Gender Roles In Catcher In The Rye

Throughout several works, authors tend to focus on aspects such as gender, social glass, and race. J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is not, at first glance, a book that discusses gender in depth; however, through Holden’s thoughts and discussions with other individuals the reader is able to experience different views that people might have about men and women. Overall, gender is a key that defines which conduct and appearances are anticipated by a man or a woman. Holden fears the adult world, which is mainly to have sex, but the main reason he fears it is due to all the phoniness: I took her dress over to the closet and hung it up for her. It was funny. It made me feel sort of sad when I hung it up. I thought of her going in a store and
buying it, and nobody in the store knowing she was a prostitute and all (Salinger 96).
Compared to Phoebe, Holden’s younger sister, Sunny the prostitute stands in stark contrast to Phoebe and her actions. Sunny has lost all her innocence and can not save it anymore; however, Phoebe holds true to her innocence and Holden is concerned about her staying in her childhood.
Once one loses his/her innocence, he/she crosses into adulthood. Holden sees the difference in the female role as played by Sunny and Phoebe. Carson McCullers’ The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is also a novel that explores the idea of gender. In chapter eight, Biff Brannon’s feminine side is introduced. Ever since Alice passes away, Brannon takes into account everything that is hers; from redoing his room to sewing all his mourning clothes to wearing Alice’s perfume, this shows that Brannon is not the type of individual who sticks to stereotypical gender roles. From the beginning chapters, Brannon mentions that the sexes are not quite different; this is from his perspective when Alice dies and he begins to show his feminine side. In The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway, Hemingway signifies the difference between gender and their roles. By using the idea of a Code Hero, Hemingway focuses most of his stories on creating the Code Hero which is defined as a man, which already in this case gives the male role more strength than the female role. Hemingway defines a Code Hero as “a man who lives correctly, following
the ideals of honor, courage, and endurance in a world that is sometimes chaotic, often stressful, and always painful.” The Code Hero measures himself by how well he handles the difficult situations that life throws at him; a Code Hero is free-willed, brave, adventurous, believes in courage and honor but has his own set of morals and principles based on his belief in honor, courage, and endurance, and is stoic, showing emotions and a commitment to women shows weakness. To be a Code Hero, one must be a man and not have a commitment to a woman, which shows that the man has all the authority when gender comes into play. In the short story “The End of Something”, Nick is the Code Hero because he is the man that is breaking up his relationship with Marjorie; he is breaking his commitment with a woman, which symbolizes him being stoical. For the most part, Nick is the Code Hero; he feels that Marjorie is just as smart and strong as he is since he taught her everything that he knew. At the end, Bill and Marjorie do not touch Nick because Nick does not want to become emotional and committed to neither Bill nor Marjorie, which would sow weakness. Hemingway’s short stories are mainly based on a Code Hero to show the strength of the male role compared to the role of a female. Even though some pieces of work do not uncover the theme of gender, social class, or race from the beginning, sometimes these themes may be hidden away in the text.