Catcher In The Rye Synthesis Essay

In 19521, J.D. Salinger wrote Catcher in the Rye, during the time in between the first and second waves of the feminist movement. This movement inspired Salinger to invert the roles of women and show the change between women’s roles in the past and the roles that they will undertake in the future. Salinger changes the jobs of females from someone who submits themselves to male dominance to someone who resists the jobs forced upon them by society. He does so by having older characters that affected Holden’s past conform to society's rules and having younger characters who he meets in his time in New York resist their given roles. While Holden and the people of his time period view women as objects who are only their to submit themselves to a man, the female characters are slowly changing their job in society. Jane is viewed as the stereotypical victim to male dominance. Jane’s step-father often used to “run around to goddam house, naked. With Jane around and all” (Salinger 32). The author implies that Jane has been molested by her step-father, causing her to lose her innocence.
This reveals that Holden and the people of his time period view women as objects, only present to entertain and serve men. Yet it is not women who need to change, it is men who need to be less manipulative. In a Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, when Nora tells Torvald that she has forged a signature, he only worries about himself, and how Nora’s actions will affect him. When Nora understand that she must leave in order to be her own person, Torvald says that he has it in him “to become a different man” but “can’t understand” the idea of his “doll” being taken away from him (Ibsen 70). Torvald is yet another example of man's belief that they are above a woman. Boys and girls are indoctrinated as children to believe one sex is better than the other, when in reality, they are all