How Old Is The Tomb In Catcher In The Rye

In the novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, spends a few days roaming around New York City as a result of recently being kicked out of one of the many schools he has previously been kicked out of. Throughout the novel, Holden consistently places himself into situations that impose pain upon himself. Eventually in the novel, Salinger writes about how Holden likes the man in the Bible “that lived in the tombs and kept cutting himself” (99). However, Holden likes the lunatic in the tomb because as literary critic James Lundquist states, “Holden is the lunatic in the tomb” (42). By continuously inflicting pain upon himself throughout the novel, Holden proves that he is indeed, like the lunatic in the tomb. First off, Holden,
like the lunatic, inflicts agony upon himself.
However, Holden does so by not thinking about the situations he puts himself into. At the beginning of Holden’s journey, Holden finds out that a jock named Stradlater had gone on a date with a girl that Holden has a keen interest in, Jane Gallagher. Holden inflicts pain upon himself by trying to fight Stradlater because of Holden’s own jealousy towards Stradlater. Stradlater is obviously stronger than Holden and expresses his reluctance towards hurting Holden as Stradlater says “Holden, God damn it, I’m warning you, now. For the last time. If you don’t keep your yap shut, I’m gonna— ” (50), yet Holden “tried to sock him, with all [his] might ,“ (49) but “only he missed” (49) and ended up getting hurt. Holden should have realized the reality of the fight and kept his feelings inside or avoided violence altogether, but Holden starts a situation that only ends up with him getting hurt. Moving on, Holden puts himself into another situation as soon as Holden leaves the school and enters New York City. At one
point, Holden goes to a hotel and Maurice, the elevator man and pimp, offers Holden to spend the night with a prostitute. Holden agrees to this without thoroughly thinking about his decision. The prostitute, Sally, realizes that Holden is a pushover and tries to scam Holden by doubling the price that was originally presented towards him. Together, Sally and Maurice confront Holden about not paying the full amount of money and instead of paying them to get out of trouble, Holden decides to stand his ground. Holden must have known that refusing to pay the money would end badly, considering that prostitution is illegal and Maurice is a pimp, but Holden stood his ground and received mental and physical pain, in addition to getting his money taken away.