Oftentimes in life as a result of complex family situations or events, we experience anxiety and breakdowns. Events in the book The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger are powerful examples of this. The experiences in Holden Caulfield’s life lead to academic, social, and mental breakdowns from which he struggles to recover.
The events and experiences that Holden goes through cover three days. After being expelled from school he chooses not to go back home to his parents but instead heads to New York to live independently. The challenges that 17 year old Holden faces reflect those that are faced by teenagers in general.
At a young age, Holden experiences the loss of his younger brother Allie, the only person besides his sister that he feels accepts him. The events in the subsequent chapters point to the fact that indeed he does not accept the death of his younger brother as being real and permanent. When he is in the New York hotel room and feels stressed up, he begins speaking to his late brother. Also when he is in difficult situations, he often calls his brother Allie to help him out. Holden is emotionally weighed down by the death of his brother.
Holden is a weak performer at school. Pencey Preparatory School is his fourth school having transferred from three others before. At this school, his performance is so weak that he receives a notice for his expulsion from the school. He visits his former history teacher to bid him farewell but instead of the teacher encouraging him to keep working hard in his academics, he reprimands him for his poor academic performance. This annoys Holden even more .
Holden changes school three times but fails to fit in any of the schools. The frustrations that come with inability to fit in drive him to drop out of school and start wandering in the streets of New York. Changing schools has a negative effect on his academic performance. Throughout the novel, Holden feels isolated by everyone apart from his siblings. It is evident that the main source of his pain is the isolation he undergoes. He feels that people look at him in a way that suggests they are against him.
Holden tries to reach out to a few people to overcome the loneliness he is facing. On arrival at Penn station, he goes to the telephone booth to try and call a few people but again he changes his mind not to call anyone. When the urge to beat loneliness overcomes him, he decides to telephone Faith Cavendish, a former stripper whom he had never met but only got her number from a friend. They agree to meet the following day for some sexual escapades. He again calls Sally Hayes to schedule a meeting. He also calls Jane Gallagher but immediately hangs up when he realized it is her mother who picked the telephone. His desperation becomes evident when he decides to hire a prostitute for the night. He ends up paying the prostitute even without receiving her services. Holden’s loneliness makes him become depressed and suicidal that he ends up going to see a psychiatrist. Just before quitting school, Holden engages in a fight with his roommates after accusing him of snatching his girlfriend. Stradlater spends the evening out with a girl called Jane Gallagner whom Holden had gone out with before and he still fancied. At another point, Holden is so lonely and bored that he decides to leave Pencey for a hotel in New York. He says “I just didn't want to hang around anymore. It made me too sad and lonesome” .
Being a teenager, Holden is facing a crisis in his life of whether he should identify himself with adults or children. He has great contempt towards adults and how they led their lives. He expresses his admiration towards the lifestyle of children. Issues of sexuality and intimacy are difficult for him to handle. Holden desperately longs for human contact and interaction, but the isolation he has subjected himself to makes it hard for him to reach out to people. For instance, having previously met Jane Gallagner, he longs to meet her again. However, he is too scared to make any effort to contact her. The events in Holden’s life portray the dilemma that teenagers are often faced with when transiting from childhood to adulthood. Also, the issue of sex is too complex for him to comprehend. To him, it is all about trial and error. He talks of sex as something that he does not understand too well. He admits that he frequently makes up the sex guidelines and goes on to break them immediately.
With the freedom that Holden enjoys at the hotel room, he tries out alcohol even though he is a minor who is not supposed to engage in drinking alcohol. In one of the joints, the waiter, upon realizing that he is a minor, refuses to serve him. He tries to seduce women in their thirties who are way older than him. The women exploit Holden by making him settle their bills for that particular night .
In the end, Holden decides to sneak to his home to meet his sister Phoebe. He explains to Phoebe that he was chased away from school and that he does not like school. Phoebe does not take his talk kindly. Phoebe clearly known Holden is having problems with school as she says to him when they meet: “Because you don't. You don't like any schools. You don't like a million things. You don't” . Having resolved to change from his old ways, Holden decides to contact his former English teacher, Mr. Antolini, who asks him to pay him a visit at his home. While at Mr. Antolini’s home, he is counseled regarding his dropping out of school. However, Holden hurriedly leaves after mistaking his former teacher for a gay after he wakes up and finds him stroking his forehead.
Even though the narration ends before Holden joins a new school and changes from his old ways, we are made to believe that he actually went back to a new school and became optimistic about his future.
Works Cited
Delaney, William. "The Catcher in the Rye Summary." n.d. eNotes. Web. 5 April 2016. <http://www.enotes/topics/catcher-in-the-rye>.
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston, Massachusetts: Little, Brown and Company, 1991. Print.
