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Insanity in a Sane World

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Insanity in a Sane World
Insanity in a Sane World

Holden Caulfield is an insane person in a sane world. What is insanity? Insanity is when you’re in a state of mind that prevents normal perception, behavior or social interaction. This state is mental illness. Insanity is when you do things in deranged or outrageous ways that could frighten people, or make people feel uncomfortable when around you. It’s when you do things out of the ordinary; yet feel as if they are ordinary. Insanity could come about when you’re depressed, or after a traumatic event, and sometimes even by keeping all your feelings bottled up inside of yourself. Sane people are sensible, reliable, well-adjusted and practice sound judgment. It’s behavior that is expected in a society. By these definitions Holden Caulfield is an insane person in a sane world due to his inability to deal with the real world, his obsession with irrelevant details, and his overly judgmental and critical nature. Holden Caulfield is from the book The Catcher and the Rye. By J.D Salinger. Holden Caulfield is the protagonist in the novel and the narrator of the novel.
Holden has lost his grip on reality and resorts to abnormal fantasies; support from his dead brother, and unreasinable lies to cope. Holden may think the world is insane because of the injustice of losing his brother, but Holden deals with this by immersing himself in unreasonable fantasies. Holden thinks his fantasy world will be perfect in every imaginable way. The real world goes on in quite an ordinary, predictable way, and Holden is too caught up in his own fantasies to realize his mind is just not right. With Sally Hayes, he imagines the two of them going up to a cabin in New England, getting married, and becoming self-sufficient. Sally thinks it’s irresponsible, rightly so, and dismisses Holden. Holden imagines things so out of the ordinary that they are downright bizarre; but to him they are reasonable and he acts upon them. He pretends he was shot by Maurice, and then

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