Catcher In The Rye Love Analysis

Loneliness and Love in the Catcher in the Rye
The struggle of finding one 's place in society, and finding someone who will reciprocate love, are classic struggles that nearly all adolescents face at one point or another, and in Catcher in the Rye, Holden is no exception. In J.D. Salinger 's classic novel, Holden struggles with loneliness and a longing for a past that he has internally glorified, despite the fact that the past is imperfect, and his view is warped by nostalgia. He also harbors a disdain for society with a will to flee to the fringe of civilization and live the rest of his days where he can be self made and uncorrupted by the many people and influences he sees as “phony” and corrupting. Holden isolates himself despite being surrounded by millions of people in the bustling metropolis of NYC, refusing to open up to anyone and make concrete connections with people emotionally. Finally due to his struggle to make emotional connections he finds himself stuck in a perpetual cycle of being loveless, and living a cold, forsaken life that he cannot escape. These …show more content…
This is very characteristic of American characters such as Huckleberry Finn, yet another self made character who chooses to be self reliant. He wishes to get away from the world of phonies, and his mind only changes when his sister Phoebe convinces him otherwise, although as shown by “I’m not going away anywhere… the funny part was, she wasn 't even crying when I said that” he had at least partially changed his own mind, and Phoebe 's protests had made him simply solidify the belief that running away from his problems would not solve them, only change them and transform them into new problems that would, in the end, require just as complicated of a