Emily Dart 11C
How does Salinger present Holden’s relationship with women?
In the book, The Catcher in the Rye, Holden has many different relationships with women and acts in different ways compared to who the women are and how he is feeling at the time. Some of the examples of women that he encounters are Jane Gallagher, Sally Hayes, the mother a boy who goes to his old school, Sunny (a prostitute) and the two nuns. All these women present a different aspect in the ways in which Holden holds relationships with women.
Firstly the presence of Jane Gallagher is used to show his relationship with women. The fact that Holden seems reluctant to actually go through with the action of contacting Jane could show that Jane holds Holden’s idea of innocence and keeps it present to him. During a conversation with Stradlater Holden says ‘”I oughta go down and at lest say hello to her,” I said
“Why don’tcha?”
“I will, in a minute”’ the pause in the last part of speech shows that Salinger is trying to portray Holden’s unwillingness and uncertainty in the action of contacting Jane. This could be because if he was to see Jane than he may be let down with his original notions of both of their innocence that he witnessed during their childhood. His reluctance to speak to Jane is also present in another part of the book where he says ‘I gave old Jane a buzz again but her phone didn’t answer’. This could be taken as the truth however throughout the book the character of Holden is often made to seem as a compulsive exaggerator therefore it is possible that he did not let the phone ring for a sufficient amount of time, this would mean that he was once again unable to bring himself to talk to Jane. The use of the term ‘old’ could be a sign that Holden knows her well, or otherwise likes to believe he does however it could signify the fact that he now believes that there is a new type of Jane who has progressed into becoming a women therefore leaving the old one behind. This shows that Holden finds the concept of women somewhat daunting, as this is a part of the adult world, which he believes to be ‘phoney’.
