Holden's Inability to Integrate Himself Into Society Essay Example

Holden’s Inability to Integrate Himself in Society Holden Caulfield can best be described as a peculiar human being particularly due to the fact that he refuses to amalgamate himself with the mass. He does not think or act according to the norms of society. In turn, he hides from anything that will change and not stay the same because it is unfamiliar to him and he becomes somewhat scared of unfamiliar surroundings. Holden wishes he could stay in an unchanging place which provides Holden with comfort. He would love to become a catcher in the rye – a figment of his imagination – who prevents children from falling over a cliff, symbolical of their transition from innocence to corruption. Being the catcher in the rye, he would stay away from corruption, superficiality and hypocrisy. However, it is his cynicism that does not allow him to partake in normal teenage activities because of the fact that he looks down at the world in pure contempt. His strong self-affliction eventually created a barrier between himself and the world, making it almost impossible for him to engage in social activities with other his age for his preconceived notions of what people are generally like does not allow him to enjoy himself. Although Holden wants the reader to think that he is somewhat normal in the eyes of society, the fact that he has psychological problems and his adolescent views that has been fed on his fear of change, his cynicism and his denial, creates a barrier between him and the world thus, not allowing him to integrate himself into society as easily as a regular teenager would. Holden distances himself from change because he knows it is inevitable, however, stuck between his childhood and adulthood, he avoids confrontation the same way a child would when scared. His refusal to accept change causes him to further alienate himself from society.
The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody’d move...Nobody’d be