Catcher In The Rye Self Alienation Essay - 730 Words

In J.D. Salinger’s, Catcher in the Rye, Holden excommunicates himself from everyone he knows because he does not like who they present themselves to be. Holden is extremely closed minded about everyone he knows and he does not understand how to communicate with others; however these actions put Holden in a state of self-alienation. Salinger uses Holden to show how loneliness can leave people in a fragile state and if not helped then it could lead to death. In Catcher in the Rye, Holden does not know how to communicate with others. On multiple occasions Holden attempts to call people on the telephone. However, he declines to continue the call almost every time. He most likely does this because he does not know how to talk to people, or he†¦show more content†¦By Holden using this generalization of people he ends up alienating himself from the world. In the novel, Holden ends the book by saying, â€Å"Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you’ll start missing everybody† (234). Holden meant by this statement means that once a person becomes emotionally attached for emotional support, it is inevitable that the person will leave, die, and make the ones they left behind will miss them. Holden wants to avoid the feeling of loss that he felt after Allie’s death to happen ever again so he avoids emotionally attaching to others so that it is impossible to miss them like he misses Allie. Consequently, on multiple occasions Holden contemplates suicide. For example, after he gets wrongfully attacked by Sunny’s pimp, Maurice, he says that he would not mind ending his life. He states that the only reason he rejected the idea is because he remembers James Castle’s suicide. Holden does not want people staring at his corpse. Another time he desires committing suicide when he talks after he talked about his brother D.B.’s experience with going to war. Holden thinks, â€Å"I’m sort of glad that they’ve got the atomic bomb invented. If there is ever another war, I’m going to sit right the hell on top of it. I’ll volunteer for it, I swear to God I will† (156). This quote is saying that Holden wants to kill himself in an extremely dramatic and graphic way. In the past few days Holden’s emotions have been abused and he hasShow MoreRelatedThe Catcher in the Rye Essay1442 Words   |  6 PagesThis paper proposes to del ineate the characteristics of Holden Caulfield, the adolescent protagonist hero of J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye and illuminate the reasons as to why this prototype of brooding adolescence, displaying a rather uber-cool style of disaffection, disenchantment and disillusionment became an indispensable figure of interest, in literary circles as well as popular culture. 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