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Catcher in the Rye Holden


            
             In the book Catcher in the Rye the main character is Holden Caulfield. He is a teen- age boy who goes through some major changes. His life is taken over by isolation and depression. This is all caused by his attitude towards others, his failure to accept the world around him and his various obsessions with sex and alcohol. .
             Holden is not able to survive in everyday society. He keeps failing at everything he attempts. Part of his problem is that he was deeply affected by the death of his brother Allie. He really misses him and this leads him to not want to face the adult world, but to go back to the innocence of his childhood. His problems begin at school. He was sent away to school and then he flunks out of school after school. He refuses to do his work or try. He is not liked by anyone and has no real friends, because he is strange and isolates himself. He is angry, dissatisfied and frustrated with everything around him. He blames everyone else for his problems. He uses the word "phony" to show why everyone around him is wrong and he is right. If he does not agree with someone, then they are wrong and he calls them a phony. He cannot face that maybe he is the one that is wrong. He is always escaping his responsibilities, for example he runs away from boarding school because he faces something that he dislikes, he cannot confront it, instead, he chooses to run away. Another example is when he thinks of going to New England or Colorado, to go anywhere, just so he doesn't have to face the people or situations around him. .
             Holden also has an obsession with sex. Holden is a virgin, but he is very interested in sex, and in fact he spends much of the novel trying to lose his virginity. He feels strongly that sex should happen between people who care deeply about and respect one another, and he is upset by the realization that sex can be casual. Stradlater's date with Jane doesn't just make him jealous; it angers him to think of a girl he knows well having sex with a boy she doesn't know well.


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