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Theme Of Loneliness In Catcher In The Rye

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Young men have to deal with all these emotions, girls, puberty, and school. Most would say this is a huge factor for young men and how they grow up. We see this character named Holden Caulfield, experience this though his journey of becoming a man. A variety of themes occur from J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye.” Holden is dealing with grieving from losing someone and trying to find his purpose in life. Three themes that occur the most throughout Holden's story include loneliness, love, and phoniness.
Loneliness can be described as someone feeling sorrow, sad, and worthless. Holden feels this more than anyone can imagine during the book. He especially feels down about himself when Phoebe gives him all of her Christmas money that she had saved. This leads into the part of the book where Holden leaves Phoebe, and decides to go talk to his old English teacher, Mr. Antolini. While Holden is talking to him, Mr. Antolini said to him “I have a feeling that you’re riding for some kind of
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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

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