In the story of “The Catcher in the Rye,” Holden Caulfield, the main character, seems to be a very lonely and depressed person. In this novel, he constantly refers to the people around him as “phonies,” and he can’t find anyone he can really trust (126). The only people he feels like he can trust are his brother Allie, who is dead, and his little sister Phoebe. The rest of the people around him, he can’t stay very close to for very long. His friend, Stradlater from Pencey, and Holden got into a huge fight just before Holden left the school entirely, and they were close before. In the dorm next to him at Pencey, there is a Guy named Ackley that “[dang] near made you sick if you saw him,” but Holden only trusts him right before he is about to leave the school, and even goes to sleep in his dorm to stay away from Stradlater (19). Holden has him as a friend, but the friends that he does have in this story, he doesn’t like all that much.
When Holden does leave to go to New York before he returns home to his family, the loneliness he feels only gets worse. He seems awfully desperate to find some one to talk to, about anything. When he gets to a hotel in New York, he even invites a prostitute up to his room. When the two of them are sitting in the room, Holden says that he only “feel[s] like talking for a while” when the prostitute is with him, which basically shows that he doesn’t know how he should act in public, and also how desperate he is to find someone to talk to (95). Later Sunny, the prostitute and her pimp, Maurice show up to collect more money for him, in which he argues about, and eventually gets beaten up for it. Later, all he wants to do is just lay in bed alone. He also mentions that he “felt like jumping out of the window,” but the only reason he didn’t was because he “didn’t want a bunch of rubbernecks looking at [him] when [he] was all gory,” which is a scary thing to say (104). This shows that he doesn’t really have much to live for anymore, and feels too lonely to even be alive.
I honestly think that we, the readers, should be worried about Holden, because he has talked about committing suicide several times throughout the story. I think that he needs to find someone that he can really trust, and just give them the chance to be his friend. From what I see happening in the story right now, he really needs someone he can talk to, besides his dead brother Allie. This may help with his depression in many ways.
I’ve noticed Holden’s loneliness shows up numerous times in different ways. It shows in his frantic pursuit to figure out where the ducks leave to during the winter, and even more importantly, how they know to come back. It also shows up when he desperately attempts to surround himself by anybody he can seem to find. Whether, they’re old friends, or completely strangers.
ReplyDeleteThe oddest thing to me however is that he surrounds himself by people he doesn’t like. For example; while he’s going on a date with Sally he “told her [he] loved her and all. It was a lie, of course, but the thing is, [he] meant it when [he] said it.” He’s completely confused and lost in life. The suicidal thoughts are also resulting from lack of company or compliances.
-Aleia Amaya
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ReplyDeleteI completely agree that Holden must open up more to people. He bottles up his feelings immensely and it isn't helping him at all. It's bringing him down completely to this dreadful state of depression.
ReplyDeleteIt is quite apprarent that Holden is lonely for that fact that he invites a prostitute into his room. It is even more so when he tells her that he just wants to hold a conversation with her.
Maybe if Holden would speak of things that may appeal to more people and become a more likeable person, he would not feel so depressed and even have thoughts of suicide anymore.
- Abriana Moreno