Holden's Alienation In 'Catcher In The Rye'

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Discuss how Holden's alienation is both the source of his strength and the source of his problems Holden’s alienation was both the source of his strength and the source of his problems. Throughout the novel, Holden goes through a series of events where he shows strength and weakness based on the way he alienates himself. His strength of alienating himself would be his way of self protection. His weakness would be how de does not know how to confront change, confusion or conflict which causes him to run away from his problems. His strength on alienating himself would be his way of self protection. The way he doesn’t get to close helps him refrain from getting hurt. When Sally leaves him after the date he doesn’t seem to be too upset about…show more content…
I believe that the reason he alienated himself is to not get hurt, be in a conflict, go through change or have the pain of losing someone. In the novel he talks about losing his brother and I think that is what triggered him to stay in a “safe distance” from the people around him. Also, before his date with Sally he decided to take a walk throughout the Natural History Museum. He described how he liked how everything stayed the same. This shows how he does not know how to deal with conflict, confusion, and change. The museum presented an artificial way of how he would like to have lived his life; without change. The reality is-people change. I noticed that as people changed or there was a conflict, Holden distanced himself. For example: Holden strongly admired his English teacher, Mr. Antolini. One night he decided to visit him and Mr. Antolini gave him advice on life which Holden took in. He also offered Holden to stay at his house for the night. Holden took up on the offer and ended up waking up to Mr. Antolini patting his head. Holden threw on his close and fled the house. Weather Mr. Antolini was making a sexual pass at him or doing it for the reason he said, is up to the reader to decide. This demonstrated Holden being stuck in a conflict and literally running away from it. In conslusion, Holden’s alienation is a source of his weaknesses and the source of his strengths. Throughout the novel we see Holden at his toughest

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