Preview

Literary Analysis of Catcher in the Rye. How Overanalyzation leads to rationalization.

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
688 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Literary Analysis of Catcher in the Rye. How Overanalyzation leads to rationalization.
Many people think about a situation so much that almost any solution can seem like the right one. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield's overanalyzation of events leads him to rationalize many of his own decisions. He rationalizes why he has not had had sex, why he ordered the prostitute, why Sally did not want to go with him, and why he only gave the nuns $10.

Detailing his own intimate opportunities, Holden considers why he has never had sex. Trying to explain why, Holden just comes up with excuses. "Something always happens...her parents always come home at the wrong time...there's always somebody's date in the front seat" (Salinger 92). By saying always, it appears as if he has been foiled every single time he has tried, by something out of his control. For Holden, this is one method of his rationalizations. Holden says that he has had many opportunities to "lose my virginity and all" (92) but never seems to quite finish the job. Holden gives the impression of being inexperienced with girls, and thus does not know the right steps. "... she keeps telling you to stop. The trouble with me is, I stop. Most guys don't" (92). He is rationalizing why he has never had sex, through his many encounters with girls.

Once he returns to New York, Holden is unsure of himself after ordering a prostitute. Holden remembers a book he read at one of the schools that he has been to, specifically the suave and sexy guy that was in it, and realizes that he is definitely lacking in that department. He remembers trying to get a girl's bra off, and failing miserably. He desperately needs practice, saying "I wouldn't mind being pretty good at the stuff" (93). While waiting for the prostitute, Holden reexamines himself and his decision. However, the more he thinks about it, the more he isn't so sure about the prostitute. "I sort of just wanted to get it over with" (93). Holden is prone to overanalyzing his actions, and this leads him to be unsure of his decisions.

After having

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Catcher In The Rye Summary

    • 1259 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In his room he interrogates his roommate, Stradlater, about one of Holden's old friends, Jane. Stradlater just got back from a date with Jane and Holden was worried sick. "I'm thinking now of when Stradlater got back from his date with Jane. I mean I cant remember exactly what I was doing... I probably still looking out the window, but I swear I cant remember. I was so damn…

    • 1259 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    J.D. Salinger’s book, The Catcher in the Rye, constantly gets debated on whether high school English classes need to read it. Despite the crude language and R-rated stories, every high schooler needs to read this book. After the book gets dissected, the deeper meanings of the story come about and show the importance for reading the book.…

    • 608 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Holden gets depressed when Sunny takes off her dress because he realized that she was a child. He agreed to a prostitute because he was pressured and depressed so he thought he can blow off some steam using the prostitute. He changes his mind about having sex because the girl tells to stop and he doesnt know if he should continue or if he should stop. He stops most of the time.…

    • 287 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sexual relations appeal to Holden’s maturing mindset, yet he also finds these actions indecent. When Holden first arrives at the Edmont hotel, he looks out his window and watches the people on the other side of the building. He sees people partaking in odd activities such as cross dressing and couple squirting water on each other. Watching these people makes Holden think about his own sexual opinions and desires: “The thing is though, I…

    • 580 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    He sees adults and friends who succumb to these norms, and he outwardly looks down upon them and call them phonies of society. As an author, J.D. Salinger created Holden Caulfield as a character to challenge the expected norms of this time period, and as a whole, the novel addresses the challenge of accepting societal norms and diverging from norms to create a different lifestyle. For Holden, although many other reasons attribute to his refusal to accept society, he mainly believes that the 1950’s American Dream culture valuing marriage, family and education is not one that he wishes to be associated with. It is also crucial to note that by the end of the novel, Holden ends up in a mental institution, the location from which he narrates Catcher in the Rye. This element of the novel is crucial to our understanding of Holden as a character; he seems to have rejected the values and views of the post-war era so intensely, he is literally unable to function and has been…

    • 1991 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the novel, Holden is afraid of losing his innocence. After he leaves Pencey Prep, Holden stays in a hotel and meets Maurice, who works in the elevator at the hotel. Maurice asks Holden “Innarested in having a good time, fella? Or is it too late for you?” (Salinger 101) When Maurice asks him this at first he does not know what to say because he does not understand what he is asking and then when he realizes what Maurice means he is shocked that someone would be so open to ask him. Out of loneliness and fear of being alone Holden says yes to Maurice, Maurice then sends the prostitute to Holden’s room. All Holden actually wants is someone he can talk to and spend time with. When the prostitute, Sunny, arrives at his hotel room, Holden realizes that he does not want to do anything with her. Holden became nervous and he did not want to lose the innocence he had held on to for so long. In order to protect this innocence he makes up a lie that he had surgery on his clavichord.…

    • 502 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Holden Caulfield Phony

    • 1558 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Holden’s *friends are familiar and experienced with the topic of sex while Holden stays puzzled and curious. Holden comes on strongly with just about every woman he meets for example Sally Hayes, Sunny, and Jane Gallagher. Sally Hayes is a longtime friend of Holden’s and grew up together. Holden is extremely attracted to Sally and even dreams of running off to a cabin with her having children and living happily ever after. Holden says that he “felt like marrying her the minute I saw her” (138). Sunny is a prostitute that Holden paid just to talk to even after she started removing her clothes. When he met her pimp he knew what he was paying for, however never went through with it. Jane Gallagher is an old friend that Holden used to spend summers with and she is very important to him. He comes on strong to women at the bar and close friends but never actually does it. Holden is confused about sexuality, especially when it is homosexual. Holden strongly dislikes when a guy “flirts” a lot and is simply puzzled by the whole topic of sex. Sex is simply a confusing idea for any young teen, but for Holden it is a little harder. In the novel it implies that as a child he was sexual abused by his neighbors dad and was neglected by his own parents. He is also timid when it comes to being imamate with a women after his brother, Allie, lost his life to cancer. Phoebe is…

