Summary:
Analyzes the novel Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger. Explores main character Holden Caulfield's relationships with women. Rates each relationship as positive or negative.
"All Holden's experiences with the opposite sex are negative", do you agree"
Catcher in the Rye was written by J.D Salinger and was published in 1951 when the role of women in society was extremely different from women's roles in the twenty first century. The main character Holden Caulfield who is sixteen years old leaves his school Pencey Prep for his home in New York. Holden meets many different characters in the novel, both male and female and while many of his experiences with the opposite sex end up being negative Holden does have positive experiences with them too.
Holden gets along well with Phoebe; his sister, Mrs Morrow; Ernie Morrows mother who attends Pencey Prep and the two nuns who Holden meets in Grand Central Station.
He gets on with his sister Phoebe Caulfield because they relate on many subjects such as literature and their brother Allie who died of leukaemia which brought Phoebe and Holden even closer, Phoebe is also the only person Holden really talks about Allie to. Phoebe is nine years old so her and Holden have an age gap of seven years which helps Holden relate with her because he finds it difficult to relate to people of his own age, Holden often takes on a paternal role with Phoebe because he sees himself as her protective big brother. Holden says "she kills me", meaning Phoebe makes him laugh and he does not consider her as a phoney because of this.
Holden is friendly towards Mrs Morrow on the train who has a son who attends Pencey, again there is a huge age gap of about twenty years between them and there is no prospect of sex, they have a polite conversation together and Holden even lies about Ernie saying "he's one of the most popular boys at Pencey" just to make Mrs Morrow feel happy and secure about Ernie because she thinks he finds it hard to mix with others.
Holden also meets two nuns in Grand Central Station and gets on with them very well because again there is a significant age gap of at least forty-five years and no prospect of sex at all. Holden and the nuns chat comfortably because one of the nuns "taught English" which is Holden's favourite subject and they talk about literature and the nuns ask Holden "what have you read this year"" which shows they are interested in Holden and Holden likes people who are interested in him and like him because their aren't many of them, he tells them about the books he has read and Holden finds the nuns charitable and generous.
So all the female characters who Holden has positive experiences with all have several things in common; there is a significant age gap between them and Holden, Holden does not think that there is any prospect of sex between them and they like him so he likes them and does not consider them to be phonies.
The female characters whom Holden does not get along with are Sally Hayes; a friend who he goes ice skating with, Sonny the prostitute and the three blonde girls in the bar; Bernice, Laverne and Marty.
Holden's experience with Bernice, Laverne and Marty in the Lavender Hotel's bar shows strong evidence that Holden isn't very good with females of his own age and this agrees with the essay title. When Holden dances with Bernice he calls Marty and Laverne "the two ugly ones" because when Holden was dancing they "nearly had hysterics" and weren't taking Holden seriously, Bernice "wasn't even listening" to Holden which proves he is a poor at socializing with the opposite sex. Because Bernice wasn't interested in him Holden started to call her "a moron" and he thought they were all "real phonies" just because they didn't like him. These girls were all around Holden's age and Holden had thought that there was the prospect of sex when he first met them and kissed Bernice on the forehead when they were dancing and she responded angrily saying "what's the idea!" This was a very negative experience for Holden.
When Holden was in the Lavender Hotel he arranged for a prostitute to come to his room, the prostitute was called Sonny and "she was around my age" said Holden. There was obviously a huge prospect of sex and Holden even commented that he "could get some practice on her" which also supports the idea that Holden just thinks of women as sexual objects. When the prostitute came in Holden was too embarrassed to have sex with her and lied about having "an operation very recently....it's in the spinal canal" which excused him from having sex. He also found it very difficult and struggled to talk to her and "tried to keep the old conversation going", Sonny got annoyed with him and was shouting "what the heck did you tell....Maurice you wanted a girl for"", she eventually left irritated at Holden and they didn't have sex but Holden still gave her some money.
Perhaps the greatest evidence that Holden cannot relate with females of his own age was when he and sally Hayes went ice skating and Holden "felt like marrying her the minute he saw her" which is a bit far fetched seeing as he has only just met her. Then Holden suggests the idea that him and Sally run away and live on a ranch in Colorado and when Sally is not sure Holden starts shouting at her and Sally is confused saying "one minute you scream at me and the next you-" and then Holden interrupts her shouting "no!."
Holden even admits they "both hated each others guts by that time" and then says to Sally "you give me a royal pain in the ass" which in the 1950's is one of the worst insults there can be, he even makes her cry and minutes later "she was still sort of crying."
This proves that Holden finds it very difficult to get along with females and all of his experiences with the opposite sexes who are roughly the same age as him, with a prospect of sex and who Holden thinks are phonies are all negative.
However, as discussed earlier, his experiences with Phoebe, Mrs Morrow and the two nuns are all positive.
In Holden's own words "Girls. Jesus Christ. They can drive you crazy, they really can."
This is the complete article, containing 1,054 words
(approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page).
