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Aspect of Relationships and Intimacy in the Book “The Catcher in the Rye” By J.D. Salinger
Every human being is created with the urge of seeking true happiness that results from communities’ or individuals’ intimate relationships. Intimacy is essential for one’s livelihood, and its absence may render life meaningless. It is therefore essential for everyone to have true self-revelation in their created spaces and also feel loved. J.D. Salinger, in his play “The Catcher in the Rye” uses his main character Holden Caulfield alongside other characters to express the motifs of intimacy, relationships, and sexuality and their relation to the theme of alienation. Alienation often affects adolescents due various psychological disturbances thus influencing their interactions and expressions in the real world. It makes them aggressive and sometimes rebel against the society living in alienated space created in their minds.
At the beginning of the play, the author shows how emotional and physical intimacy helps Holden in breaking isolation shell. He portrays the protagonist as confident in sexual matters. He refer himself as a ‘sex maniac’. However, at some point Holden has feelings for a lady called Jane, yet he could not reach out to her. Throughout the book, Holden has an internal monologue on calling Jane but is affected by his bad mood “Jane Gallagher. Jesus . . . I couldn’t get her off my mind. I really couldn’t. “I oughta go down and say hello to her, at least.”. He only thinks of Jane but hardly do they interact. His idea of being in a relationship with Jane is fantasized as he elevates her to higher standards “She was a funny girl…… I wouldn’t exactly describe her as strictly beautiful. She knocked me out……..She was sort of muckle-mouthed.” He thinks defamatory of other ladies such as Sally Hayes when he fixates the greatness in Jane. Later in the play, Holden confidence is unsteady, especially when his crush Jane is taken on a date by Stradlater.
Holden finds Sally to be attractive and continues chasing her despite viewing her as annoying and phony “I felt like marrying her….. The minute I saw her… I’m crazy… I didn’t even like her much, and yet all of a sudden I felt like I was in love with her and wanted to marry her. I swear to God I’m crazy.” He chooses to romanticize with Sally in the same way he idealized his relationship with Jane. He overlooks the disrespect he had on sally to invest the fantasy of visiting Vermont with her. Sally harshly rejects the idea, and her rational response caused personal confrontation of his naiveté nature. It is clear from the play that Holden is after a partner who would validate his feelings; that’s why he gets upset when sally rejects his idea of moving to Vermont. The reaction he gets from Sally one of the levelheaded aspect he required, but he refused and lashed onto Sally. Holden then separates himself from romantic and emotional intimacies since he had developed unrealistic expectations given life and to those whom he respected. He later lives and isolated life in which he is unable to envision his love and future life. At some point in the play, Holden’s nervous system collapses due to alienation.
Author uses Holden’s thoughts regarding sexuality and intimacy to exercise the overall theme of alienation. Holden’s thoughts regarding sexuality and women depicts his naivety. His sexual and romantic expectations are expressed by the way he idealizes various unrealistic notions. He often romanticize impractical notions, especially his idea on Jane, thus assuming many practical limitations. Thus, setting of unrealistic notions and high impossible relationships’ standards results in alienation and also hinders the formation of meaningful connections.