Holden's Sexuality In 'Catcher In The Rye'

Through the interactions with the prostitute Holden is totally exposed as a depressed unrealistic romantic who is not mentally ready to lose his innocence. Holden says, that when he's fooling around with a girl and she suggests they stop, he actually … stops. Holden can't find a balance between respecting a woman and taking sexual control of a situation where the woman wants him to. Holden has good reason to respect boundaries. For example Jane possibly getting molested by her stepfather is one reason boundaries might be very important to holden. Holden reveals himself completely to the reader in this chapter. He is horrified when sunny stands up and pulls her dress over her head. “Sexy was about the last thing I was feeling. I felt much more depressed than sexy.” He keeps trying to establish a relationship with this prostitute who just wants to make money off of him. …show more content…
Holden is an unrealistic romantic, and his sympathy for children, also affects his sexuality. Not only does holden subconsciously not want to lose his virginity unless it is the perfect setting with the perfect girl, but he also doesn’t feel right having sex with someone that he still sees has innocent traits of a child. When she asks him to hang up her dress he says: “It made me feel sort of sad when I hung it up. I thought of her going to a store and buying it, and nobody in the store knowing she was a prostitute and all. The salesman probably just thought she was a regular girl when she bought it. It made me feel sad as hell--I don't know why exactly.” Holden realizes how screwed up this situation is; sunny is a girl who had such a screwed up life, disadvantaged and brought up wrong, being forced into prostitution. And Holden is super rich and super depressed kicked out of multiple schools and he’s about to take away the tiny bit of innocence left in