Holden in The Catcher in the Rye

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In this Catcher in the Rye essay I will discuss the topic “Holden’s attitude to his society is a confused mix between defensiveness and derision. This is symbolised in his affectation of the hunting-cap and his relationship to his peer group”.

Holden’s attitude to life in general is a very confusing and indecisive one. His constant criticism and dislike for “phonies” joint with his strange ideas about life and the way in which it should be lived creates an image of a confused, uncorrupted and socially unstable youth of the time. He seems to think that he is the only person who can see, or who can be bothered to stop and see, that people are becoming mechanical in their following of the same old path of life that they know as the only way to live. He argues throughout the novel that these people are all fake and do not have any original ideas of their own. Throughout the novel Holden weaves a complex web of different feelings, attitudes and thoughts that can only be described as naively cynical.

Holden’s attitude is negative towards all people who manage to enjoy the “phony” pleasures of life and live pleased that they have achieved the necessary. He feels this because he himself does not manage to fulfill the credentials needed to live this life both at school and outside. He does not contain any of the necessary qualities such as being an able sportsman, apt student or deadly womaniser. His attitude to society in general is a mixed one. He criticises everyone and not one person he writes of in the novel, other than his sister Phoebe, Allie and Jane, passes his approval. His attitude to society is actually quite realistic and normal for someone who takes the time to stop and see what’s actually happening. His views are consolidated from the experience he receives by living both the teenager at a respectable private school and the rich boy living almost on the streets. He experiences the dirty scheming mind of downtown New York as well as the uptown posh life of a well-raised prep school boy. He criticises everyone he meets on his pub-crawls around the New York bars and nightclubs. This is ironic in itself because he’s the young man with prospects drowning himself in his own misery and doing the best (unintentionally) to ruin his own life that could be perfect. Yet Holden knows that his life could be perfect but he is so persistent in not being the same as everyone else that he tries his hardest to ignore the opportunities for a perfect life given to him.

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His attitude towards women is a strange slightly old-fashioned one. He has the utmost respect for women and has difficulty acknowledging the maltreatment of them by other males. He tries to be friendly with most of the women he meets in the novel but often, as he always fears, he is rejected by them either on the account of his age or his strange behaviour. He attempts to get along with most of the males in the novel but finds it difficult at times as his super-critical assessment of people makes it difficult for him to get along with ...

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