    • 1558 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In this novel, Holden Caulfield gets kicked out of his school and stays in New York for a couple of days before returning home. During his travels Holden does not maintain any relationships and he associates most adults with being phony. He is constantly trying to protect himself and his sister Phoebe from being exposed to the harsh adult world. In The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger uses rhetorical devices to explain Holden’s struggles and establish the theme of preserving his own innocence and the innocence of those around him.…

    • 1112 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Three seconds remain in the tied basketball game. The point guard shoots and scores right before the buzzer sounds off. I bet for a long time, that player worked hard in the gym to practice and perfect his shooting for game time situations like that. It just goes to show that nothing great can ever be achieved without hard work. Holden Caulfield from The Catcher In The Rye, however, does not quite understand this saying. In the story, Holden does not apply himself to his education at Pencey Prep, which results in his expulsion from school. Throughout the story, Holden, as well as a few other characters, represent the terms expressed in Freud’s Theory of Personality known as the id, superego, and ego.…

    • 774 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Imagine what it feels like to be a teenager. Is a teenager considerate and open minded? The novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger talks about a teenager named Holden Caulfield who tells his story about a school named Pency Prep in Pennsylvania, away from his sister and parents. Throughout most of this book, Holden explains his inner thoughts regarding everyone he knows, and most of them are judgmental. Holden is considered to be a typical American teenager in this novel. First of all, teenagers like to express their thoughts. In Sylvia Plath’s article “Sylvia Plath at Seventeen”, she begins saying,“As of today I have decided to keep a diary again―just a place where I can write my thoughts and opinions when I have a moment. Somehow I…

    • 691 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The genuine joy Holden gets from watching Phoebe is a striking image of his fantasies of innocence and his collapsing psyche. For a moment Holden sees the joy that he envisions all the children of his rye field are like. Within Phoebe’s happiness Holden is transfixed and distraught, because the sudden realization that he is transitioning to a world he does not feel equipped for triggers the end of his ambivalence. As the carousel spins so does Holden’s reality, he loses sense of even further sense of himself. The Catcher in the Rye is a bildungsroman, but it is unique in how Holden not only resists growing up, but also he ends the novel more unstable and lost than he started off as. A quest or journey is supposed to lead to a literal or metaphorical…

    • 481 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the novel The Catcher and the Rye by J.D Salinger, Holden expresses his hate for the idea of growing up and becoming an adult, as he sees the majority of adults as phonies. Along with that, he regards the process as taking away your innocence and freedom. With his view of adulthood, he hates the idea of children having to go through what he did and losing their innocence. He often praises children, placing them as superior to adults.…

    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As the reader finds themselves far into the book, they start to realize more about Holden and how innocent he can be. Holden calls a prostitute up to his hotel room because he finally wants to lose his virginity and become a man. When Holden is talking to Sunny who is the prostitute he blurts out that he is a virgin. “If you want to know the truth, I'm a virgin. I really am. I've had quite a few opportunities to lose my virginity and all, but I've never got around to it yet (Salinger 103).” After saying this the reader can truly see Holden’s innocence. Also another part of the book the reader can see how innocent Holden is, when he starts to talk about how much the Museum of Natural History means to him. “I get very happy when I think about the Museum of Natural History. Even now (Salinger 133).” Holden is overloaded with these nostalgia memories and innocent…

    • 761 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Catcher In The Rye Love

    • 457 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Holden was in the Edmont hotel in New York. He hires a prostitute named Sunny for sex but then he decides that he just wants to talk. Holden asked Sunny “Don’t you feel like talking awhile?” (J.D. Salinger pg.95). Holden is just looking for a companion, someone to talk to and love. No normal person would ask a prostitute if they could just talk. When this fails, Holden goes in search for friendship. He turns to his old friend Luce.…

    • 457 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    This is seen for the first time when Holden goes to the house of his history teacher Mr. Spencer. Mr. Spencer tries to reach out to Holden and provide guidance to him. Mr. Spencer says, “Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules” (Salinger 8). Holden disagrees with him and becomes frustrated. He then refuses to engage with Mr. Spencer, not giving him his full attention, and becomes eager to leave. Holden sees him as being senile, phony and pathetic. Holden’s negative attitude prevents him from forming intimate relationships with others. Later, Holden’s judgmental attitude is seen when he meets the three girls in the Lavender Room of his hotel. He says, “At the table right next to me, there were these three girls around thirty or so. The whole three of them were pretty ugly...” (Salinger 69). After calling the girls ugly he then decides that he enjoys the company of one of the girls because he finds her cute. However, he becomes disgusted with all three of them because he thinks they are superficial and do not care about anything important. This shows that Holden is quick to judge based on appearance and his critical nature. Next, his critical nature is seen when talking about his brother, D.B.. Holden criticizes his brother for pursuing his career in screen writing. He says that D.B., “...went out to Hollywood and prostituted himself”…

    • 1809 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays