like an independent individual during his journey. Anyhow, he isn’t able to accomplish the individuality due to his age, innocence, immatureness, and his cowardly behavior. Without a doubt everyone can see the reason why he has ended up at a psychiatrist.

Aastha Pandey English The Catcher in the Rye