Loneliness

Holden’s loneliness is projected upon himself. His driving force to alienate people keeps him from having any kind of relationships, but I believe he finds comfort in being disconnected from the world. Because Holden depends on his isolation to preserve his detachment from the world and to keep a level of self-protection, he often ruins his own attempts to end his loneliness.

“I have a feeling that you’re riding for some kind of terrible, terrible fall. . . . The whole arrangement’s designed for men who, at some time or other in their lives, were looking for something their own environment couldn’t supply them with. . . . So they gave up looking.”

Mr. Antolini is trying to catch Holden in the midst of a “fall.” But the fall Mr. Antolini describes is very different from the one Holden had imagined. Holden depicts a cliff, where children fall into a dangerous world, but Mr. Antolini's perspective depicts a free fall—giving up, disengaging himself from the world, falling in a void removed from life around him. Holden envisions himself as the protector rather than the one to be protected, he is the one who really needs to be caught.

". I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff—I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all."

This excerpt is revealed to the reader during Holden's encounter with Phoebe in her room. I believe it proves to us that he cannot function in society with adults. More than once he tries to retreat to his fantasy world when faced with conflicts. During any confrontations with adults he simply "becomes annoyed" and  physically distances himself from the problem. His desire to protect the innocent youth, i believe, is a direct reflection of his own attitude towards the world.

The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody’d move. . . . Nobody’d be different. The only thing that would be different would be you.

This passage, in which Holden explains why he loves the Museum of Natural History, is located in Chapter 16. Killing time before his date with Sally, Holden decides to walk from Central Park to the Museum of Natural History. Along the way, he remembers in detail his school trips to the museum. Holden has already demonstrated that he fears and does not know how to deal with conflict, confusion, and change. He likes the idea of the museum because it is frozen, silent, and always the same. Holden can think about and judge the Eskimo in the display case, but the Eskimo will never judge him back.

“Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules.”

     Probably the most powerful quote within the novel, this probably sums up exactly what Holden is going through. At the beginning of the novel he tries to play the game of life by his own rules, and is unsuccessful by doing so. Throughout the story, however, he learns in order to succeed in life, he needs to be more responsible. I believe he finally realizes that when his sister wishes to move out west with him. He realizes he's setting a bad example for his little sister, and I think thats the turning point of the novel.

Essay

Essay Topic 1994- In some works of literature, a character who appears briefly, or does not appear at all, has a significant presence. Choose a novel or play of literary merit and write an essay n which you show how such a character functions in the work. You may wish to discuss how the character affects action, theme, or the development of other characters.

Throughout the story, The Catcher in the Rye, we are able to gather than Holden’s ex- girlfriend, Jane Gallagher, even though she is barely present in the book, plays a significant role in the story because of the fact that no matter where Holden goes, or what girl he is with, he always seems to go back to Jane and think of the summer that they shared together and the jealously that he is now experiencing due to the thought of her now dating his roommate, Stradlater. Even though Holden and Jane were only together for a few months, it is obvious that he still strongly cares for her through the fact that he seems to surround himself with women, yet she is still the only one that he really seems to show any concern for whatsoever even though she is not necessarily present in the story.

After being expelled from prep-school, Holden decides to return home to New York, and along the way, he entertains himself by going to different parties, clubs, and enjoying the company of several women. Although he is attracted to some of these women, and some he is using merely for sexual purposes, Holden always seems to have Jane Gallagher in the back of his mind. Many times after being with a woman, Holden would recall random moments that he remembered spending with Jane, and will say how happy he was with her, which further prompts to the fact that he could not escape the memory of her no matter what he did. In chapter 11, Holden says,” She was terrific to hold hands with. Most girls, if you hold hands with them, their goddamn hand dies on you, or else they think they have to keep moving their hands all the time, as if they were afraid they'd bore you or something. Jane was different. We'd get into a goddamn movie or something, and right away we'd start holding hands, and we won't quite till the movie was over. And without changing the position or making a deal out of it. You never even worried, with Jane, whether your hand was sweaty or not. All you knew was, you were happy. You really were.” This recollection only further proves this point, and is a good example of how memories of a person that makes you happy will stick with you forever, and will a lot of times affect your thoughts and actions because they are all you can think about.

We are also able to see how Jane’s lack of presence throughout the book is still significant in Holden’s mind because of  the idea that he is so jealous of Stradlater, his roommate. After Stradlater came home from his date with Jane, Holden began to interrogate him, asking whether or not he had tried to have sexual relations with her. This is evidence that Holden still cares about Jane through his jealously for Stradlater and his insistent questioning about whether or not they had had sex or not.

Even though she is not significant in the story, Catcher in the Rye, Jane Gallagher still plays a significant role in Holden’s mind, as well as the actions that he took and throughout the book even though he tried to erase her from his memory by having relations with other women. No matter what he did, or who he was with, Holden never seemed to stop thinking or caring about Jane and the love and memory that still remains for her.

Book2Media

J.D. Salinger wrote a letter in 1957 to an enquirer in which he lays out his antipathy towards selling his work to filmmakers, so no movies have been made, ever. The only media coverage I could find was this terrible movie teaser trailer. <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/0_SgHKdR3fA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>