Effects Of Alienation In Catcher In The Rye

Alienation is the state or the experience of being isolated from their environment or a group of people. It is a common state certain teenagers which can have many causes. It can be a side effect of big changes in their comfort zones, bullying or growing up. Not every adolescents go through it, but it is a part of the transition to adulthood. In the fiction novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield, a sixteen years old teenager alienates himself from everyone and the world. After his expulsion from another private school, Holden goes to New York and rents a hotel room. During two days, he interacts with a prostitute, an old teacher, an old girlfriend, an old friend, nuns and his sister. Yet, the adolescent still feels …show more content…
This act causes the teenager to alienate himself from the parents and the society. In the fiction novel “Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield feels neglected by his parents. His relationship with them shows he is emotionally unsteady. Also, his old teacher, Mr. Antolini, makes an unwanted move and Caulfield decides to alienate himself from him. Holden Caulfield is a young adult who attends different boarding schools, a choice his parents made for him. He is unhappy about this choice, ever since the death of his younger brother Allie, his parents send him off. They do not want to deal with him and they neglect him which causes his alienation. When the school kicks him out, "[He] [does not] want to go home or anything till they got it and thoroughly digested it and all. […] [His] mother gets very hysterical. She 's not too bad after she gets something thoroughly digested, though" (58, Salinger). He does not want to face his mother, who is still grieving the death of Allie, Mrs. Caulfield is “nervous as hell” and “half the time she’s up all night smoking cigarettes” (175). Holden …show more content…
In the novel fiction, Holden Caulfield hates everyone, most importantly, adults. Since his parents are not there for him and send him off to boarding school, he feels disdain for adults. Throughout the novel, he uses ‘’phonies’’ to describe them. He uses it to describe someone who is too typical, too conventional and fake. Phonies are also people who are mature, who lack innocence and are hypocrites. Whenever he is around phonies, it kills him. For instance, "One of the biggest reasons [he] left Elkton Hills was because [he] was surrounded by phonies." (17). He hates them so much he does not want to be like them; he alienates himself from them. Schoolmates from Pencey Prep also makes him angry. One of the boys from his dorm, Robert Ackley ‘’was sort of a nasty guy [he] wasn’t too crazy about him’’ and with a “terrible personality” that “get[s] on [his] nerves” (19-23). Stradlater, another roommate is also a "goddam stupid moron" (40). He gets into a fight with him. He hates him because he possibly hooks up with his childhood crush Jane. When he leaves the school after his fight with Stradlater, he goes to the Edmont hotel in New York. According to Holden, the hotel is filled with “perverts”, “morons” and “screwball[s] all over the place” (68). Wherever he goes, Holden Caulfield is always contempt with others which brings him to alienate himself from them. This contempt and child neglect brings him to