THEMES EVIDENT IN CATCHER IN THE RYE

1. THEMESEVIDENT IN CATCHER IN THE RYE By Rachel Harris, Bec Webby, Kelsey Taylor, Emily Vellar

2. Alienation and loneliness • Throughout the book the theme of loneliness and alienation is explored through the main character of Holden. • This is evident from the beginning, when, on his last day at Pencey Prep, Holden is standing alone on a hill while the rest of the school is down at the game, “the whole school except me was there”. This is immediately showing that he feels isolated from everyone else at his school. • Throughout the novel, Holden seems to be excluded from and victimised by the world around him. As he says to Mr. Spencer, he feels trapped on “the other side” of life • He is constantly longing for companionship, for example talking to the cab drivers. However Holden is a fantasist, and in order to stay in his own world and to keep his ideas of innocence, he alienates others rather than face up the reality. He is protecting himself from reality • He has trouble facing up to reality, and keeping himself isolated and detached from society means he doesn’t have to come to terms with this. For example, whenever he started conversing with someone (eg Sally Hayes) he would become rude and he would sabotage any attempts he made to end his loneliness to avoid dealing with reality • He often tries to blame other people and their phoniness for his isolation • Holden’s isolation is the source of great pain, however it is also a source of his security

3. The Growing of Age • The Catcher in the Rye about a young character’s growth into maturity. • He wants everything to be easily understandable and eternally fixed • Holden is having trouble growing up and experiencing change. When he was younger was when he was happiest in life; this was when Allie was still alive (QUOTE). He likes the simplicity of life when you are a kid, and the innocence, curiosity and honesty that surround it. • His goal is to resist growing up • “the best though in the museum was everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody’d moved.” He liked the way that the museum never changed. Holden went to the museum many times as a child, and it represents this time in his life. He likes that everything in the museum stays exactly the same; that it never changes. This relates to the idea that Holden doesn’t like the idea of change, especially when it comes to growing up. • Holden is afraid of growing up and the complexity of becoming an adult, however he finds this hard to reveal to himself . So, instead of facing up to the truth and reality of the situation, he invents this idea that adulthood is a world of superficiality, pretension and hypocrisy, or phoniness • Holden says the only thing he wants to do is be the ‘catcher in the rye’, to catch the children who are playing in the rye before they fall over the cliff. The cliff for Holden is symbolising the change, or ‘fatal fall’ into adulthood. This is showing how Holden feels about undergoing the change from childhood to adulthood. • All Holden’s ideas about not wanting to grow up, and keeping himself isolated so he can try and achieve this, shows his immaturity

4. Phoniness in Life • Holden uses phoniness to describe his surrounding world ie shallow, pretension, superficiality • Holden simplifies the world into phony and not phony, and although it is actually much more complex than this • Phoniness is a symbol of everything that is wrong in the world • He uses phoniness as an excuse to withdraw from society, becoming isolated and living in his own world, not facing up to reality. When Holden replies to Pheobe’s question of why he got expelled from Pency, and he replied that the school was “full of phonies”. This is showing that he is using this as an excuse for his unmotivated attitude and the reason why he got “the ax again” • Judgemental of others flaws and phoniness to avoid looking at himself eg at Ernie’s when he is judgemental of others relationship • “life is a game that one plays according to the rules”. This is quote said by Mr Spencer, saying that if you don’t follow rules of life you won’t succeed and you will be alienated and discarded. It is also implying that life itself is a phony.