Catcher In The Rye Environment Essay Research

Catcher In The Rye Environment Essay, Research Paper

In a perfect world, everyone would be happy with the way they are and everyone

would accept the differences of others. Unfortunately, the world we live in is

not perfect and not everyone accepts who they are . Is there a reason why people

cannot be content with their lives or with the differences of other people. The

answer is yes, and the reason for the discontent is society. With society

telling the masses what is, and is not acceptable, it is no wonder that people

seem .lost., and are desperately searching out their place in the sun. This

search for identity seems to be the case in JD Salinger.s novel, The Catcher

in the Rye. Through settings in the novel and symbolism, Salinger illustrates

that while the main character, Holden Caulfield, needs the support of the

environment around him, the environment also needs Holden as a person. Holden

Caulfield is out of place in any environment in which he is placed. At Pencey,

his school, Holden gets excluded from the activities of his classmates. At the

very beginning of the novel, Holden becomes expelled because his grades are not

up to Pencey.s standards and also because he does not feel like he belongs

there. Holden separates himself from his classmates for the most part by not

becoming involved in the school. Although Holden is the equipment manager of the

fencing team, he distances himself from his companions by losing the equipment,

showing that he does not fit in, and he really does not want to. As he reflects

back on his final day at Pencey he says: . They kicked me out. …I was

flunking four subjects and not applying myself at all. They gave me frequent

warnings to start applying myself…but I didn.t do it. (Salinger 4). The

school is throwing Holden out because he is not what they want to represent to

potential students. They want to show examples of fine, upstanding young men,

instead of giving off the image of the failing, confused young man. Salinger

uses Pencey as a mock society of some sorts. Holden does not fit in at Pencey,

and he most definitely does not fit in as seen in the later settings of the

novel. A second example of Holden.s isolation from his classmates can also be

seen when he stands alone on the top of the hill during the .big game..

During the football game Holden perches himself above the football field where

he can hear the cheering, but he cannot see the crowd. Holden says that he hears

the yelling because .practically the whole school except me was there. (Salinger

2). Holden.s isolation from his classmates may be his own doing to some

extent, however there is another force at work here. The high standards of good

grades and involvement in other activities separate Holden from the rest of his

school. Holden never really makes the effort to fit in at Pencey because he

knows that it is just a made up society, and that it, like the other settings in

the novel is just another place that he does not belong. The Pencey setting in

the novel rejects Holden because of his mistake of letting his grades slip. Just

as Holden.s school casts him out for being different and not making the grade,

society casts him out because he is different. After Holden leaves his school,

he travels to New York City. Holden is again singled out and stumbles across the

feeling that he does bit belong there either. When Holden is on his way up to

his hotel room in New York , the elevator operator offers him a prostitute for

five dollars and Holden accepts. The next day, Maurice, the elevator boy comes

after Holden, saying he did not pay enough for the services. After a scuffle,

where Holden gets hurt, Holden leaves the hotel he is staying in. Holden feels

that he cannot go back to that same hotel, but he will not go and search for

another one. He says, .I had no place to go. It was only Sunday and I

couldn.t go home till Wednesday- or Tuesday at the soonest. And I certainly

didn.t feel like going to another hotel and getting my brains beat

out.(Salinger 106-107). Holden feels as though he cannot go back and he is

very reluctant to go forward and find another room for fear that the same thing

would happen to him again. Holden is again unable to make a decision. He does

not want to move on, because he does not know where he is moving on to, and he

cannot go back home because he does not belong there at the moment. This

particular situation with the pimp shows how society needs Holden because he is

so vulnerable. His innocence makes Holden easy to step on and take advantage of,

and a society usually needs people to crush for its leaders to thrive. The

affect that society has on Holden is apparent when Holden purchases the ugly,

red hunting hat . Throughout the novel, Holden wears it because he thinks that

it is stylish and chic. Unfortunately for Holden, the hat is not stylish, nor

ch

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