Catcher in Rye

In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, Holden feels isolated, even in crowded situations and in turn isolates himself even more. Holden isolates himself subconsciously because he does not want to get hurt again like he did when his brother, Allie died. However, no matter how much Holden isolates himself he ends up getting hurt one way or other. In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D Salinger, he uses the isolation to say that people try and isolate themselves that way they do not get themselves hurt. However, they end up hurting themselves anyways and always feeling lonely and depressed because of the fact that they isolate themselves.
The theme of isolation is introduced early on where Holden is alone at the top of Thomsen Hill, and all his classmates are at the football game, Holden's physical position is a metaphor for the loneness he feels. As this is near the beginning of the book, it has a effect on how we view Holden as a person. The theme is continued when he talks about the fencing team blaming him for loosing their fencing equipment. Pencey Prep, the school Holden attends is used within the novels setting to convey the theme of isolation, and can be seen as a Microcosm for society. Holden being expelled represents society rejecting Holden for his failure to conform. Holden is critical about education as a whole, and dislikes Pencey because, in his view, everything is phony Holden uses the word phony to identify everything he dislikes in the world, and everything he rejects. He rejects his roommate, Stradlater because he doesn't care about Holden's most valued memory which is his brother’s Allies baseball glove.
Despite Holden's pessimistic views on life, there are a few people he sees in an extremely positive light, his dead brother, Allie, his younger sister, Phoebe, and his summer romance, Jane Gallagher .He sees Phoebe and Allie as innocent, as they are children and he feels a need to protect phoebe because of that. He was