Society Acceptance

2 Pages 442 Words

Society acceptance

J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye focuses on societies acceptance. Holden Caufield attends Pencey, a prestigious school with very high expectations. At Pencey, Holden is excluded by classmates, and frowned upon by the faculty. He sometimes separates himself from his peer group by not becoming involved in school activities. Although Holden participates on the fencing team as the equipment manager, he makes a point to not fit in by losing the equipment. Holden shows that he does not fit in, and does not want to. At the very beginning of the story Holden is expelled from Pencey for not meeting their academic expectations. As he reflects on his final day at Pencey, he says “They kicked me out... I was flunking four subjects and was not applying myself at all. They gave me frequent warnings to start applying myself but I didn’t do it.” (4)

New York City is where Holden ends up after Pencey. Even in New York, Holden feels singled out and ostracized. In a hotel he was staying at, he ran into a pimp who offered him a prostitute for five dollars. Holden accepts, but the next morning the pimp confronts him and tells him he did not pay enough. After a scuffle, in which Holden is injured he leaves the hotel. He feels as if he cannot go to another hotel for fear the same thing will happen. He says “I had no place to go. It as only Sunday and I couldn’t go home till Wednesday-or Tuesday at the soonest. And I certainly didn’t feel like going to another hotel and getting my brains beat out” (106-107) This shows how very vulnerable Holden is. He does not want to go back home, because he does not belong there at the moment, so he stays in New York.

Holden needs the support of the world around him. He came from a generation that could not find their identity, and a society that left people with so little choice that they became bitter and angry much like Holden. Holden’s lack of guidance by hi...